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XVIII - Lokāyata and Lokāyatana in Sanskrit Dictionaries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Ramkrishna Bhattacharya
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Summary

In what follows I propose to point out (a) an erroneous meaning of lokāyata, and (b) a redundant entry, lokāyatana, in the Sanskrit-Wörterbuch (abbreviated later as S-W) and to account for the mistakes.

(a) Lokāyata

S-W inter alia says: “In Pali (it) is said to mean an imaginary story, romance, cf. Burnouf in Lot (us), de la b(onne) 1(oi), 409 and lokāyatika.” Under lokāyatika it refers to “perhaps another meaning of the word” (other than “a materialist”) and cites Burnouf, ibid., 168 and 409.

Burnouf in his French translation of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra (Ch. 13) writes, “[A Boddhisattva Mahāsattva] does not court the Lokāyatikas” (ne recherche pas les Lokāyatikas) and explains in a note:

There is no reason to believe that the term indicates anything other than the sect among the Buddhists as among the Brāhmaṇas to be attached to the atheistic doctrines of the Cārvākas. Pali might suggest here another interpretation; as Lokāyata there signifies “fabulous story, romance”, it will be permissible to suppose that the Lokāyatikas of our Lotus indicate the authors or the readers of similar works in which the passions and the affairs of the world form the principal subject.

He refers to Moggallāna's Abhidhānappadīpikā as printed in Clough (1824) as his source.

T.W. Rhys Davids strongly objected to this interpretation:

Burnouf… has a curious blunder in his note on the passage (p. 409). […]

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Studies on the Carvaka/Lokayata , pp. 197 - 200
Publisher: Anthem Press
Print publication year: 2011

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