The Lotus and the Chariot: A Study of the Root Meaning of Dharma in the Indian Religious Tradition

Abstract

<p>The subject of this dissertation is the concept of dharma in the Indian Religious Tradition. It seeks to validate for the understanding of an outsider to the Tradition, the claim that dharma is most authoritatively known in Veda. To examine the claim, we look at the family of dharma uses in the Rg Veda to establish a core or root meaning of the concept which underlies and gives coherence to the diverse particular usages of the term. Subsequently, we examine the uses of dharma in the Bhagavad Gita in order to know whether the root or core meaning demonstrates continuity within a smrti text. </p> <p>The thesis argues that there is a root meaning to dharma established in the Rs Veda which has a demonstrable continuity in the Bhagavad Gita. That root meaning is expressed as: the upholding of the orderly relatedness of all that is. Subsequent to the textual exegesis, very brief consideration is given to the implications of the continuity of dharma's root or core meaning for the scholarly question of continuity and change in the Indian Religious Tradition.</p>