---
type: Concept
bundle: dharmic-ethics
bundle_version: "0.5.2"
id: rta
title: "Ṛta — The Cosmic Order, Root of Dharma"
iast: "ṛta"
devanagari: "ऋत"
description: "The Vedic cosmic-moral order, the truth-aligned course that the gods themselves obey; the pre-Vedic root from which dharma later individualizes. Not 'law' in the legislative sense, not fate, not nature as mere physics."
reception_note: "Present rta as the cosmic order that dharma articulates, not through the religion-boxed dharma frame or as bare 'natural law'; it inherits the colonial dharma-boxing as a secondary node documented in the Error Genealogy."
darshana:
  - Vedic (pre-darśana)
  - pan-dharmic (sādhāraṇa-dharma)
school_scope: "The Ṛgvedic conception of cosmic order, ancestral to the later concept of dharma. Foundational rather than school-specific; the Mīmāṃsā ritual order (vidhi, apūrva) is a downstream development reserved for a later bundle."
text_source: "Ṛgveda 1.164, 10.190; Taittirīya Upaniṣad 1.11"
tags:
  - rta
  - cosmic-order
  - vedic
  - tier-3
not:
  - term: "law (legislative)"
    why: "a law is enacted by an authority and can be repealed; ṛta is the inherent order of the real that even the gods serve rather than make, the truth-course of things, not a statute that could have been otherwise"
    instead: "Render ṛta as the cosmic order or the truth-aligned course of reality; not as legislated law."
  - term: "fate"
    why: "fate is a fixed outcome imposed on beings; ṛta is an order one aligns with or violates by one's conduct, a harmony to be participated in, not a verdict that strips action of meaning"
  - term: "nature (as mere physics)"
    why: "the physical regularities are one face of ṛta, but ṛta is moral-cosmic at once: the same order that turns the seasons holds truth, right speech, and right action, so reducing it to value-free physics loses half its meaning"
  - term: "dharma (as identical)"
    why: "ṛta is the older, cosmic-universal order; dharma (dharma-foundation) is its later individualization into the sustaining duty of beings and societies, so dharma flows from ṛta but ṛta is the wider root, not a synonym"
related:
  - /concepts/satya.md
  - /concepts/svadharma.md
  - /concepts/achara.md
  - /concepts/nishkama-karma.md
timestamp: "2026-06-25"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Ṛta — ऋत

**Not:** law (legislative), fate, nature (as mere physics), dharma (as identical)

Ṛta is the cosmic order: the truth-aligned course of reality that holds the turning of the seasons, the rising of the sun, and the rightness of true speech and right action in one fabric. It is the Vedic root from which the later, more individual concept of dharma grows, and the order that the gods themselves serve rather than legislate.

## Etymology

From √*ṛ* (to move, to go, to fit), so ṛta is "that which is fitted, the well-ordered, the right course." The same root yields words for fitting and joining. Ṛta is reality in proper joint, the way things move when they move truly. Its guardian in the Veda is Varuṇa, and its twin is satya, truthful speech.

## What It Actually Means

In the Ṛgveda, ṛta is the order by which the cosmos coheres: the sun keeps its path, the waters flow, the year turns, all "by ṛta." But ṛta is never merely physical. The same word governs the truth of utterance and the rightness of sacrifice and conduct, so the order of nature and the order of value are one order. To speak truly (satya) is to align speech with ṛta; to act rightly is to move with ṛta; to lie or transgress is anṛta, against the order. The later tradition individualizes this cosmic order into dharma, the sustaining duty proper to each being and station, but the root intuition is here: ethics is not obedience to a command but alignment with the way things truly are.

## Why Ṛta Grounds the Whole Bundle

Ṛta is placed in this bundle because it answers the question the framing tension raises: why are the yamas and niyamas disciplines of alignment rather than commandments? Because dharmic ethics rests on ṛta. Right conduct is not arbitrary rule-following; it is attunement to a real cosmic-moral order that one can move with or against. Satya, svadharma, ācāra, and niṣkāma-karma all presuppose ṛta as the order they align to.

## Why the Substitutes Fail

"Law" imports a legislator and the possibility of repeal, when ṛta is the inherent, unlegislated order of the real. "Fate" makes it a verdict that voids action, when ṛta is precisely what action aligns with or violates. "Nature as mere physics" keeps the regularity and discards the moral dimension that is half of ṛta. And ṛta is not simply "dharma": it is dharma's wider, older, cosmic root.

## Cross-References
- [Satya](satya.md) — ṛta's twin: truthful speech is the human articulation of cosmic order
- [Svadharma](svadharma.md) — one's own duty is a local expression of the universal order of ṛta
- [Ācāra](achara.md) — right conduct is the embodied tracing of ṛta in daily life
- [Niṣkāma-Karma](nishkama-karma.md) — desireless action is action performed in accord with ṛta rather than personal craving

## Audience Metaphor

Think of the grain in a piece of wood. A skilled carver does not impose a shape by force; they read the grain and cut with it, and the work comes out clean and strong. Cut against the grain and the wood splinters and fights you, no matter how sharp the tool or how legal the cut. Ṛta is the grain of reality. Dharmic ethics is learning to read it and move with it. Wrongdoing is not breaking a rule someone posted; it is cutting against the grain of the way things actually are, and the splintering that follows is not a punishment imposed from outside but the grain having its say.

## Citations

1. [Ṛgveda](/references/rigveda.md) 1.164, 4.23, 10.190 — ṛta as the cosmic order guarded by Varuṇa; from tapas and ṛta the ordered world is born
2. [Taittirīya Upaniṣad](/references/taittiriya-upanishad.md) 1.11 — ṛta and satya named together in the charge to the departing student
3. [Mahābhārata](/references/mahabharata.md) — dharma as the sustaining order, the later individualization of the Vedic ṛta

## Error Genealogy

This term is a secondary node in a documented mistranslation chain (a partial genealogy):

- Dharma boxed into the Western category "religion" (and its shadow renderings duty and law) was constructed by colonial administration and census categories (19th c.) and fixed by missionary/colonial lexicography (Monier-Williams, 1899). See [G6 — Dharma = religion](../../../GENEALOGIES.md) in the repository root for the full chain and sources.
