Editing Carvaka School of Thought in Indian Philosophy (section)

=== '''Introduction''' ===
The Vedas, the earliest documentation of the intellectual tradition of our great civilisation, are the source of philosophy in India. They were kept under persistent elaboration and illustration and monumental philosophical literature sprang up over several millennia. The Vedas were the source of a large portion of philosophical knowledge, the most important of which are Samkhya-Yoga, Nyaya-Vaisesika, Purva-Mimamsa, and Uttara-Mimamsa. They all believe in the authority and the infallibility of the Vedas. These schools of thought are called Sad Darsana. Three significant schools of Indian philosophy attempted to profess something novel while departing from the Vedic way of thinking. They were branded as nastika. This category was indexed to include Carvaka, Jain, and Buddhist schools of thought. Therefore, classical Indian philosophy was primarily divided into astika and nastika sampradayas (orthodox and heterodox). Among these philosophical systems or schools of thought, the Carvaka school of thought stands out in its epistemological, ontological and metaphysical orientation as no other school of thought does.  The position of Carvakas is conspicuous and distinct among all the schools of traditional Indian philosophy because it is the only school which rejects outright ''ishwara'' (God), ''atman'' (soul)'', paraloka'' (afterlife) and the authority of Vedas. It stands out as a unique thought which accepts only ''pratyaksha'' (perception) as the valid means of knowledge (''pramana).'' It is unexampled as it talks of only four basic elements and lays an over-emphasis on sensual pleasure. Even its concept of ''moksha'' (liberation) is unorthodox and strange because it treats ''moksha'' as the destruction of the body. It does not believe in the soul and clearly rejects the concept of ''karmaphala'' and rebirth. All this makes Carvaka a unique ideology and system of thought. This is referred to as the materialistic school of thought, which as a philosophy maintains that the only object that can be demonstrated to exist is matter, and it is considered a type of physicality. This ideology attempts to explain the mind and consciousness as matter-produced phenomena. In general, materialism refers to the inclination to reduce the higher to the lower or to explain the higher phenomena in terms of the lesser ones. In this way, it contradicts spiritual explanations of the universe. Materialism denies both the reality of God and the existence of the soul. In the Sanskrit language, ''asti'' means “to exist” and ''nasti'' means “does not exist.” In common parlance, ''astika'' means one who believes in the reality of God and ''nastika'' means one who believes that God does not exist. But in philosophical parlance, ''astika'' and ''nastika'' have different meanings. A staunch ''astika'' is one who believes in the reality of God, soul, rebirth and the Vedas, and one who rejects them outright is called a ''nastika.'' Carvaka is the only school of thought that can be labelled as outright nastika by this yardstick. The Buddhists and Jainas do not fit into this category because the Buddhists believe in ''parloka'' and the Jainas believe in ''atman'', even if both reject the authority of the Vedas. Thus, Carvaka is the only school of thought within Indian Philosophy that can be labelled a nastika sampradaya. The Carvaka School looks to be very influential and thought-provoking, paving the way for many ideological wrongs to be corrected because it always talked about things that appealed to the ordinary masses. This could be why the Carvakas were dubbed Lokayatas. Because the principles of this school were practical and compelling, they were extremely popular among the general public.