How Many Karma Theories Are There

Abstract

A very long time ago (specifically, back on the '50s when I was just concluding my Sanskrit studies with Dan Ingalls) I was asked to help lead a project that concerned the theory of karma and rebirth. Several meetings were held with the assistance of such as the Smithsonian Institution and the Rockfeller Institute, and papers were presented at meetings of the Association for Asian Studies and other groups. Two volumes resulted; a third was projected but never came to fruition.1 As an instigator of that project I feel, at this late date, some responsi bility to report on a feature arising from our researches, a feature that seems to me its most remarkable result. That is that there is no such thing as "the" theory or law of karma, and that criticisms launched against "it", as well as generalization offered about it, fail regularly because of this fact. Clarity about karma in India cannot, as a result, be expected until some effort is made to unravel the various different notions conflated in the literature.