NIDANA

निदन

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Nidana is a typographically animated retelling of the first part of the Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra (Avīci-śoṣaṇa)— a key Tibetan Buddhist text — in which the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara descends into the great hell of Avīci to liberate the pretas (hungry ghosts) trapped within.

The title "Nidana" comes from the Sanskrit word, meaning "circumstance", or literally "to bind down / into". The word nidana is often used to refer to the formulaic introductions used in Buddhist discourses, in which the speaker begins the narrative with the phrase "Evaṃ mayā śrutaṃ" — "Thus I have heard".