Materialistic non-Vedic tradition of early Indian thought, variously called Carvaka (Charvaka) or Lokayata. Its founder, who may have been called Carvaka, Lokayata or Brihaspati, lived around the 6th century BC. No Carvakan writings have survived; the school is known largely through the polemics of its enemies. The school died out around the end of the first millennium AD.