We'd like to use analytics cookies to understand which symbols people look up, so we know what to research next. They are not used for advertising and we set none of them unless you say yes. What we store.
A raised open palm with a wheel at its centre, bearing the word ahimsa.
Also known as: Jain hand, Hand of ahimsa, Ahimsa symbol
The ahimsa hand is a raised open palm with a wheel set in the middle of it, usually inscribed with the word ahimsa — non-violence. The palm is a gesture of reassurance and the wheel is read as the cycle of rebirth that non-violence interrupts. It appears on Jain temples, publications, jewellery and vehicle stickers, and is frequently mistaken for a hamsa, which is a separate Middle Eastern and North African amulet with a different shape and a different purpose.
Combines a gesture of reassurance with a wheel read as the cycle of rebirth, so that the hand is stopping the wheel: non-violence interrupting the cycle rather than merely accompanying it.
Contexts: Religion
Is regularly mistaken for the hamsa, an amulet from a quite separate Middle Eastern and North African tradition. The hamsa is a symmetrical hand with a thumb at each side and is worn against the evil eye; the ahimsa hand is an anatomically ordinary palm with a wheel in it and makes a doctrinal statement.
An open palm facing the viewer with fingers together and pointing upward, and a spoked wheel drawn in the centre of the palm.
Both are open-palm amulets; the wheel and the symmetry tell them apart.
The palm appears inside the composite Jain emblem.