 Conceptually, it is closely allied to the injunctions and ordinances thought to uphold it, collectively referred to as "Dharma", and the action of the individual in relation to those ordinances, referred to as "Karma" – two terms which eventually eclipsed "Ṛta" in importance as signifying natural, religious and moral order in later Hinduism.Sanskrit scholar Maurice Bloomfield referred to "Ṛta" as "one of the most important religious conceptions of the "Rigveda", 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".According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, "Ṛta" is "the word from which the Western notion of right is derived."