core concepts and philosophy
Is jealousy listed as one of the six inner enemies (arishadvargas) in Hindu philosophy?
The six inner enemies
The arishadvargas are six qualities the tradition sees as enemies living inside the mind. The word itself means something like 'group of six foes.' The six are kama (desire or lust), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), moha (delusion or attachment), mada (pride or arrogance), and matsarya (jealousy or envy). Matsarya sits at the end of the list, but it is not seen as the least. It is the feeling of pain or resentment at another person's good fortune, the sense that what someone else has somehow takes something away from you.
How they connect
The tradition does not treat these six as separate problems. It sees them as a chain. Desire, when it is not met, turns into anger. Anger feeds greed. Greed pulls the mind into delusion. Delusion feeds pride. And pride, with its constant measuring of oneself against others, opens the door to jealousy. So matsarya is seen as something that grows out of all the others. Puranic tradition and texts like the Vivekachudamani describe these enemies as the root of bondage, the things that keep the mind tied to suffering and away from clear seeing.
Where the idea comes from
The list appears across several parts of the tradition. The Bhagavata Purana names them. The Vivekachudamani, a text in the Vedanta tradition, also works with these ideas. The framework is old and widely shared across different schools and regions of Hindu thought, though the exact framing and emphasis can vary.
Why it still matters
People still use this framework today, often as a way of naming what is going on inside the mind. Calling matsarya an enemy does not mean the tradition blames people for feeling it. The point is more that these qualities are seen as natural and powerful, and that seeing them clearly is the first step to not being ruled by them. The list gives a shared language for something most people recognize in their own experience.