Tradition does associate specific texts with the Charvaka, or Lokayata, school, yet none of these works survive in a complete, independent form. The most frequently cited is the Bṛhaspati Sūtra (also called the Bārhaspatya Sūtra), attributed to the sage Bṛhaspati and regarded as the foundational scripture of Charvaka materialism. This text is now entirely lost, known only by name and through later references. Thus, unlike schools that preserved their own sutras and commentaries, Charvaka does not offer a canonical scripture that can be read directly today.

What is known of Charvaka thought comes largely through the words of its critics and opponents. Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain philosophers often presented Charvaka arguments as a pūrvapakṣa—an opposing view to be refuted—and in doing so preserved fragments, verses, and summaries of its doctrines. Works such as Mādhava’s *Sarva-darśana-saṅgraha*, Jayanta Bhaṭṭa’s *Nyāyamañjarī*, and other texts from Nyāya, Vedānta, and Jaina traditions transmit much of what is now associated with Charvaka materialism and skepticism. These sources are not Charvaka scriptures in their own right, yet they function as the primary window into that lost tradition.

Because the original Charvaka texts have vanished, any reconstruction of this philosophy is necessarily indirect and mediated. The school is encountered mostly through the lens of those who opposed it, which means that its teachings are preserved in a context of critique rather than sympathetic exposition. Still, the very persistence of these hostile accounts suggests that Charvaka once possessed a coherent textual foundation and a recognizable doctrinal profile, even if its own books have not withstood the passage of time.