tamas

American  

[tuhm-uhs] / ˈtʌm əs /

noun

Hinduism.

1. guna

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Other Word Forms

• tamasic adjective

Etymology

Origin of tamas

< Sanskrit: darkness

Example Sentences

The city is suffused with a form of darkness that locals call tamas, which “is inseparable from the chthonic energy of Shiva, the city’s presiding deity, and the god of creative dissolution,” Taseer writes.

From The New Yorker • Mar. 30, 2019

It also describes sattva as being light and illuminating, rajas as of the nature of energy and causing motion, and tamas as heavy and obstructing.

From A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume 1 by Dasgupta, Surendranath

To quote his own words: "The germ of the idea ... must be discovered in that nocturnal darkness, that çārvaram tamas, which native mythologists in India had not yet quite forgotten in post-Vedic times."

From Cerberus, The Dog of Hades The History of an Idea by Bloomfield, Maurice

Thus in the phenomenal product whatever energy there is is due to the element of rajas and rajas alone; all matter, resistance, stability, is due to tamas, and all conscious manifestation to sattva.

From A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume 1 by Dasgupta, Surendranath

But sattva, rajas and tamas were accepted in Vedânta in the sense of tendencies and not as reals as Sâ@mkhya held it.

From A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume 1 by Dasgupta, Surendranath