Etymology and Origin
Samsara means "to flow on", to perpetually wander, to pass through states of existence.
The historical origins of a concept of a cycle of repeated reincarnation are obscure but the idea appears frequently in religious and philosophical texts in both India and ancient Greece during the middle of the first millennium B.C. Orphism, Platonism, Jainism and Buddhism all discuss the transmigration of beings from one life to another.The concept of reincarnation is present even in the early Vedic texts such as the Rig Veda but the concise idea of it is said to have originated from the Shramana traditions. Several scholars believe that reincarnation was adopted from this religious culture by Brahmin orthodoxy, and Brahmins first wrote down scriptures containing these ideas in the early (Aitereya) Upanishads.
Read more about this topic: Saṃsāra
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