Concept

Śramaṇa

Overview

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" or a "seeker, or ascetic, one who performs acts of austerity".

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. The Śramaṇa tradition includes Jainism, Buddhism, and others such as the 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). 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.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

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But by sacred things one must not understand simply those personal beings which are called gods or spirits; a rock, a tree, a spring, a pebble, a piece of wood, a house, in a word, anything can be sacred. A rite can have this character; in fact, the rite does not exist which does not have it to a certain degree. There are words, expressions and formulæ which can be pronounced only by the mouths of consecrated…
Émile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
States what Śramaṇa is.
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If you throw a stone into a calm lake, first there will be vibration, and then resistance. For a moment the water will vibrate and then it will react on the stone. So, when any impression comes on the _chitta_, or “mind stuff,” it vibrates a little. This state of the mind is called the _manas_. Then comes the reaction, the will.
Swami Vivekananda, Jnâna Yoga, Part II
States what Śramaṇa is.
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THE SO-CALLED SOUL.—The sum-total of those internal movements which come naturally to men, and which they can consequently set in motion readily and gracefully, is called the soul—men are looked upon as void of soul when they let it be seen that their inward emotions are difficult and painful to them. THE FORGETFUL ONES.—In outbursts of passion and the delusions of dreams and madness, man rediscovers his own…
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Dawn of Day
States what Śramaṇa is.
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Philosophers who discussed Śramaṇa

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