ahimsa
noun/əˈhɪmsɑː/
Etymology Borrowed from Sanskrit अहिंसा (ahiṃsā).
1
Buddhism, Lifestyle, Religion Hinduism, Jainism A doctrine of non-violence, concerned with the sacredness of all living things and an effort to avoid causing harm to them.
- Already, at this very early date, the ritualists were moving towards the ideal of ahimsa ("harmlessness") that would become the indispensable virtue of the Indian Axial Age.2006, Karen Armstrong, The Great Transformation, Atlantic Books, published 2007, page 79:
- This, in essence, is the Jain doctrine of ahimsa – a direct inversion of Vedic beliefs about the sustaining powers of animal sacrifice.2016, Sunil Khilnani, Incarnations, Penguin, published 2017, page 9:
- Derived terms
- ahimsa silk