means for holding, contrivance, artifice, instrument machine, mechanism; fig. instrumentality (as perhaps in, kamma˚ at Th passages)
■ Referring to the machinery (outfit) of a ship (as oars, helm, etc.) Ja.iv.163 (sabbayant’ ûpapanna = piy’-ârittā etc. C.); Mil.379. To mechanism in general (mechanical force Ja.v.333 (˚vegena = with the swiftness of machinery) To a sugar-mill Mil.166; usually as ucchu-yanta Ja.i.25, Ja.i.339 (˚yante gaṇṭhikā), cp. ucchūnaṃ yanta Dhp-a.iv.199
■ tela-yanta (-cakka) (the wheel of) an oil mill Ja.i.25
■ dāru-yanta a wooden machine (i.e. a mechanical man with hands & feet moved by pulling of strings) DN-a.i.197; Vism.595 (quoted as simile)- kamma-yanta the machinery of Kamma Thag.419 (i.e. its instrumentality, not, as translation “car”; cp Brethren 217: “it breaks in pieces K’s living car, evidently influenced by C. explⁿ “attabhāva-yanta”), Thag.574 (similarly: see discussed under yantita). Note. yantāni at Cnd.529 (on Snp.48 sanghaṭṭa-yantām) is explained as “dhuvarāni.” The spelling & meaning of the latter is not clear. It must refer to bracelets.; Cp. Snp-a.96 valayāni.

• -ākaḍḍhana pulling the machine Vism.258 = Vb-a.241.
• -cakkha-yaṭṭhi the stick of the wheel of a (sugar-mill Vb-a.60.
• -nāḷi a mechanical tube Dhp-a.iii.215
• -pāsāṇa an aerolite (?) Ja.iii.258 (read ˚pāsāṇo).
• -phalakāni the boards of a machine Vism.258.
• -yutta combined by machinery Ja.vi.432.
• -sutta the string of a machine (or mill). Vism.258 (as ˚ka) = Vb-a.241
• -hatthi a mechanical (automatic) elephant Dhp-a.i.192 (of King Caṇḍa-pajjota; cp. the horse of Troy).

Vedic yantra, a kind of n. ag. formation fr. yam to hold by means of a string or bridle, etc. Idg *em & *i̯em;, as in Lat. emo to take & red-imio.