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In the Vedic religion, ṛta (Sanskrit ऋतं  "that which is properly joined; order, rule; truth") is the principle of natural order which regulates and coordinates the operation of the universe and everything within it. In the hymns of the Rig Veda, ṛta is described as that which is ultimately responsible for the proper functioning of the natural, moral and sacrificial orders. Conceptually, it is closely allied to the injunctions and ordinances thought to uphold it, collectively referred to as dharma - the term which eventually replaced ṛta as signifying the natural order in later Hinduism. Sanskrit scholar Maurice Bloomfield referred to ṛta as "one of the most important religious conceptions of the Rig Veda", going on to note that, "from the point of view of the history of religious ideas we may, in fact we must, begin the history of Hindu religion at least with the history of this conception".

Etymology
Ṛta is thought to be derived from the Proto-Indo-European stem *h2r-to- "properly joined, right, true", the latter being formed from the root *h2ar "to join properly" (also found in *h2ar-yo; cf. Skt. आर्य ā́rya "noble"). This root survives in Sanskrit as ṛ- "to go, move, rise, tend upwards", and thus the derivative noun ṛta is defined as "fixed or settled order, rule, divine law or truth". As Mahony (1998) notes, however, the term can just as easily be translated literally as "that which has moved in a fitting manner", abstractly as "universal law" or "cosmic order", or simply as "truth". The latter meaning dominates in the Avestan cognate to ṛta, arta or aša.

Origins
Oldenberg (1894) surmised that the concept of ṛta originally arose in the Indo-Aryan period from a consideration of the natural order of the world and of the occurrences taking place within it as doing so with a kind of causal necessity.

Like dharma, the concept of rta may lose its distinctiveness in translation. Michael Witzel employs rta as one example of particularly difficult Vedic words to translate. He contrasts rta as "acting the truth" with satya "speaking the truth", which find their negation in anrta "saying the untruth" and druh "acting the untruth".