Tamas
/ˈtʌm.əs/noun
In Hindu philosophy, tamas is the guna associated with darkness, inertia, heaviness, ignorance, and resistance to change.
Did you know?Tamas is one of the three gunas in the Bhagavad Gita, where it is portrayed as a quality that can cloud judgment, bind consciousness, and pull awareness toward sleep and inaction.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*temH-es-
“Darkness or obscurity; a reconstructed ancestral form associated with dark conditions.”
Vedic Sanskrit
Sanskrit
támas
“Darkness, gloom, ignorance, or spiritual obscuration.”
Classical Sanskrit
Sanskrit
tamas
“The quality of inertia, heaviness, confusion, and passivity; one of the three gunas.”
19th Century
English
tamas
“A borrowed term used in English discussions of Hindu philosophy and yoga.”
Modern English
English
tamas
“A philosophical term for the guna associated with darkness, inertia, and ignorance.”