Shramana - Etymology and Origin

Etymology and Origin

The Pāli samaṇa and the Sanskrit Śramaṇa refer to renunciate ascetic traditions from the middle of the 1st millennium BCE. They were individual, experiential and free-form traditions, independent of society; and in religious competition with Brahmin priests, who as opposed to Shramanas, stressed mastery of texts and performing rituals.

The Pāli samaṇa and the Sanskrit Śramaṇa are postulated to be derived from the verbal root śram, meaning "to exert effort, labor or to perform austerity". "Śramaṇa" thus means "one who strives" or "laborer" in Sanskrit and Pali. The term was applied to those who wholeheartedly practiced toward enlightenment, and was used for monks. The Shramana traditions are best captured in the term parivrajaka meaning, a homeless wanderer. The history of wandering monks in ancient India is partly untraceable. The term 'parivrajaka' was perhaps applicable to all the peripatetic monks of India.

Indian grammarians use the terms 'Sharamana' and 'Brahmin' to illustrate bitter opponents whose differences came from varying religious models. Part of the Shramana tradition remained outside the Hindu fold by rejecting the authority of the Vedas; with the Jains, Buddhists, Ajivikas, and other religious groups developing as a result of this rejection. Part of the Shramana tradition was absorbed into Hindu dharma literature with a place for a renunciate sanyasi in it, in the four stages (ashramas) of life.

One of the earliest uses of the word is in the Hindu text Taittiriya Aranyaka (2-7-1) with the meaning of 'performer of austerities'. Buddhist commentaries associate the word's etymology with the quieting (samita) of evil (pāpa) as in the following phrase from the Dhammapada, verse 265: samitattā pāpānaŋ ʻsamaṇoʼ ti pavuccati ("someone who has pacified evil is called samaṇa").