Question

‘Dhamma’ is the Prakrit word for the Sanskrit word_____.

Answer 1

Hint:
English words equivalent to ‘Dhamma’ are ‘piety’ and ‘righteousness’.
Its antonym in Sanskrit and Tamil is ‘adharma’.


Complete answer:
Dhamma is the Prakrit word for the Sanskrit word ‘Dharma’ while other English words equivalent to ‘Dhamma’ are ‘piety’ and ‘righteousness’. The word Dhamma was first seen in the edicts of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka. Ashoka is considered one of the greatest kings of Ancient India and hence, his policies of Dhamma have been very influential for public welfare of that time. The use of the concept of Dhamma was already in use in the Vedic period, and its meaning has evolved ever since.

Dhamma also has variable meaning with respect to different religious beliefs, such as Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism etc.
Dhamma or dharma in Jainism refers to the teachings of the ‘tirthankar’ or the ‘Jina’ and its meaning resides in the purification and moral transformation of the human being.
In Sikhism, it refers to the proper religious practices and the path of righteousness.
In Buddhism, dhamma refers to the ‘cosmic law and order’, which along with Buddhism can be applied to the actual mental construct of the human mind.
In Zoroastrianism, dhamma means ‘eternal law’ or ‘religion’ which is related to the Sanskrit meaning of dhamma.

The parallel use of dhamma is also seen in European and Iranian texts. The European or the Greek use it referred to a fixed decree or law. Whereas in Iranian or Old Persian texts dhamma was used as ‘darman’ and referred to as ‘remedy’.


Note:
The concept of dharma is of great importance even to India as a nation.
The ‘wheel of dharma’, commonly called as the Ashoka Chakra is the central motif of the National Flag of our country.
It was included in the national flag in 1947 with India’s independence.