Page "Ahimsa" Paragraph 20

The term ahimsa appears in the text Taittiriya Shakha of the Yajurveda ( TS 5. 2. 8. 7 ), where it refers to non-injury to the sacrificer himself.

It occurs several times in the Shatapatha Brahmana in the sense of " non-injury " without a moral connotation.

The ahimsa doctrine is a late development in Brahmanical culture.

The earliest reference to the idea of non-violence to animals ( pashu-ahimsa ), apparently in a moral sense, is in the Kapisthala Katha Samhita of the Yajurveda ( KapS 31. 11 ), which may have been written in about the 8th century BCE.

The word scarcely appears in the principal Upanishads.

The Chāndogya Upaniṣad, dated to the 8th or 7th century BCE, one of the oldest Upanishads, has the earliest evidence for the use of the word ahimsa in the sense familiar in Hinduism ( a code of conduct ).

It bars violence against " all creatures " ( sarvabhuta ) and the practitioner of ahimsa is said to escape from the cycle of metempsychosis ( CU 8. 15. 1 ).

It also names ahimsa as one of five essential virtues ( CU 3. 17. 4 ).

A few scholars are of the opinion that this passage was a concession to growing influence of shramanic culture on the Brahmanical religion.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak, a leader of the Indian freedom movement, mentions thus: