Caravkas went too far

In their criticism of the excesses of the brahminical ritualism, the materialistic views of the caravakas lost because they went too far. They negated not only the existence of god but all that is noble in the human condition, of the concept of right and wrong, of the role of inference in thought and the existence of the soul. It still has a place as a school of thought because it was the first protest movement that culminated in the self examination, intellectual debate and ultimately the reformation and renaissance of vedic hinduism.

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