MĀYĀ. is one of the key terms in Indian religious tradition. Its original meaning may be "creation" or "construction" (from the Sanskrit mā, "measure" or "mete out"), but the term can be used in several connotations, implying a power, a process, and the result of that process.

Development of the Concept

In the history of Indian thought the term māyā is used with remarkable consistency, to express, define, and explain the enigma of life and the material world. The viewpoint expressed by Śaṅkara, admittedly pivotal, is often stressed too much, at the cost of other opinions conceived by intelligent minds from the time of the Vedas to the modern period. For the Vedic authors, māyā denoted the faculty that transforms an original concept of creative mind into concrete form, a faculty of immense proficiency and shrewdness such as...