Sanatana Dharma: the Eternal Way
What the name Sanatana Dharma means, where the words “Hindu” and “Hinduism” come from, and why many Hindus prefer the traditional name for their religion.
Many Hindus call their religion Sanatana Dharma, usually translated as “the eternal way”, “the eternal law” or “the eternal order”. The name expresses the belief that the truths at the heart of the tradition were not invented by any person or founded at any point in history, but are timeless and universal, as old as the universe itself.
What the words mean
- Sanatana means “eternal”, “ancient” or “perpetual”: that which has no beginning and no end.
- Dharma is a rich word meaning duty, law, righteousness and the natural order that upholds the universe.
Together the words suggest not just a set of beliefs but an eternal way of living in harmony with the order of the cosmos.
An ancient phrase
The phrase appears in classical Sanskrit texts, though not originally as the name of a religion. In the Laws of Manu (4.138), after advising that one should speak what is true and pleasant, and not speak unpleasant truths or pleasant falsehoods, the text adds: “This is the eternal dharma.” Similar expressions appear in the Mahabharata and in Buddhist texts.
The phrase became widely used as a name for Hindu religion in the nineteenth century. Traditionalist Hindus used it to describe the faith inherited from their ancestors, especially in response to Christian missionaries and to reform movements such as the Arya Samaj. Organisations named Sanatan Dharma Sabha were founded across north India from the 1890s onwards.
Where does the word “Hindu” come from?
The word “Hindu” is not found in the ancient Sanskrit scriptures. It comes from Sindhu, the Sanskrit name of the Indus river. Ancient Persians, whose language changed the “s” sound to “h”, called the river and the land beyond it Hindu. The Greeks, borrowing from the Persians, dropped the “h”, which gave us the words “Indus” and “India”.
For many centuries “Hindu” was a geographical and ethnic term for the people of India. Medieval Muslim writers, such as the eleventh-century scholar al-Biruni, used it for the non-Muslim inhabitants of India and their customs. Over time, Hindus themselves adopted the word, and it appears in Indian texts from around the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The word “Hinduism”
“Hinduism”, meaning a religion, came into English use in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when British administrators and scholars sought a single name for the varied religious life of India. The reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy, founder of the Brahmo Samaj, was among the first Indians to use it in English, in 1816.
Some scholars argue that the term grouped together very different traditions, such as the worship of Vishnu, Shiva and the Goddess, under a single label. Others point out that these traditions had long shared scriptures, ideas, practices and a sense of belonging, even before they shared a name.
Other names
- Hindu Dharma: a common name in India and Nepal.
- Vaidika Dharma: “the religion of the Vedas”, stressing the authority of the Vedas.
- Arya Dharma: “the noble way”, used by some reform movements.
Why the name matters
For many Hindus, “Sanatana Dharma” better describes their tradition than “Hinduism”. It emphasises that their religion is a way of life rooted in eternal truths, rather than a system defined by a founder, a single book or a fixed set of doctrines. It also reflects the belief, held by many Hindus, that these truths are universal and available to everyone.
Sources and further reading
- Wilhelm Halbfass, India and Europe: An Essay in Understanding (SUNY Press, 1988).
- Brian K. Pennington, Was Hinduism Invented? Britons, Indians, and the Colonial Construction of Religion (Oxford University Press, 2005).
- Patrick Olivelle (trans.), The Law Code of Manu (Oxford World's Classics, 2004).