What does “Sanatan Dharma” mean, and who uses the term?
Sanatana dharma is Sanskrit for “eternal dharma”: the lasting law, duty or way. In the old texts the words describe a rule or a truth as everlasting; they are not yet the name of a religion. From the nineteenth century, many Hindus began to use Sanatana Dharma as a name for their whole faith: a name from inside the tradition, which holds that its truth is eternal and was revealed to seers, not founded by one person. Today many Hindus, and Hindu teachers, leaders and community bodies, use the term, often as another name for Hinduism. It is also used in political debate in India. This page explains the word and takes no side in that debate.
Written for Pujadeep and checked against the sources listed.
What the schools say
Classical texts
In Sanskrit texts, sanatana is a describing word: “eternal” or “ancient”. The Gita calls the self sanatana (2.24), and Arjuna fears for “the eternal rites of families” (1.40, Telang). Manu ends a rule on speech with “that is the eternal law” (4.138). The law books also give a short list of duties for everyone, such as non-harm and truthfulness (Manu 10.63), beside the duties of one's own station (svadharma, Gita 3.35). In none of these places is the phrase the name of one religion among others.
Sources for this reading
- Bhagavad Gita, 1.40
- Bhagavad Gita, 2.24
- G. Bühler (tr.), The Laws of Manu (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 25, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886), 4.138: “Let him say what is true, let him say what is pleasing, let him utter no disagreeable truth, and let him utter no agreeable falsehood; that is the eternal law.” Bühler died 1898: public domain. Quoted verbatim. (4.138 (p. 150, leaf n295), checked on the page image)
- Mânava Dharma-Sâstra, the Code of Manu: Original Sanskrit Text, ed. Julius Jolly (London: Trübner, 1887), 4.138: “प्रियं च नानृतं ब्रूयादेष धर्मः सनातनः”. The Hindi quotes the closing words, eṣa dharmaḥ sanātanaḥ, from this printing. Checked on the page image. The 1926 Calcutta edition with Hindi translation (archive.org in.ernet.dli.2015.342247) prints the same words. (4.138, p. 84 (leaf n107), printed in Devanagari; title page, leaf n6)
- G. Bühler (tr.), The Laws of Manu (SBE 25, 1886), 10.63: the summary of the law for the four castes (non-injury, veracity, not stealing, purity, control of the organs). Summarised. (10.63 (p. 416, leaf n561), checked on the page image)
- Bhagavad Gita, 3.35
Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century usage
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Hindu teachers and institutions began to use Sanatana Dharma as a name for the Hindu religion as a whole. Societies took the name: a Sanatana Dharma Rakshini Sabha was formed in Calcutta by 1873, and a Sanatan Dharma Sabha in Hardwar and Delhi in 1895. A textbook published by the Central Hindu College in Benares in 1903 is titled Sanatana Dharma, with the subtitle “An Advanced Text Book of Hindu Religion and Ethics”. Its foreword asks for teaching that is “definitely and distinctively Hindu”, “inclusive enough to unite the most divergent forms of Hindu thought”, and that does not “enter into any of the social and political questions of the day”.
Sources for this reading
- Sanâtana Dharma: An Advanced Text Book of Hindu Religion and Ethics (Benares: Board of Trustees, Central Hindu College, 1903), foreword. Quoted verbatim. Public domain in the US (published 1903). India and UK status not confirmed: the compilers are not named on the title page. Cited, not reproduced. Checked on the page images. (title page (leaf n5); Foreword, p. i (leaf n9), where all three quotations stand)
- J. N. Farquhar, Modern Religious Movements in India (New York: Macmillan, 1915; title page, leaf n8): “Then in 1895 they founded the Sanâtan Dharma Sabhâ in Hardwar and Delhi”, and note 2: “A Sanâtana Dharma Rakshinî Sabhâ had been formed in Calcutta as early as 1873.” Farquhar died 1929: public domain. Facts only; the author's own judgements are not repeated. Checked on the page image. (p. 316 (leaf n357))
Present-day self-description
Many Hindus use Sanatan Dharma and Hindu Dharma as two names for one faith, as the 1903 textbook already did in its title, “Sanatana Dharma: An Advanced Text Book of Hindu Religion and Ethics”. Those who prefer Sanatan Dharma often say that it names the tradition by its own idea: its truths are held to be eternal, not founded by one person and not tied to one moment in history; the same textbook calls the Veda knowledge “revealed”, seen by the rishis. Others prefer “Hindu”, or use both.
Sources for this reading
- Sanâtana Dharma: An Advanced Text Book of Hindu Religion and Ethics (Benares: Central Hindu College, 1903): the title page, and the Veda described as the Perfect Knowledge, revealed by Brahma and seen by the rishis (“The Basis of Sanatana Dharma”). Checked on the page images; summarised. Cited, not reproduced. (title page (leaf n5); “The Basis of Sanatana Dharma”, p. 3 (leaf n19))
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “sanatana dharma”: the term used by Hindu leaders, reformers and nationalists for Hinduism as a unified world religion, “conceived of as not only transcendent of history and unchanging”. Read in the Wayback Machine copy (snapshot August 11, 2026). Background; cited, not copied.
Historians of religion
Historians note that the word “Hindu” began as a name used by outsiders. It comes from Sindhu, the Sanskrit name of the Indus: Persians said “Hindu” for the people of that land, and the Greeks, without the h, said Indoi. In English, “Hinduism” came into wide use in the nineteenth century; a well-known survey with that title appeared in London in 1877. In the same period, Sanatana Dharma came into wide use as a name chosen from within. Historians describe this change of names; they do not decide which name a family should use.
Sources for this reading
- Monier Monier-Williams, Hinduism (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1877), chapter I: the people near the Sindhu (Indus), whom the Persians called Hindus, and the Greek form without the aspirate. Monier-Williams died 1899: public domain. Summarised in our words; the book's own framing (a nineteenth-century race theory) is not repeated. Checked on the page images. (p. 1 (leaf n10); title page (leaf n6))
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Hinduism”, section “The term Hinduism”: the term became familiar with books such as Monier-Williams's Hinduism (1877); “Hindu” at first an outsiders' term, used by Greeks and Persians; sanatana dharma “a formulation made popular in the 19th century”. Read in the Wayback Machine copy (snapshot October 7, 2026). Background; cited, not copied.
- Sanâtana Dharma: An Advanced Text Book of Hindu Religion and Ethics (Benares, 1903). Cited, not reproduced.
Sources
- Bhagavad Gita, 1.40
- Sanâtana Dharma: An Advanced Text Book of Hindu Religion and Ethics (Benares: Central Hindu College, 1903). Cited, not reproduced.
- Monier Monier-Williams, Hinduism (London, 1877). Public domain. Cited, not copied.
- J. N. Farquhar, Modern Religious Movements in India (New York, 1915), p. 316: the Sanatana Dharma Sabhas of Calcutta (by 1873) and of Hardwar and Delhi (1895). Public domain. Cited, not copied. (p. 316 (leaf n357))
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “sanatana dharma” (read in the Wayback Machine copy, snapshot August 11, 2026) and “Hinduism” (snapshot October 7, 2026): background for the present-day use of the term by Hindu leaders, reformers and nationalists as a name for Hinduism. Cited, not copied.
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- Checked against the sources listed, October 13, 2026.
- Updated
- October 28, 2026