The Highest Dharma

Ānṛśaṃsya has long been recognized as a central ethical ideal in the Mahābhārata and is designated as the paramo dharmaḥ the most number of times in the epic. Despite this prominence, its precise meaning and scope remain contested. Modern scholarship has tended to interpret ānṛśaṃsya broadly as a general principle of non-cruelty or compassion, often extending it to encompass a broad range of new emerging social and ethical norms and tendencies. Such expansive readings risk obscuring the term’s analytical specificity and its distinctive ethical force within the epic. Through a close examination of key narrative episodes, I propose that ānṛśaṃsya functions in the Mahābhārata as a technical ethical concept within a restricted domain of application. I demonstrate that its full normative force emerges within two closely related categories of moral action: the reciprocal obligation between the bhakta and the śaraṇya, defined by an unqualified refusal to abandon one another; and the provision of refuge, protection or security to those who are vulnerable and lack legitimate alternatives. This article further clarifies the relationship between ānṛśaṃsya and anukrośa, showing that while the two may coincide, ānṛśaṃsya operates independently of emotional commiseration as a stable normative principle governing moral response.