Science, ideas & the arts

karma

Sanskrit karma simply means 'act, deed' (originally ritual action); in Indian thought it came to mean the deeds whose consequences follow you. Buddhist Pali kamma carried it to Thailand, Cambodia and Burma, and English took it from a 1785 translation of the Bhagavad Gita, passing it on to the 1960s counterculture and the world.

Weakest linkCertain

The road to English

From Sanskrit to Pali

From Pali to Thai

From Pali to Khmer

From Pali to Burmese

From Sanskrit to Middle Chinese

From Sanskrit to Hindi

From English to American English

From English to French

From English to German

From English to Japanese

1200 BCESanskrit

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

karma

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