The materialists were known as Charvakas. They rejected the authority of the Veda and the existence of the soul. The only heaven was the pleasure of this world and hell, bodily and mental pain.
Death was considered a necessary evil, but pleasures of life were not to be shunned on that account. Unlike Buddhists they believed in the permanence of pleasure and the transience of pain.
They were contemptuous of asceticism. The rich were exhorted not to waste their money on pilgrimages, feeding the Brahmins or building temples but to enjoy themselves. Brahaspati was recognised as the ablest exponent of the system.