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vanāni

vana

nt nom pl of vana (noun); nt acc pl of vana (noun); nt voc pl of vana (noun)

  1. wood; forest; grove
  2. desire; craving

Etymology. From Indo-European *wen- 'to desire, strive'; cognate with Latin venus 'desire, love' and Sanskrit vana 'forest' (from the sense of 'that toward which one strives'). The forest sense may derive from the desirability of woodland; both senses meet in classical Pali where vana can mean both the literal forest and the thicket of craving (tanhā-vana). In the canon, vanajjhāsaya ('forest-dweller') denotes the ascetic, while vana as craving appears in doctrinal contexts as a barrier to liberation.

Meanings from the Digital Pāḷi Dictionary; morphology and etymology by Claude.

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