Avidya (Hinduism)

Avidyā is a Sanskrit word whose literal meaning is ignorance, misconceptions, misunderstandings, incorrect knowledge, and it is the opposite of Vidya. It is used extensively in Hindu texts, including the Upanishads, and in other Indian religions such as Buddhism and Jainism, particularly in the context of metaphysical reality.

Avidyā, in all Dharmic systems, represents fundamental ignorance and misperception of the phenomenal world. However, the Indian religions disagree on the details, for example with Hinduism considering a denial and misconceptions of Atman (soul, self) as a form of Avidya, and Buddhism considering the denial and misconceptions of An-atman (non-soul, non-self) as a form of Avidya.

Avidyā (अविद्या) is a Vedic Sanskrit word, and is a compound of "a" and "vidya", meaning "not vidya". The word vidya is derived from the Sanskrit root Vid, which means "to know, to perceive, to see, to understand". Therefore, avidya means to "not know, not perceive, not understand". The Vid*-related terms appears extensively in the Rigveda and other Vedas. Avidya is usually rendered as "ignorance" in English translations of ancient Indian texts, sometimes as "spiritual ignorance".

The word avidyā is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *weid-, meaning "to see" or "to know". It is a cognate of Latin vidēre (which would turn to "video") and English "wit".

While Avidya found in Indian philosophies is translated as "ignorance", states Alex Wayman, this is a mistranslation because Avidya means more than ignorance. He suggests the term "unwisdom" to be a better rendition. The term includes not only ignorance out of darkness, but also obscuration, misconceptions, mistaking illusion to be reality or impermanent to be permanent or suffering to be bliss or non-self to be self (delusions). Incorrect knowledge is another form of Avidya, states Wayman.

Avidya represents fundamental ignorance, state Jones and Ryan, a misperception of the phenomenal world. In Hinduism, Avidya includes confusing the mundane reality to be the only reality, and it as a permanent though it is ever changing. Its doctrines assert that there is a spiritual reality consisting of Atman-Brahman, one that is the true, eternal, imperishable reality beyond time.

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