Ānanda is one of the most common terms in the religious vocabulary of the Brāhmaṇical/Hindu traditions both in Sanskrit and in the vernaculars, both in the monistically inclined traditions, such as Advaita Vedānta, and in the bhakti traditions. The term points to the intense feeling of joy that devotees experience in their loving devotion and service of god, and mystics, in their meditative trance or samādhi. Within Advaita and related traditions, it represents a central and essential “attribute” of Brahman. The term has found its way into the names or titles of religious figures, often in compounds, such as Brahmānanda and Ānandatoertha. In many of the Indian religious traditions, mokṣa, the final goal of human existence, has been defined as ānanda.

One of the most ancient, and perhaps the most significant, examples of the centrality of ānanda in theological discourse is the Brahmsūtras ascribed to Bādarāṇa. After an introductory statement that brahman is the source of the universe (1.1.5-11), Bādarāyaṇa devotes eight sūtras to demonstrating that brahman/ātman is defined in the Upaniṣads as ānanda. Although the expression does not occur in the writings of Śaṅkara, the compound saccidānanda (being-consciousness- bliss) became in time both within and outside the Advaita tradition a short-hand definition of brahman.

Given the prominence of ānanda in the theological, as well as the non-technical, religious vocabulary of India at least from about the fifth century C.E., it is somewhat surprising that, with the exception of van Buitenen's (1979) study, not much work has been done into the semantic history of this term.