What Is Ahimsa in Jainism? Definition, Vows and Limits

Ahimsa is the first of the Jain vows and the axis on which the whole Jain code of conduct turns (Ahimsa Ek Tulnatmaka Adhyayan, Sagarmal Jain, 1998). It is not simply "not killing". The classical definition is given negatively, of its opposite: pramattayogāt prāṇavyaparopaṇaṁ hiṁsā — "himsa is the severing of vitalities through pramatta-yoga, activity driven by carelessness or passion" (Mahavir Achar Dharma, Darbarilal Kothiya, 1982). Two consequences follow, and they are what make the Jain treatment distinctive: the state of mind is part of the definition, and the beings protected extend far beyond animals.

What makes an act himsa

Because the definition turns on pramatta-yoga, an act is judged by the intention and inattention behind it, not by the outcome alone. Mahavira held that complete ahimsa is reached only when mind, speech and body are all kept free of pramada — heedlessness (Viharki Mahan Den Mahavir aur Indrabhuti, Darbarilal Kothiya, 1982).

This produces the distinction between dravya-hiṁsā (material harm — the actual injury) and bhāva-hiṁsā (harm in intent — cruelty, contempt, the wish to hurt). The Shramana tradition treats bhava-himsa as the wider and more pervasive of the two, because a person may injure nothing and still be violent in disposition (Shraman Sanskruti ka Udat Drushtikon, Shriranjan Suridev).

Who counts as a living being

Jainism recognises six classes of embodied life, the ṣaḍjīvanikāya: earth-bodied, water-bodied, fire-bodied, air-bodied and plant-bodied beings, together with mobile beings (Shadjiv Nikay Suraksha hi Paryavaran Suraksha, Dharmchand Muni, 1998). These are grouped in two:

• Trasa — mobile beings, from two-sensed creatures up to five-sensed beings including humans.
• Sthāvara — immobile, one-sensed beings: earth, water, fire, air and plants.

(Jain Achar Samhita, Saubhagyamal Jain, 1975)

The boundary between the two was drawn differently in different periods. In the earlier canon fire and air were counted among the trasa; the classification that places earth, water and plants as sthavara is set out in the final chapter of the Uttaradhyayana, in Kundakunda's Pancastikaya and in Umasvati's Tattvartha Sutra, and settled after roughly the third century CE (Jain Tattvamimansa ki Vikas Yatra, Sagarmal Jain, 2003).

The four kinds of himsa — and the one a householder renounces

This is the distinction that makes Jain lay life intelligible. Jain texts identify four kinds of himsa (Jain Achar Samhita, Saubhagyamal Jain, 1975; Mahavir Achar Dharma, Darbarilal Kothiya, 1982):

1. Saṅkalpī — deliberate harm, done with the intention "I will strike this being".
2. Ārambhī — harm unavoidable in maintaining a household and supporting a family.
3. Udyogī — harm inseparable from an occupation such as farming or cattle-keeping, where no intent to injure is present.
4. Virodhī — harm in defence of oneself, one's family or one's country.

A śrāvaka, a lay Jain, renounces only the first (Shravakachar ka Mulyatmak Vivechan, Subhash Kothari, 1994). The householder's first vow is sthūla prāṇātipāta viramaṇa — abstaining from the deliberate killing of innocent trasa beings (Jain Achar Samhita, Saubhagyamal Jain, 1975). The other three are not licensed, but they are recognised as inseparable from life in the world, and are reduced rather than vowed away.

Ascetic and householder: mahavrata and anuvrata

The same five vows are taken at two depths. The Acharang Churni puts it compactly: dese aṇuvvayāṇi paṁca, savve mahavvayāṇi paṁca — five aṇuvratas ("small vows") in part, five mahāvratas ("great vows") in full (Acharang Churni, 1941). The ascetic's ahimsa is unrestricted; the householder's is bounded, and the graded pratima stages exist to narrow that boundary over a lifetime.

Is "ahimsa paramo dharma" a Jain verse?

It is constantly quoted as Jainism's slogan, but the line ahiṁsā paramo dharmaḥ is from the Mahabharata — it appears in the Shanti Parva and again in the Anushasana Parva (Ahimsa ki Sarva Bhaumikta, Sagarmal Jain, 2002).

Jainism's own formulation is the opening gatha of the Dashavaikalika Sutra:

dhammo maṅgalamukkiṭṭhaṁ, ahiṁsā saṁjamo tavo
"Dharma is the highest blessing — ahimsa, restraint and austerity."

(Aetihasik Charcha Dharmveer Lokashah, Tejsinh Gaud, 1979)

The Acharanga Sutra gives the reasoning rather than the slogan: savve pāṇā piyāuyā, suhasāyā dukkhapaḍikūlā... savvesiṁ jīviyaṁ piyaṁ — "all beings love life, seek happiness and recoil from pain; life is dear to all." And, more sharply: tumaṁsi nāma sacceva jaṁ hantavvaṁ ti mannasi — "the one you think to kill is none other than yourself" (Jain Darshan ka Adikal, Dalsukh Malvania).

The Agamas call it ahiṁsā bhagavatī — ahimsa the venerable — and describe it by a chain of similes: refuge to the frightened, the sky to birds, water to the thirsty, food to the hungry, a ship in mid-ocean, medicine to the sick, and the company of a caravan in a forest (Sakaratmak Ahinsa ki Bhumika, Sagarmal Jain, 1995).

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