Sanatana Dharma

[Patricia Meredith Greer]

A scholar friend in Pondicherry sent me this query. Can
anyone help?

<I'm looking for early occurances of the phrase sanatana
dharma, nowadays used as the equivalent of Hinduism. Since
sanatan means eternal it is supposed that the phrase itself
is eternal (!) though it does not occur in the Vedas, the
Upanishads, nor the Gita (except in kula-dharma-sanatana -
immemorial family customs). Monier Williams cites esha
dharma sanatana (this is the eternal law) without
reference, Apte, who is based on MW, repeats this and adds
a reference from the classical dramatist Bhavabhuti. Esha
dharma sanatana also occurs in the Savitri tale in the MBh
in the sense of eternal custom. I have been told that it
occurs elsewhere in the MBh but lack concordance by which I
might check this. I seem to recall it was a sort of catch
phrase in the lawbooks, but can't find it in Manu and again
lack a concordance. Do you or anyone know anything more on
this?  I find it surprising nobody has thought to look
into the origins of this much misused term. It of course
entered modern discourse in the mid nineteenth century,
which it was put forward as a deshi equivalent of
traditional Hinduism by people opposed to the Brahmo and
Arya Samajes. It seems to have been Sri Aurobindo and
perhaps also Vivekananda that turned the phrase to its
modern, largely vedantic, sense.>

Thanks for any help you can give!

Patricia
________________________________
Patricia M. Greer
Department of Religious Studies
University of Virginia