Śramaṇa

Jainism and Buddhism are two of many Indian philosophies considered as Śramaṇic traditions.

A śramaṇa[a] is a person "who labours, toils, or exerts themselves for some higher or religious purpose"[1][2] or "seeker, or ascetic, one who performs acts of austerity".[3][4][5][6] The śramaṇa tradition includes primarily Jainism,[7] Buddhism,[8] and others such as the Ājīvika.[9][10]

The śramaṇa religions became popular in the circles of mendicants from greater Magadha that led to the development of spiritual practices,[11] as well as the popular concepts in all major Indian religions such as saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death) and moksha (liberation from that cycle).[12][note 1]

The Śramaṇic traditions have a diverse range of beliefs, ranging from accepting or denying the concepts of souls, free will, ahimsa (strict nonviolence), vegetarianism, and renunciation of pleasures and family life.[13][14]


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ Dhirasekera, Jotiya. Buddhist monastic discipline. Buddhist Cultural Centre, 2007.
  2. ^ Shults, Brett. "A Note on Śramaṇa in Vedic Texts." Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies 10 (2016).
  3. ^ Monier Monier-Williams, श्रमण śramaṇa, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, p. 1096
  4. ^ Olivelle 1993, pp. 11, 12.
  5. ^ Jaini 2001, p. 48.
  6. ^ Ghurye, G. S. (1952). "Ascetic Origins". Sociological Bulletin. 1 (2): 162–184. doi:10.1177/0038022919520206. JSTOR 42864485. S2CID 220049343.
  7. ^ Zimmer 1953, p. 182-183.
  8. ^ Svarghese, Alexander P. 2008. India : History, Religion, Vision And Contribution To The World. pp. 259–60.
  9. ^ Basham 1951, pp. 94–103.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Lochtefeld was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Samuel 2008, p. 8; Quote: such (yogic) practices developed in the same ascetic circles as the early Sramana movements (Buddhists, Jainas and Ajivikas), probably in around the 9th BCE.
  12. ^ a b Flood, Gavin. Olivelle, Patrick. 2003. The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism. Malden: Blackwell. pp. 273–274.
  13. ^ Jaini 2000, pp. 3–14.
  14. ^ Jaini 2001, pp. 57–77.


Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.