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Ahimsa is formally linked to three religions in this atlas: Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism, all three links carrying no further comment at the religion level. Its own description differentiates them anyway, not by giving each a different principle but by showing the identical one held at three genuinely different depths.

Furthest, Held With Tension, and a First Precept

Jainism takes it furthest and organises everything else around it: "since even very small creatures possess souls, ascetics sweep the ground before them, filter water, avoid eating after dark," because in Jain doctrine "harm is not merely wrong, it is materially damaging to the soul that commits it." Hinduism holds ahimsa as a high value "and has never held it without tension": the Vedic sacrificial cult involved animal offering, and the Bhagavad Gita's entire argument is directed at a warrior who wishes to refuse battle on grounds that look like ahimsa and is told his duty overrides them, so that "accounts that present Hinduism as straightforwardly nonviolent are selecting." Buddhism, by contrast, simply "makes non-harming the first of the precepts undertaken by all practitioners," with none of Jainism's elaborated practice or Hinduism's internal argument recorded on its own page.

Gandhi's Reinvention, Named Rather Than Counted

The description names a fourth development that this essay reports rather than counts as a fourth religion: "Gandhi's twentieth-century reformulation turned ahimsa from a personal restraint into a method of collective political action," and whether this is "a natural development of the classical principle or a substantial reinvention of it drawing on other sources is genuinely debated by scholars," though Gandhi himself "acknowledged Jain influence on his thinking."

Where To Read More

• AhimsaAction, Rebirth and ConsequenceThe principle itself; three religions counted, holding it at three genuinely different depths
• JainismDharmicTakes it furthest: the governing vow, organising ascetic practice down to sweeping the ground and filtering water
• HinduismDharmic (Polytheistic)Holds it as a high value never held without tension, against Vedic sacrifice and a warrior's overriding duty
• BuddhismDharmic (Nontheistic)The first of the precepts undertaken by all practitioners, with no further elaboration recorded