Sanātana Dharma — the "eternal" or "perennial" dharma — is the tradition's own name for what the wider world came to call Hinduism. This page is a true beginner's front door: what the words mean, how the tradition knows what it knows, what its scriptures are, and a few common misunderstandings gently set right.
What the name means
Sanātana means eternal, without beginning or end, ever-renewing. Dharma comes from the root _dhṛ_, "to hold up, to sustain" — it is that which upholds. Dharma is far wider than the English word "religion." It is at once cosmic order (the law by which the universe coheres, ṛta) and personal order (one's own right conduct, duty and way of living, sva-dharma). To follow dharma is to live in harmony with the way things truly are.
"Hinduism" is an exonym — a name given from outside. It derives from _Sindhu_, the river the Persians and Greeks knew at the land's western edge, and came to mean "the people and ways beyond the Indus." The tradition's own word for itself is Sanātana Dharma: not a faith founded at one moment by one person, but an eternal way carried forward across ages.
How it knows: the six pramāṇas
A pramāṇa is a valid means of knowledge — a recognised way of arriving at truth. Indian thought examined these with great care. Different schools accept different numbers; the fullest list (held in Advaita Vedanta) names six.
Pratyakṣa — perception — Direct knowledge through the senses. What is seen, heard, touched, tasted or smelled. The most immediate means of valid knowledge.
Anumāna — inference — Reasoning from a sign to a conclusion — seeing smoke and inferring fire. Knowledge gained through logic and the relation of cause and effect.
Upamāna — comparison — Knowledge by analogy or likeness — learning what an unfamiliar thing is by its resemblance to something already known.
Arthāpatti — postulation — Inference to the necessary explanation: a person known to fast by day yet remains healthy must, it follows, eat by night. Assuming what must be so to make the facts cohere.
Anupalabdhi — non-perception — Knowledge of absence — knowing that something is not present because it is not perceived where it would be if it existed (accepted especially in Advaita and Mimamsa).
Śabda — testimony — Reliable verbal authority — trustworthy words, above all the Vedas, and the teaching of a credible source. Knowledge received rather than directly derived.
Shruti and Smriti
Śruti — "that which is heard"
The revealed, foundational scripture, held to be apauruṣeya (not of human authorship) and received by the ancient seers. Śruti is the four Vedas — Rig, Yajur, Sama, Atharva — each with its Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads. It is the highest authority.
Smṛti — "that which is remembered"
The remembered tradition composed by human authors, drawing on and transmitting śruti. It includes the Itihasas (Ramayana, Mahabharata — which holds the Bhagavad Gita), the Puranas, the Dharma Shastras (such as the Manu Smriti), and the Agamas. Authoritative, but subordinate to śruti.
Āstika and Nāstika
Indian philosophy is classically divided by one test: whether a school accepts the authority of the Vedas. The āstika ("affirming") schools do; the nāstika schools do not. This is a neutral, technical classification, not a judgement of worth.
The six āstika darśanas
Six classical schools accept the Vedas: Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika, Sāṃkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta. They are often paired (Nyaya–Vaisheshika, Samkhya–Yoga, Mimamsa–Vedanta) and together form the orthodox systems of Indian philosophy.
The nāstika schools
Schools that do not accept Vedic authority are termed nāstika: Cārvāka (the materialists), Jainism and Buddhism. They are part of the same broad Indic philosophical conversation, engaging and debating the astika schools for centuries.
The four Mahāvākyas
The Mahāvākyas ("great sayings") are four concise statements from the Upanishads, one traditionally drawn from each Veda, that distil the core insight of Vedanta: the identity of the innermost self (Ātman) with the ultimate reality (Brahman).
Prajñānam Brahma — "Consciousness is Brahman." The ultimate reality is of the nature of pure awareness. _Aitareya Upanishad (Rig Veda)_
Aham Brahmāsmi — "I am Brahman." The innermost self is not separate from the absolute. _Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (Yajur Veda)_
Tat Tvam Asi — "That thou art." The reality that is the ground of all is the very reality of you. _Chandogya Upanishad (Sama Veda)_
Ayam Ātmā Brahma — "This Self is Brahman." The Atman within is identical with the supreme reality. _Mandukya Upanishad (Atharva Veda)_
Common misconceptions, gently corrected
"There are 330 million gods." The traditional phrase is trayastriṃśat koṭi devatā. Koṭi here means "kinds" or "classes," giving thirty-three types (or groups) of devatas — not 330 million separate gods. And across the tradition these are widely understood as forms and faces of one underlying reality (ekam sat — "the real is one," Rig Veda).
"Idol worship." A murti is not believed to be God reduced to stone. It is a consecrated focus — a chosen form (saguṇa) that gives the formless (nirguṇa) a place to be approached, honoured and loved. The reverence passes through the image to the reality it represents.
"Caste is part of the religion." The texts speak of varṇa (a fourfold ordering of social function) and, in some passages, of guṇa and karma rather than birth as its basis. The rigid, birth-fixed "caste system" (a term from the Portuguese casta) is a later social hardening, widely criticised within the tradition itself and not the same as the scriptural idea.
"It is just one religion like any other." Sanatana Dharma is less a single creed than a vast family of paths, philosophies and practices held together by shared sources and aims. It has no single founder, no single book, and a long tradition of accommodating many viewpoints (as the Rig Veda says, "the wise speak of the one truth in many ways").
Educational overview, written for newcomers. Sanatana Dharma is vast and internally diverse; schools and sampradayas differ on many of these points. This page sketches widely shared, well-attested fundamentals — not the position of any single tradition.