The provenance file on Karma
Catalogue entry — Karma. Every claim below carries its chain of custody.
Provenance
1. The attestation. कर्म, from the tradition's own record. On record: Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 3.2.13, Aṅguttara Nikāya 5.292 (deeds and intention), Mahābhārata, Savitrī episode, Tattvārthasūtra of Umāsvāti (Jain mechanics).
2. The narrative record. From Ritual to Moral Physics — The Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad relocates karma: no longer the ritual act alone but the intention behind every act — ‘one becomes good by good action, evil by evil action’. The ritual economy of the Brahmins became the moral economy of the universe, and no priest was needed to run it. The Owner of the Deed — The Buddha’s formula is the doctrine’s cleanest statement: beings are the owners of their deeds, the heirs of their deeds — nowhere else does the inheritance come from. Karma in Buddhism is intention (cetanā) itself; the deed’s fruit follows like the wheel follows the ox.
3. The physical record. Karma leaves no temple — it is the reason temples leave merit. The stūpas’ circumambulation-paths, the ghāṭs’ staircases into the rivers, and the endless charity-inscriptions of Indian epigraphy are its monuments: every recorded gift is a seed on record.
4. The current holding. The temple at /karma/, a temple of the restored name. aSCII-equivalent form
5. The documented resonances. Philosophy, Ethics & Standards, AI, Data & Predictive Intelligence, Mental Health & Emotional Wellness — seats argued and weighted in the pattern atlas, read through the myths in this temple's Resonance File.
6. The primary sources. Rig Veda, Ramayana — the library this file answers to, open at the Sacred Texts collection.
7. The continuing record. The word entered every major language as a loan — among the few Sanskrit terms to do so. It underwrites the theory of rebirth, the ethics of non-harm (the deed’s victim returns as one’s debtor), and the quietist strand of Indian political thought: the revolution you cannot make today, your karma will make eventually.
At a Glance
- Restored name: Karma
- ASCII form: karma
- Meaning: "Deed, action"
- Domain of influence: Action, Consequence
- Pantheon: Sanskrit
- Restoration: ASCII-equivalent form
- Original script: कर्म
- Series: The Restoration Files, No. 274 of 597
The File Continues
Read the founding dispatch for the name's full story, the Resonance File for the archetype at work — or the whole archive in one sitting.
Continue the series — previous file: Kannon (read it here) · next file: Karnak (read it here).
The Restoration Files are written from the same canonical record as the temples themselves: the lexicon, the lore catalog, the pattern atlas, and the cited scholarly sources. If a file ever disagrees with its temple, the temple is right — tell us, and the file will be corrected.