Samvriti, Saṃvṛti: 13 definitions

Introduction:

Samvriti means something in Buddhism, Pali, Hinduism, Sanskrit. If you want to know the exact meaning, history, etymology or English translation of this term then check out the descriptions on this page. Add your comment or reference to a book if you want to contribute to this summary article.

The Sanskrit term Saṃvṛti can be transliterated into English as Samvrti or Samvriti, using the IAST transliteration scheme (?).

In Buddhism

Mahayana (major branch of Buddhism)

Source: Wisdom Library: Maha Prajnaparamita Sastra

Saṃvṛti (संवृति) refers to “conventional”, according to Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra (chapter XXXII-XXXIV).—Accordingly, “... From the absolute point of view (paramārtha), the true nature (bhūtalakṣaṇa) of things, there are no beings (sattva) and there is no salvation (trāṇa). It is merely conventionally that we affirm the existence of salvation. As for you, you seek the absolute (paramārtha) in the conventional (saṃvṛti), which is inadmissible. It is as if you were looking for a precious pearl (maṇiratna) in a brick or a stone: never would you find it there.”.

Source: academia.edu: A Study and Translation of the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā

Saṃvṛti (संवृति) refers to “concealed (truth)”, according to the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā: the eighth chapter of the Mahāsaṃnipāta (a collection of Mahāyāna Buddhist Sūtras).—Accordingly, as Gaganagañja said to Ratnapāṇi: “Son of good family, those sixty-four dharmas are included in one hundred twenty-eight dharmas. What are those one hundred twenty-four? [...] (41) performing good actions is included in no burning pain and no remorse; (42) no burning pain is included in the purity of morality and concentration; (43) truth is included in the concealed truth (saṃvṛti-satya) and the highest truth; (44) reality is included in suchness and the true state; [...]’”.

Mahayana book cover
context information

Mahayana (महायान, mahāyāna) is a major branch of Buddhism focusing on the path of a Bodhisattva (spiritual aspirants/ enlightened beings). Extant literature is vast and primarely composed in the Sanskrit language. There are many sūtras of which some of the earliest are the various Prajñāpāramitā sūtras.

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Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana or tantric Buddhism)

Source: MDPI Books: The Ocean of Heroes

Saṃvṛti (संवृति) refers to “conventional (truth)”, according to the 10th-century Ḍākārṇava-tantra: one of the last Tibetan Tantric scriptures belonging to the Buddhist Saṃvara tradition consisting of 51 chapters.—Accordingly, “[...] (The meaning of the letter śrī, i.e., the non-dual consciousness—) The letter śrī is the meaning of every originated being. [Every originated being is] known to be external and internal, and both of these [external and internal aspects] are [present as assuming] the form [in terms] of the conventional [truth] (saṃvṛti-rūpa). The ultimate [truth] is what is at the end of the pleasure. The syllable letter śrī is also explained by evam and others [that are] non-dual. [...]”.

Tibetan Buddhism book cover
context information

Tibetan Buddhism includes schools such as Nyingma, Kadampa, Kagyu and Gelug. Their primary canon of literature is divided in two broad categories: The Kangyur, which consists of Buddha’s words, and the Tengyur, which includes commentaries from various sources. Esotericism and tantra techniques (vajrayāna) are collected indepently.

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General definition (in Buddhism)

Source: Wisdom Library: Dharma-samgraha

Saṃvṛti (संवृति) or Anvayajñāna refers to the “knowledge of concealed” and represents one of the “ten knowledges” (jñāna) as defined in the Dharma-saṃgraha (section 93). The Dharma-samgraha (Dharmasangraha) is an extensive glossary of Buddhist technical terms in Sanskrit (e.g., saṃvṛti). The work is attributed to Nagarjuna who lived around the 2nd century A.D.

Saṃvṛti (“conventional”) or Saṃvṛtisatya refers to “conventional truth” and represents the first of the “two truths” (satya) as defined in the Dharma-saṃgraha (section 95).

Languages of India and abroad

Sanskrit dictionary

Source: DDSA: The practical Sanskrit-English dictionary

Saṃvṛti (संवृति).—f.

1) Covering, covering up.

2) Concealment, supression, hiding; वदति हि संवृतिरेव कामितानि (vadati hi saṃvṛtireva kāmitāni) Kirātārjunīya 1.44.

3) Secret purpose, covert design.

Derivable forms: saṃvṛtiḥ (संवृतिः).

Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Edgerton Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary

Saṃvṛti (संवृति).—f., (1) in the sense of saṃvara (1), noted only Asaṅga (Mahāyāna-sūtrālaṃkāra) iv.4 śīla-°tiḥ; (2) (= Pali saṃmuti; see also sāṃvṛta), convention, general (popular) acceptance or belief; ‘common sense’; conditioned, exoteric, dependent, limited truth or knowledge, often in contrast with para- mārtha (so also in Pali, e.g. Miln. 160.1 saṃmuti mahārāja esā, ahan-ti mamāti, na paramattho eso); Tibetan regularly kun rdzob, altogether void; may have been [etymology] under- stood sometimes as covering, but I have found no clear evidence for this (which is Bendall and Rouse's rendering, e.g. p. 236, on Śikṣāsamuccaya 256.4, 5) and believe it misleading; Pali saṃmuti suggests the true [etymology] (root man); compare under (3) below: yāḥ kāścana saṃvṛtayo hi loke, sarvā hi tā munir nopaiti Bodhisattvabhūmi 48.24 (verse, metrical(ly) deficient) = Pali Sn 897, reading saṃmutiyo; defined Bodhisattvabhūmi 49.(3—)5 as verbal symbols (prajñapti 4, q.v. for citation, as also for Śikṣāsamuccaya 257.7—8 where saṃvṛti = nāmadheya, saṃketa, prajñapti); (laukikānāṃ…yasmin vastuni saṃketa-)-saṃvṛti-saṃ- stavanāgamapraviṣṭayā buddhyā darśanatulyatā bhavati, tad yathā pṛthivyāṃ, pṛthivy eveyaṃ nāgnir iti Bodhisattvabhūmi 37.9; saṃvṛtyā deśanā Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra 25.4; 33.5, instruction according to ‘common sense’; °ti-jñānam Mahāvyutpatti 1237 (et al., see jñāna), common-sense knowledge, = Pali saṃmuti-ñāṇa, the fourth of four kinds of knowledge (as also in Mahāvyutpatti), Dīghanikāya (Pali) iii.226, [Page541-b+ 71] last line, expl. commentary iii.1020.15 ff. as any other kind of knowledge than the first three; asti saṃvṛtyā cakṣuḥ Śikṣāsamuccaya 357.11, the eye exists (only) in terms of limited, exoteric (common-sense) truth; similarly 358.19; saṃvṛti-vyavahā- reṇa Sukhāvatīvyūha 42.11, by conventional terminology or exoteric (not fundamentally true) manner of speaking; saṃvṛti- paramārthataḥ Śikṣāsamuccaya 2.8, (knowing) both as to exoteric and esoteric truth; etāvac caitat jñeyam, yad uta saṃvṛtiḥ paramārthaś ca. tac ca Bhagavatā śūnyataḥ sudṛṣṭaṃ… tatra saṃvṛtir lokapracāratas (because it is, or, as that which is, current in the world) Tathāgatena dṛṣṭā; yaḥ punaḥ paramārthaḥ so 'nabhilāpyaḥ Śikṣāsamuccaya 256.4; katham anadhiṣṭhānā saṃvṛtir yuktā, kathaṃ punar ayuktā? ya- thā sati (text 'sati) sthāṇau puruṣabhrāntiḥ; kasya punaḥ śūnyatāvādinaḥ paramārthataḥ sthāṇuḥ siddho, yadāś- rayāt puruṣabhrāntiḥ syād? Śikṣāsamuccaya 264.3 (Bendall and Rouse completely wrong), how may common-sense, which is without any sound basis, be right, and how on the other hand wrong? As, given a post, the delusion (occurs) that it is a man. But how, for one who believes in voidness, can in real (esoteric) truth the post be a fact, on the basis of which the delusion that it is a man might arise?; saṃvṛti-satya, common-sense truth, contrasted with paramārtha-s°, Mahāvyutpatti 6545 (Tibetan kun rdzob kyi bden pa); Dharmasaṃgraha 95 (dve satye); Bodhisattvabhūmi 292.18 (dvividhaṃ satyam; but 17 has just said, avitathārthena tāvad ekam eva satyaṃ, na dvitīyam asti; this, of course, is paramārtha-s°); Bhadracarī 6^3; the [compound] saṃmuti-sacca is cited from a late Pali text in Childers, and from Miln. 160(.1) by [Pali Text Society’s Pali-English Dictionary], but this last is an error (does the [compound] occur in older Pali?); saṃvṛti-saṃgha, Mūla-Sarvāstivāda-Vinaya iii.116.19; 117.1, defined as one in which all members are pṛthagjana- kalyāṇaka, q.v., and in which (117.4) it is possible that a rite may be performed incorrectly in all innocence, hence conditioned assembly (of monks), where intentions are good but not necessarily results; (3) consent in the sense of a formal vote (of the saṃgha): yāni punas tāni (kulāni) śaikṣa-saṃvṛti-saṃmatāni…[Prātimokṣasūtra des Sarvāstivādins] 526.3, families which have been held by formal declaration to be śaikṣa; so Chin.; note association of saṃvṛti with saṃmata ([etymology]!); samagreṇa ca bhikṣuṇīsaṃghena avandanārha- saṃvṛtyā saṃmataḥ Bhikṣuṇī-karmavācanā 28b.4 and (an expelled monk) who by the entire congregation of nuns has been judged by formal vote that he is unworthy to be saluted; does Pali saṃmuti have this meaning? for such passages as Vin. iii.199.26 bhikkhu-saṃmutiyā the Dictt. and Transl. give by permis- sion of the (order of) monks, which here at least is possible; this, rather than vote (but the saṃgha did in fact vote on the question!), may be the meaning in brahmacaryopa- sthāna-saṃvṛtiṃ yācitavyā Bhikṣuṇī-karmavācanā 17b.1, she must be made to ask for permission (or, for a vote, sc. that she be allowed) to enter the religious life; so, āryikā-saṃghāt °tiṃ yāce ib. 2, (the initiate says) I ask (this) permission (or vote) from the assembly of venerable nuns. Both Prat 526.3 and Bhikṣuṇī-karmavācanā 28b.4 associate saṃvṛti (Pali saṃmuti) with saṃ- mata, suggesting that. °vṛti is hyper-Sanskrit for Pali °muti.

Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Shabda-Sagara Sanskrit-English Dictionary

Saṃvṛti (संवृति).—f.

(-tiḥ) 1. Covering up. 2. Concealment, suppression. 3. Secret purpose.

Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Benfey Sanskrit-English Dictionary

Saṃvṛti (संवृति).—i. e. sam-vṛ + ti, f. Concealment, [Kirātārjunīya] 10, 44.

Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Cappeller Sanskrit-English Dictionary

Saṃvṛti (संवृति).—[feminine] covering up, concealment, secrecy.

Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary

1) Saṃvṛti (संवृति):—[=saṃ-vṛti] [from saṃ-vṛ] f. closure, [Suśruta; Śārṅgadhara-paddhati]

2) [v.s. ...] covering, concealing, keeping secret, [Śiśupāla-vadha; Sarvadarśana-saṃgraha]

3) [v.s. ...] dissimulation, hypocrisy, [Amaru-śataka]

4) [v.s. ...] obstruction, [Hemacandra’s Yoga-śāstra]

Source: DDSA: Paia-sadda-mahannavo; a comprehensive Prakrit Hindi dictionary (S)

Saṃvṛti (संवृति) in the Sanskrit language is related to the Prakrit word: Saṃvudi.

[Sanskrit to German]

Samvriti in German

context information

Sanskrit, also spelled संस्कृतम् (saṃskṛtam), is an ancient language of India commonly seen as the grandmother of the Indo-European language family (even English!). Closely allied with Prakrit and Pali, Sanskrit is more exhaustive in both grammar and terms and has the most extensive collection of literature in the world, greatly surpassing its sister-languages Greek and Latin.

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Kannada-English dictionary

Source: Alar: Kannada-English corpus

Saṃvṛti (ಸಂವೃತಿ):—[noun] the act of covering, hiding, veiling something; the fact of being covered, hidden, veiled.

context information

Kannada is a Dravidian language (as opposed to the Indo-European language family) mainly spoken in the southwestern region of India.

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