Adharma
that which is not in accord with the dharma
Adharma is the Sanskrit antonym of dharma. It means "that which is not in accord with the dharma". Connotations include betrayal, discord, disharmony, unnaturalness, wrongness, evil, immorality, unrighteousness, wickedness, and vice.
Adharma (Sanskrit: अधर्म) is derived from combining "a" with "dharma", which literally implies "not-dharma". It means immoral, sinful, wrong, wicked, unjust, unbalanced, or unnatural.
According to Bhagavata Purana's verse 6.1.40, the Yamaduta replied: the religious principles prescribed in the Vedas constitute as Dharma, and those that are not constitute as Adharma.
Ariel Glucklich translates Adharma as chaos, disorder, non-harmonious and explains it as opposite of Dharma. Glucklich states that adharma isn't the binary opposite of Dharma or absolutely unethical in Indian philosophy. Rather it is a complex functional subjective term just like dharma, with shades of meaning, that depends on circumstances, purpose and context.
Gene F. Collins Jr.
The public source identifies “Adharma” as that which is not in accord with the dharma. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Adharma, accord and dharma.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 29, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2655182. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Adharma” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.