Lokayata

Indian school of materialistic philosophy and literature based on the idea that there are no gods and experience is the only true source of knowledge. The Lokayata school opposed the caste system and strongly objected to the worship of deities and to professional religious groups.

In the Vedas (early Hindu scriptures) there are signs of a sceptical viewpoint which dismisses the divine and belief in life after death and insists upon the material world as ultimate reality. By the time of the Buddha these views began to take a more defined shape with its own school of philosophy and literature.