In Indian religions and philosophies, a śramaṇa (from Sanskrit) or samaṇa (from Pali), sometimes anglicised as shramana, is a person "who labours, toils, or exerts themselves for some higher or religious purpose"Dhirasekera, Jotiya. Buddhist monastic discipline. Buddhist Cultural Centre, 2007.Shults, Brett. "A Note on Śramaṇa in Vedic Texts." Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies 10 (2016). or a "seeker, or ascetic, one who performs acts of austerity".Monier Monier-Williams, श्रमण śramaṇa, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, p. 1096
In the early Vedic texts, the term is an epithet for the great rishi sages in association with their ritualistic exertion. However, it has since come to refer to a broad class of spiritual movements originally comprising wandering ascetics from ancient India—collectively called the Śramaṇa tradition, Shramanic tradition, or occasionally Shramanism—historically parallel to but separate from movements that upheld the authority of Vedic scripture like the early Vedic religion and Brahmanism, as well as their Hindu successor movements. Rather, the Śramaṇa tradition includes Jainism, Buddhism,Svarghese, Alexander P. 2008. India : History, Religion, Vision And Contribution To The World. pp. 259–60. Ājīvika, Ajñana, and Cārvāka. The tradition's name comes from the semantic narrowing of the term śramaṇa to mean a religious individual who specifically rejects the authority of the Vedas; however, the word did not hold this connotation until certain post-Vedic texts considered canonical by Buddhists and Jains. In the Indian philosophical tradition, the terms āstika versus nāstika largely equate to this distinction between Vedic versus non-Vedic (Śramaṇa) belief systems.
The Śramaṇa tradition became popular in the circles of mendicants from greater Magadha who developed yogic practices, and they also developed concepts popular in all major Indian religions such as saṃsāra (the cycle of death and rebirth) and moksha (liberation from that cycle).Flood, Gavin. Olivelle, Patrick. 2003. The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism. Malden: Blackwell. pp. 273–274. Śramaṇa schools of thought have a diverse range of beliefs, ranging from accepting or denying the existence of the soul, believing or disbelieving in free will, following particular dress guidelines or going completely nude in daily social life, and strict vegetarianism and prohibitions on violence (ahimsa) or permissibility of meat-eating and violence.
Etymology and origin
According to Olivelle and Crangle, the earliest known explicit use of the term "śramaṇa" is found in section 2.7 of the Taittiriya Aranyaka, a layer within the Yajurveda (Vedic scripture, c. 1000 BCE). It mentions śramaṇa Rishis and celibate Rishis.
According to Jaini, only two references to the word "śramaṇa" are found in the Vedic literature, one in verse 4.3.22 of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (7th-6th cent. BCE). It refers to a śramaṇa as belonging to a class of mendicant, but it is not clear if this was a member of a non-Vedic order as described in the much later Pali-canon.Max Muller, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.3.22 Oxford University Press, p. 169
The word "śramaṇa" is postulated to be derived from the verbal root , meaning "to exert effort, labor or to perform austerity". The history of wandering monks in ancient India is partly untraceable. The term 'parivrajaka' was perhaps applicable to all the peripatetic monks of India, such as those found in Buddhism, Jainism and Brahmanism.
The Śramaṇa tradition refers collectively to a variety of renunciate ascetic traditions from the middle of the 1st millennium BCE. The śramaṇa practice was "individualist, experiential, free-form, and independent of society". The term "śramaṇas" is used sometimes to contrast them with "Brahmins" in terms of their religious models. However, in the early texts, some pre-dating 3rd-century BCE ruler Ashoka, the Brahmana and śramaṇa are neither distinct nor opposed. The distinction, according to Olivelle, in later Indian literature "may have been a later semantic development possibly influenced by the appropriation of the latter term [sramana] by Buddhism and Jainism". Part of the Śramaṇa tradition retained their distinct identity from Hinduism by rejecting the epistemic authority of the Vedas, while another part of the Śramaṇa tradition synthesized with Hinduism as one stage in the Ashrama dharma, that is as renunciate sannyasins.P. Billimoria (1988), Śabdapramāṇa: Word and Knowledge, Studies of Classical India Volume 10, Springer, , pp. 1–30
Buddhist commentaries associate the word's etymology with the quieting () of evil () as in the following phrase from the 3rd century BCE Dhammapada, verse 265: ("someone who has pacified evil is called ").
The first usage of the term śramaṇa in Jain literature is found in the earliest Jain texts, the Sutrakritanga, composed after the 2nd century BCE,Bronkhorst, Johannes. The Formative Period of Jainism (c. 500 BCE-200 CE), in "Brill's Encyclopedia of Jainism, 2020". and the Ācārāṅga Sūtra, which may have originated as an oral tradition after Mahavira's death but was principally compiled and heavily edited in its current form by Acharya Devardhigani Kshamashraman, c. 454 CE. According to Johannes Bronkhorst:Mainly on linguistic grounds, it has been argued that the Ācārāṅga Sūtra, the Sūtrakṛtāṅga Sūtra, and the Uttarādhyayana Sūtra are among the oldest texts in the canon. This does not guarantee that they actually date from the time of Mahāvīra, nor even from the centuries immediately following his death, nor does it guarantee that all parts of these texts were composed simultaneously.
The term śramaṇa is also found in the earliest Digambara Jain text, Mulachara, composed around 150 CE.Bhakti in the Early Jain Tradition: Understanding Devotional Religion in South Asia, John E. Cort , History of Religions, Vol. 42, No. 1 (Aug., 2002), pp. 59-86 Digambaras maintain that the original Ācārāṅga Sūtra is lost, and Mulachara is the closest to the original teachings of Mahavira.
Pali samaṇa has been suggested as the ultimate origin of the word Evenki сама̄н (samān) "shaman", possibly via Middle Chinese or Tocharian B; however, the etymology of this word, which is also found in other Tungusic languages, is controversial (see ).
History
Several śramaṇa movements are known to have existed in India before the 6th century BCE (pre-Buddha, pre-Mahavira), and these influenced both the āstika and nāstika traditions of Indian philosophy.Reginald Ray (1999), Buddhist Saints in India, Oxford University Press, , pp. 237–240, 247–249Andrew J. Nicholson (2013), Unifying Hinduism: Philosophy and Identity in Indian Intellectual History, Columbia University Press, , Chapter 9 Martin Wiltshire states that the Śramaṇa tradition evolved in India over two phases, namely Paccekabuddha and Savaka phases, the former being the tradition of individual ascetic and latter of disciples, and that Buddhism and Jainism ultimately emerged from these as sectarian manifestations.Martin Wiltshire (1990), Ascetic Figures Before and in Early Buddhism, De Gruyter, , p. 293 These traditions drew upon already established Brahmanical concepts, states Wiltshire, to communicate their own distinct doctrines.Martin Wiltshire (1990), Ascetic Figures Before and in Early Buddhism, De Gruyter, , pp. 226–227 Reginald Ray concurs that śramaṇa movements already existed and were established traditions in pre-6th century BCE India, but disagrees with Wiltshire that they were nonsectarian before the arrival of Buddha.
According to the Jain Agamas and the Buddhist Pāli Canon, there were other śramaṇa leaders at the time of Buddha. In the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta (DN 16), a śramaṇa named Subhadda mentions:
Relationship with Vedism The traditional view of scholars in the field, represented for example by Govind Chandra Pande in his 1957 study on the origins of Buddhism, is that Śramaṇa began as a "distinct and separate cultural and religious" tradition from Vedic religion. However, this claim is disputed by several Indologists and Sanskrit scholars such as Patrick Olivelle.
Patrick Olivelle, a professor of Indology and known for his translations of major ancient Sanskrit works, states in his 1993 study that contrary to some representations, the original Śramaṇa tradition was part of the Vedic one. He writes,
According to Olivelle, and other scholars such as Edward Crangle, the concept of Śramaṇa exists in the early Brahmanical literature. The term is used in an adjectival sense for sages who lived a special way of life that the Vedic culture considered extraordinary. However, Vedic literature does not provide details of that life. The term did not imply any opposition to either Brahmins or householders. In all likelihood, states Olivelle, during the Vedic era, neither did the śramaṇa concept refer to an identifiable class nor to ascetic groups as it does in later Indian literature.
Vedic literature contains references to proto-renunciant ascetics such as the Kēśins and Vrātyas. Gavin Flood notes that the Kēśins, described in the Rig Veda as long-haired "silent ones" or munis, resemble later Hindu ascetics. Karel Werner describes the Rig Veda's Kēśin hymn as depicting a wandering muni "who possesses extraordinary powers and has deep spiritual experiences".
The hymn uses the term vātaraśana (वातरशन) which means "girdled with wind".Monier Williams, vAtarazana Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Koeln University, Germany Some scholars have interpreted this to mean "sky-clad, naked monk" and therefore a synonym for Digambara (a Jainism sect). However, other scholars state that this could not be the correct interpretation because it is inconsistent with the words that immediately follow, "wearing soil-hued garments". The context likely means that the poet is describing the "munis" as moving like the wind, their garments pressed by the wind. According to Olivelle, it is unlikely that the vātaraśana implies a class within the Vedic context.
The Vedic society, states Olivelle, contained many people whose roots were non-Aryan who must have influenced the Aryan classes. However, it is difficult to identify and isolate these influences, in part because the Vedic culture not only developed from influences but also from its inner dynamism and socio-economic developments.
According to Indian anthropologist Ramaprasad Chanda, the origins of Sramanism trace back to pre-Vedic and pre-Aryan cultures, particularly those practicing magic. He posited that the practice of asceticism could be linked to the initiatory phases of seclusion and abstinence observed by shamans.
According to Bronkhorst, the śramaṇa culture arose in "Greater Magadha," which was Indo-Aryan, but not Vedic. In this culture, Kshatriyas were placed higher than Brahmins, and it rejected Vedic authority and rituals.
Pre-Buddhist śrāmana schools in Buddhist texts
Pande attributes the origin of Buddhism, not entirely to the Buddha, but to a "great religious ferment" towards the end of the Vedic period when the Brahmanic and Shramanic traditions intermingled.
The Buddhist text of the Samaññaphala Sutta identifies six pre-Buddhist śrāmana schools, identifying them by their leader. These six schools are represented in the text to have diverse philosophies, which according to Padmanabh Jaini, may be "a biased picture and does not give a true picture" of the shramanic schools rivaling with Buddhism,
The Purana Kassapa (Amoralism) śrāmana school: believed in antinomian ethics. This ancient school asserted that there are no moral laws, nothing is moral or immoral, there is neither virtue nor sin.