The pan-Indian term dharma (from the Sanskrit root dhṛ, "to sustain, to hold"; Pali, dhamma; Tib., chos) has acquired a variety of meanings and interpretations in the course of many centuries of Indian religious thought. Buddhism shares this term and some of its meanings with other Indian religions, but at the same time it has provided a set of unique and exclusive interpretations of its own. Dharma can imply many different meanings in various contexts and with reference to different things. Here we shall consider it under two general headings: the first as dharma in a general sense, comprising a variety of meanings, and the second as dharma(s) in a technical sense, denoting the ultimate constituents or elements of the whole of the existing reality.

General Usages

Dharma was and still is employed by all the religious denominations that have originated...