Avidya (Ignorance) — The Root of Dependent Origination
Avidya (Sanskrit) or avijja (Pali) is the first nidana in the twelvefold chain of pratityasamutpada as taught in the Nidana Samyutta of the Samyutta Nikaya: from avidya arise samskaras (volitional formations), from samskaras vijñana (consciousness), cascading through nama-rupa, sadayatana, sparsa, vedana, trishna, upadana, bhava, jati, and finally jara-marana — the entire structure of samsaric existence. Avidya is technically defined as the fourfold viparyasa (cognitive inversion): perceiving the anitya (impermanent) as nitya, dukkha as sukha, anatman as atman, and the asubha (impure) as subha. Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika reframes avidya as the failure to see pratityasamutpada itself — ignorance is not merely a wrong belief but the reification of svabhava where none exists.