OBITUARY 103 Madhavacarya, who was the chief abbot of the Sringcri Math. He naturally portrays the materialist school at its worst. Etymologically Lokayata means 'that which is prevalent among the people and also that which is essentially this wordly'. The ordinary derivation of the word Carvaka is Caru and Vak; that is charming or alluring speech. It is well known that no Lokayata text has come down to us. The principle tenets of the school can only be restored on the basis of the expositions that are found in the purvapaksa (the method of giving adversary's position in order to refute it)of many Brahminical or Buddhist philosophical works. Reference to Lokayata is found in the puranas and epics, in grammatical literature, in the treatise on state craft, Arthasasthra and even in dramas for popular consumption such as Prabodhacandrodaya. By the references made to Lokayata in ancient texts, it can be established that this view of materialism was certainly pre-Buddhist and even pre-Upanisadic, though it is difficult to place it precisely. The two aspects that the Lokayata school in particular sought to demonstrate were that no Karman exists and that pratyaksa is the only means of knowledge. Both these attacked the basic propositions of the Vedic orthodoxy. Debiprasad Chattopadyaya's scholarly study of 'proto-materialism' in Indian thought was a big blow to the assiduously cultivated view of Indian philosophy hitherto held that Indian philosophy's sole concern was the concept of Brahman, the one and only reality. He not only established the indepth study of various strands of Indian philosophy as a serious academic task, but also contributed significantly in changing the popular perception of Indian philosophy. Not that scholars were not aware of the Carvaka school before the publication of Lokayata. Unfortunately most of this knowledge was derived from Madavacharya's account which does not agree with the other works. Moreover, whatever is available from the traditional texts is not found to be internally consistent. In Lokayata was Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya's pioneering effort to provide a coherent understanding of Lokayata. His Marxist methodology led him to attempt to answer two basic questions. "First, what could be the ultimate material basis of the primitive deha-vada and the primitive rituals related to it and how, at the stage at which these were originally evolved, could these be connected with the mode of securing the material means of subsistence? Secondly, what was the course of development this archaic outlook eventually underwent?" Thus dispelling the hold of a uncompromising idealistic view of Indian philosophy, Lokayata recognised that the primitive proto-materialism forms the substratism of the Lokayata school of thought.