तण्हा

Taṇhā

pali

Craving, thirst, insatiable desire. Taṇhā (Pāli, equivalent to tṛṣṇā in Sanskrit) is the Second Noble Truth: the cause of suffering.

Three forms:

  • Kāmataṇhā — Craving for sensory pleasures: seeing, hearing, tasting, touching
  • Bhavataṇhā — Craving for existence: wanting to be, to continue, to persist
  • Vibhavataṇhā — Craving for non-existence: wanting to disappear, annihilate, escape

The central image is thirst: not simply wanting something, but the desperation of one who is thirsty and cannot be satisfied. Hence taṇhā is better translated as “thirst” than “desire” — it implies an urgency that the desired object cannot calm.

In the Dhammapada: taṇhā is the root of rebirth, the force that drives the wheel of saṃsāra. Its extinction (taṇhakkhaya) is synonymous with nibbāna.

In classical yoga, tṛṣṇā appears as the fourth kleśa: attachment arising from the memory of past pleasures (YS 2.7). Both traditions agree: it is not pleasure that enslaves, but the thirst to repeat it.