Adharma is something regressive & incorrect.
What is Apadharma? What is the Samskritam prefix: Apa?
Swaram is a musical note. Apaswaram is music that's off-key.
Aparaatham is an offence. Aparathi is the offender. Niraparaathi is someone who is wrongly accused & innocent.
Aachaaram is performing a good, clean action. Aachaarya is someone who teaches by their high actions. Apachaaram is doing something that shouldn't be done.
Maanam is self-respect. Apamaanam is humiliation. (In Tamil, this has become Avamaanam).
Sagunam means an omen or a sign of things to come. Apasagunam means a bad omen.
Smara means to remember. Apasmara is a wrong sense of remembrance, representing our current state. Apasmara is symbolized by the demon at the feet of Nataraja.
In the Mahabharatha, Bhishma explains Apadharma to Yudhishtira right before his death in the Apadharmanusasana Parva.
There was a prince named Satyavrata. Satyavratha abducts a bride while she is getting married. He argues a technicality: he abducted her before the seven step ceremony was completed. What is the seven step ceremony?
During Hindu marriages, the bride & groom take seven steps (Saptapadi) around the fire (Agni). Sometimes the groom leads, sometimes the bride. The couple have to guide each other. Why, seven steps though?
A circle has 360 degrees. The earliest exposition of 360 degrees in a circle comes from a blind Angirasa Rishi in the Rig Veda, Dirgatamas Auchatya. Why 360? The ancient Rig Veda (Aitareya Brahmana 7.17) approximated a year to 360 days (to be corrected by the much later Yajur Veda Taittiriya Samhita 7.1.0), leading to 360 degrees still in vogue for circles. In the Hindu decimal number system that would eventually be adopted throughout the world, in the numbers 1-9, 360 is not divisible only by the number seven. Seven steps means that nothing can divide the relationship.
In the story of Savitri, Yama (death) takes away her husband, Satyavan's atman (loosely translated as soul). Savitri being a realized atman, perceives Yama & follows him. Yama realizes that he is being followed and asks Savitri to return. Savitri states that if anyone walks seven steps with someone else, they are technically friends. She has walked more than seven steps with Yama. Hence, Yama is now her friend. As a friend, he doesn't have a right to ask her to turn back. After some dramatic episodes, she fetches back Satyavan's atman.
As adolescents in college, there were debates if it is ok for friends to fall in love & marry. However, the seven steps around the fire as a witness (Agni Saakshi) is an affirmation of friendship between the husband & wife. Being friends for life is a requirement.
Returning to Satyavrata's argument, Rishi (sage) Vasishta rejects his argument on technicalities, since he had essentially sinned by abducting an unwilling bride. He advises Satyavrata's father (Tribandhana, meaning the three bonds of Moha-delusion, Dvesha-hatred & Raga-excessive desire), the king to banish the prince. The prince, from being a Kshatriya (warrior & royal), is now banished to be a Chandala (outcaste/untouchable). Note how the Varna (color, loosely translated as caste) of the prince has changed.
Satyavratha commits two other sins & gains the name: Tri-shanku (thrice sinner).
Next comes a terrible drought. Sage Viswamitra is starving. (Viswamitra was once, Kausika, a powerful Kshatriya (warrior) king. Finding his weapons useless against Vasishta, he decides to perform penance (Tapas) & become a Rishi. This is another example of a Varna change.) Viswamitra sees some dog's meat in a Chandala's house & steals it. The Chandala, however, catches him in the act. The Chandala is none other than Trishanku.
Trishanku argues that Viswamitra is committing these sins. Stealing, that too from an excommunicated & now Chandala's house, eating meat (prohibited for a Rishi/Brahmana), that too of a dog (considered base meat to be avoided) and further, the meat of the lower portion of the body (the most base part). Viswamitra argues that he needs to eat to survive in these desperate times. Trishanku relents.
Yudhishtira questions Bhishma on this episode, and how this can be right. Bhishma responds that this is Apadharma; in desperate times, acts that would be considered wrong in normal circumstances are allowed & considered valid.
Later, Viswamitra would use his powers of penance (Tapas) to create a separate heaven (swargam) for Trishanku. The term Trishanku swargam means a good place that is not quite the real thing but somewhat in-between. Viswamitra gains his name because of his helpful nature to the world (Viswa means world, mitra means friend).
References:
http://indiafacts.org/asymmetrical-application-dharma-unlearnt-lessons/
https://swarajyamag.com/ideas/a-culture-of-discrimination-or-a-culture-of-emancipation-a-critical-look-at-romila-thapars-latest-book
https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/trishanku
https://www.exoticindiaart.com/article/savitri-and-satyavan/
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