Buddhist India c19.43

c19.43

The word "Dhamma" has given, and will always give, great trouble to the translators. It connotes, or involves, so much. Etymologically it is identical with the Latin word *forma*; and the way in which it came to be used as it was in India, in Asoka's time, is well illustrated by the history of our own colloquialism "good form." Dhamma has been rendered Law. But it never has any one of the various senses attached to the word "law" in English. It means rather, when used in this connection, that which it is "good form" to do in accord with established custom. So it never means exactly religion, but rather, when used in that connection, what it behoves a man of right feeling to do—or, on the other hand, what a man of sense will naturally hold. It lies quite apart from all questions either of ritual or of theology.¹