Nidana

Nidāna ({{lang|sa|निदान}}) is a Sanskrit and Pali word that means "cause, motivation or occasion" depending on the context.{{cite book|author1=Robert E. Buswell Jr. |author2=Donald S. Lopez Jr. |title=The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DXN2AAAAQBAJ |year=2013|publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-4805-8 |pages=583 }} The word is derived from the Sanskrit prefix ni- ({{lang|sa|नि}}; "down", "into") plus the root dā ({{lang|sa|दा}}; "to bind"), forming the verb nidā ({{lang|sa|निदा}}; "to bind on, fasten").{{cite book|author1=Thomas William Rhys Davids |author2=William Stede |title=Pali-English Dictionary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Guw2CnxiucC |year=1921 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-1144-7 |page=358' }}{{cite book|author=Monier Monier-Williams|title=A Sanskrit-English Dictionary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_3NWAAAAcAAJ|year=1872|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=486}} This in turn yields the noun nidāna ({{lang|sa|निदान}}; lit. "a band, rope or halter"). It appears in the Rigveda, such as hymn 10.114.2,[https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/ऋग्वेद:_सूक्तं_१०.११४ Rigveda 10.114], Wikisource, Quote: तिस्रो देष्ट्राय निरृतीरुपासते दीर्घश्रुतो वि हि जानन्ति वह्नयः । तासां नि चिक्युः कवयो निदानं परेषु या गुह्येषु व्रतेषु ॥२॥ and other Hindu scriptures, wherein it means "primary or first cause, linked cause"; in other contexts such as Rigveda 6.32.6, nidāna refers to the literal meaning of a rope or band that links, binds or fastens one thing to another, such as a horse to a cart. The word has been borrowed into modern languages such as Hindi and MarathiJames Thomas Molesworth, "[https://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/molesworth_query.py?qs=%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A8&searchhws=yes&matchtype=exact {{lang|mr|निदान}} nidāna"] in A Dictionary, Marathi and English, Bombay: 1857. p. 465. to mean "diagnosis" or "primary cause" among others.Ralph Lilley Turner. [https://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/soas_query.py?qs=nid%C4%81%CB%8Ana&searchhws=yes "nidāˊna"] in A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages, London: 1969–1985. p. 411.