At the end of the first chapter of the SDS, S-M quotes a number of verses and ascribes them to Bṛhaspati. One of them runs as follows:

To many this has become the epitome of the Cārvāka philosophy, which is thus reduced to hedonism par excellence —a doctrine that urges man to seek happiness at any cost and, at the same time, makes happiness a matter of sensuous gratification alone.

Where did S-M get this verse? No authority is cited in his work though some other verses or parts thereof can be traced back to earlier Purāṇas, plays and poems. The authenticity of such passages is therefore doubtful. It is also probable that S-M as well as his predecessors borrowed them from a common source —perhaps purely oral. That is why T.W. Rhys Davids suggested that S-M's description of the Lokāyata “is chiefly based on certain infidel doggerel verses which cannot possibly have formed a part of the Lokāyata studied by the Brahmins of old.”

There are, however, reasons to believe that at least in case of the verse cited above, S-M reproduced a distorted version of the original.