Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya

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Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya : biography

November 19, 1918 – May 8, 1993

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya (November 19, 1918 – May 8, 1993) was an eminent Bengali Marxist philosopher from India. He made extensive contributions to the exploration of the materialist current in ancient Indian Philosophy. His most outstanding work in this regard was the compilation and exposition of the ancient philosophy of Lokayata, liberating it from distortions that it had suffered at the hands of its opponents. He is also acclaimed for his researches in the history of science and scientific method in ancient India, especially his work on the ancient physicians Caraka and Susruta.

Major works

Lokayata (1959)

Throughout his philosophical and historical writings, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya had the singular aim of reconstructing the scientific ideas and materialism in ancient India, and to trace their evolution. While commenting on his work on Lokayata, German indologist Walter Ruben called him a "thought-reformer", who was "conscious of his great responsibility towards his people living in a period of struggle for national awakening and of world-wide fighting for the forces of materialism, progress, humanism and peace against imperialism. He has written this book Lokayata: A Study in Ancient Indian Materialism against the old fashioned conception that India was and is the land of dreamers and mystics".Quoted in Rajendra Prasad, "Obituary – Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya", Social Scientist, Vol 21 No 5-6, May–June, 1993, pp. 102-105

This study questioned the mainstream view that Indian philosophy’s sole concern was the concept of Brahman. From the scattered references in the ancient philosophical literature which were completely hostile to the ancient materialist schools, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya reconstructed the philosophy of Lokayata, which consistently denied the existence of brahman and viewed pratyaksa (perception) as the sole means of knowledge. He demolished the so-called "interpretation of synthesis" which sought to combine the diverse philosophical traditions of India to form a ladder that leads to the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta.Rajendra Prasad, "Obituary – Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya", Social Scientist, Vol 21 No 5-6, May–June, 1993, pp. 102-105

Being a Marxist, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya’s uses the method of historical materialism to study "the ultimate material basis of the primitive deha-vada and the primitive rituals related to it" and to reveal how "could these be connected with the mode of securing the material means of subsistence". He also traced "the course of development this archaic outlook eventually underwent".

Indian Philosophy: A Popular Outline (1964)

It was probably the first introductory book that examined Indian philosophy through interdisciplinary lenses, drawing on anthropological, economic and philological studies. The book traced the philosophical development in India from the Vedic period to later Buddhism. In this introductory study, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya targets another important myth that overshadows the study of Indian philosophy – that of the presupposed predominance of shastrartha or textual interpretation. He views the development of Indian philosophy as the consequence of real clash of ideas – "contradiction constituted the moving force behind the Indian philosophical development".Indian Philosophy, pp 27

Prof Dale Riepe in his review of this book says that Chattopadhyaya "combines the analytic sagacity of Hume with the impatient realism of Lenin".Dale Riepe, Review of "Indian Philosophy – A Popular Introduction", Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol 26 No 4, (June 1966), pp. 611-612

Indian Atheism (1969)

This is yet another provocative critique of the standard accounts of Indian philosophy and religion. This book brings out a coherent historical account of atheism in India. In fact, according to Chattopadhyaya, "an unbiased survey of the Vedas clearly shows the total absence of religious consciousness in its earlier stage and the Rgveda is full of relics of this stage of thought. Even the world polytheism is misapplied to such an early stage of the Vedic thought".Indian Atheism, pp 39n