Browse Sanskrit

Word studies

Curated studies of the language's central words, with attestation counts and cited lines from the corpus record.

• ātman atman — self, the reflexive "oneself," and the innermost soul or essence
• brahman brahman — the absolute ground of being; the sacred formulation and the power resident in it; the one reality underlying the cosmos and the self; also the priestly order that tends the sacred
• buddhi buddhi — intellect, discerning intelligence, the faculty of judgment and decision; the higher determinative reason that resolves, discriminates, and directs
• citta citta — thought, the reflecting or attending mind; the seat of attention that settles, wanders, and is gathered in disciplined practice
• dharma dharma — that which upholds; law, duty, right order; the norm that sustains a world, a caste, a life, and the cosmos alike
• jñāna jnana — knowledge, knowing, cognition
• karman karman — act, deed, work; rite performed; and the residue of action that binds a doer to its fruit across time
• manas manas — mind; the inner instrument that coordinates the senses, forms intention, and directs attention
• prāṇa prana — breath; the vital air; the life-wind that sustains the body and, in cosmology, the animating power that holds a world together
• puruṣa purusa — man, person, the human being; the spirit or self within the person; the cosmic Person from whom the world is fashioned
• yoga yoga — yoking, harnessing, joining