ASHRAM. The term ashram or ās'rama is derived from the Sanskrit root śram, meaning "intense exertion." It refers to both the mode of life associated with religious striving and the abode of those so engaged.

As a mode or way of life specified for twice-born Hindus (usually male), the ashramic ideal set forth four stages of development: being a student (brahmacārin) devoted to one's teacher; a householder (gṛhastha) with obligations to family, priests, and deities; a hermit (vanaprastha) who, with or without his wife, retreats from material concerns; and finally a renouncer (sannyasin) who forsakes all possessions in order to contemplate the eternal and, like the hermit, pursue mokṣa (spiritual liberation).

A clear delineation of this four-fold system can be traced to the Upaniṣads (cf. Jābāla Upaniṣad 4), which are believed to have been composed by ṛṣis (seers) in forest hermitages that...