Himsa was an American metalcore/melodic death metal band hailing from Seattle, Washington. The name Himsa comes from the word Ahimsa, which in Sanskrit means "to abstain from causing harm". Removal of the "A" give the word opposite meaning. Himsa literally means 'violence' in Sanskrit, Hindi and other Indian languages like Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu and Tamil. The band formed in 1998 and released an independent EP and full-length album in 1999 on Revelation Records. Before being signed to Prosthetic Records, the band released one more EP in 2001, which was also on Revelation.