Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v2.c4.s8.849

v2.c4.s8.849

Śramaṇa ‘mendicant monk,’ is first found in the Upaniṣads.¹ According to Fick,² anyone could become a Śramaṇa. For the time of Megasthenes this seems indicated by his evidence, which, however, refers only to the east of India, beyond the Madhyadeśa proper.³ The Vedic evidence is merely the name and the fact that Tāpasa, ‘ascetic,’ follows it in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad and the Taittirīya Āraṇyaka.