There are two misconceptions about the materialistic thought in India. Either they are mistakenly believed or deliberately propagated. The first one is that materialistic ideas were imported from the West into India, which laid only spiritualistic heritage. The second one is that materialism essentially means and leads to enjoyment of life and physical pleasures.
Nothing can be farther from truth.
In fact, materialism is the basic concept for atheism. It is as ancient as Indian philosophy. However, unfortunately, the teachings of the earliest thinkers who had rebelled against the Vedas and the concept of Gods and creation were lost, presumably destroyed out of intolerance. Though fragmentary the evidence available is, it could be safely and reasonably assumed that even in very early times, several thinkers challenged the authority of the Vedas . As happened in ancient Greece, so in India also the human intellect tried to probe and understand nature.