Dharma

Dharma (Skt., dhar, ‘hold’, ‘uphold’).
1. In Hinduism, dharma is a fundamental concept, referring to the order and custom which make life and a universe possible, and thus to the behaviours appropriate to the maintenance of that order. Initially, dharma applied more to ritual and religious rules (especially sacrifices) than to ethics (e.g. Ṛg Veda 3. 17. 1), but by the time of the Brāhmaṇas, the term includes also the rules which govern (and enable) society. These were gathered in the Dharmasūtras and Dharmaśāstras, of which the most important are the law-codes of Manu and Yajñavalkya. In the Upaniṣads, dharma is related more to the ways appropriate for the attainment of Brahman, than to ethics.

2. In Buddhism (Pālī, dhamma), the Hindu sense of cosmic law and order is retained, especially as it works out in karma and reappearance according to the law of karma. But it was rapidly applied also to the teaching of the Buddha (pariyatti) who is himself a manifestation of the truth that is dharma. Dharma is then understood as the practice (paṭipatti) of that truth, and as its realization in stages (paṭivedha) up to nirvāna, of which in this way dharma becomes a synonym.

3. Among the Jains, dharma may simply be the teaching of the Jinas, so that adharma is its opposite—error and immorality. However, both of these are also regarded as basic constituents of the universe: dharma is the all-pervasive medium of motion or activity, and adharma, also pervasive, offers the circumstance of rest. Both are understood as real substances, in the Jain sense that without the ontological truth of the Five Elements (astikaya), there could be no distinctions in the universe, which is palpably false.