To give a precise account of how the living complexity of Pali unfolds, the findings in this article are based on the phonetic transcription and analysis of fifteen multimedia recordings of Pali liturgical chants in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Cambodia. The range of major and minor variations in Pali pronunciation witnessed during this period, and the contentious debates behind these divergencies, open new paths for understanding the past and present of Pali as a Buddhist language.

This article examines a poem in the Kaludayittherapadanavannana which expands on the poem attributed to Kaludayitthera in the Theragatha; the poem in the Kaludayittherapadanavannana did not make it into the final canon. The hypothesis of this paper is that the poem may be a popular Dravidian song adapted to Buddhist use and translated into Pali, and this is the primary reason it was excluded from the canon.

This conclusion is based on several factors. 1) The author of the Pali poem was not well versed in the Pali language and made constant mistakes in translation. 2) Gratuitous repetition; the poem itself is not very good poetry, containing the kind of needless repetition one associates with a popular song. 3) 13.4% of the words in the poem are direct lifts from Dravidian words; this compares to only 3.9% of the words in the Theragatha poem itself, of which this poem is an extension. While this does not prove that the source was a Dravidian poem, it raises the probability quite significantly. In addition, this kind of literature—making lists of biota in the natural world for comparison, personification and poetic effect— is common in Dravidian Sangam literature. 4) The poem contains wrong or awkward phrases in Pali which can be better understood as Dravidian imports, and 5) an extensive and growing body of linguistic evidence shows that the adoption of Dravidian terminology into Buddhist thought and practice was not an uncommon occurrence.

What is this hullabaloo to you?

A fun, simple poem to learn in the original Pāḷi.

… the original composer of the gāthās was likely aware of and comfortable with the polyvocal nature of the teachings, which added a richer and deeper dimension to the teaching.

Despite the Buddha’s teachings on the arbitrary nature of language, the commentarial and grammatical traditions developed a sophisticated theoretical framework to analyse, explicate and reinforce some of the key Buddhist doctrinal terms. Also, an elaborate classification system of different types of names was developed to show that the language of the Buddha was firmly grounded in the highest truth and that some terms were spontaneously arisen, even though such a concept—that words by themselves could arise spontaneously and directly embody ultimate truth—was quite foreign to their Founder.

After some preliminary considerations concerning orality and writing in India and the date of the Buddha, this article re-examines the questions of where and when a version of the Pali Canon was first set to writing and what were the contents of that collection. It then goes on to examine the origin and evolution of the Māgadha language we now call Pali, seeing it as derived from a written language

If attention is given instead to Salomon’s ‘central-western epigraphic Prakrit’, it can be seen as a later reflex of Pali by a method of presentation unique to this paper. Accordingly, it should be merged with the existing category of ‘Epigraphic Pali’ and serious attention given to the Theravāda tradition that the Buddha spoke Pali.

A compelling argument that the post-Ashokan “Prakrit” inscriptions found across South Asia from the 2nd century BCE to the 3rd century CE were, in fact, composed in a later version of the same language that we see in the Pāli Canon (just a later form of it). This theory gives credence to the idea that the Pāli Canon is a trustworthy witness to the “common tongue” of ancient North India, perhaps even more reliable than the idiosyncratic “Māghadī” of Ashoka himself (despite his edicts having been committed to writing at the earlier date).

See also: Bhante Sujato’s reaction to this paper on SuttaCentral.

But by fully understanding what is expressed
One does not misconceive the speaker.

Four translations of this sutta from John Ireland, Ajahn Geoff, SuttaFriends, and Bhante Sujato respectively showing how Pāḷi poetry can often be translated in various ways.

That is to say Pāli, Ardhamāgadhī, etc developed into newer and newer forms of dialects and languages till they reached the present stage of vernaculars across [South Asia], while Sanskrit on the other hand remains alive like a barren woman, cursing the children of others [… or] like a beautiful show-dog for the handful who use it to entice and frighten the innocent.

There are excellent resources linked in the video description, and all of his videos are highly recommended for the self-studying student of Pāli.

… mindfulness and sati have [relationships] to particular conceptions of Temporality, Affect, Power, Ethics, and Selfhood.

Based on ethnographic data gathered from over 700 psychiatrists, Buddhist monks, lay practitioners, and others in Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and the United States, the article suggests some key mental associations in mindfulness and sati that converge and diverge across different cultural contexts.

This article argues that the word sati incorporates the meaning of “memory” and “remembrance” in much of its usage in both the suttas and the commentary, and suggests that without the memory component, the notion of mindfulness cannot be properly understood or applied, as mindfulness requires memory for its effectiveness.

At an early stage during the formation of Pāli, genuine Middle Indic forms began to be converted into artificial words under the growing influence of Sanskrit on Buddhist Middle Indic.

The one they chose was perfectly correct, but it was only part of the translation.

A post-script to Norman’s earlier paper on the evolution of the “Four Noble Truths” and a reflection on the difficulties in translating Pāli to English.

… the Pāli and Buddhist Sanskrit forms were sometimes contradictory, reflecting the redactors’ different interpretations of the oral transmission. By comparing these different forms, it is possible to isolate a proto-form which explains the ambiguities and is closer to the original

although the Buddha took over some of the terminology of Brahmanical Hinduism, he gave it a new Buddhist sense. The change of meaning is almost always a result of the fact that the Brahmanical terms were used in a framework of ritualism, while the Buddha invested them with a moral and ethical sense.

Can pāḷi be derived from pāṭhya?

Pali has the expected features of a natural standard language and can be seen as a precursor of Epigraphic Prakrit.

See Professor Khan’s Forvo page for more such recordings and ReadingFaithfully for some Pāli names.

The fact that there are so many scripts is hardly a pretext for learning none of them.

Along with information about the pronunciation of Pāli across Southeast Asia, the organization of the canon, and links to several resources for learning more about the language itself.

… from the frequency-sorted word list from Schmidt’s dictionary and the definitions & parts of speech from Sutta Central’s copy of the Concise Pali-English Dictionary.

The wonder is not that these intuitive translators were sometimes incorrect, but that they were correct so often.

… external sandhi in Pali consists of a series of contractions of final vowels with the initial vowels of following words, or the loss of the nasalisation and the contraction of the vowel remaining

Containing the noun declensions, verb tenses, unusual pronouns, indeclinables, participles, and even the middle voice, this chart is a handy reference to have on hand while reading Pāli suttas or Vinaya. It’s intended merely as an aid to jog your memory as it assumes prior knowledge of Pāli grammar.

… tables and notes I typed up when I was first learning Pāḷi, which have rather surprisingly lasted

The PED is slowly being supplanted by a new Dictionary of Pāli, whose fourth and final volume is currently under preparation by Martin Straube.

We do not have any definite information

… seven Dhamma topics, then seven topics concerning meditation, the middle of the 37 Factors of Awakening, the new section with Abhidhamma-type topics, and then a series of seven topics concerning the special qualities of the Buddha […] given in Pāli, with a very exact line-by-line (interlinear) translation

… what we have is the product of centuries of careful copying, careless copying, knowledge, incompetence, inspired emendation and bungling. And none of that stopped with the beginning of Western scholarship.

I suggest that the original form of the ‘enlightenment’ set was the ‘basic’ set: idaṃ dukkhaṃ, ayaṃ dukkha-samudayo, ayaṃ dukkha-nirodho, ayaṃ dukkha-nirodha-gāminī paṭipadā When these items became known as “Truths”, they were [later] so designated: idaṃdukkha-saccaṃ, etc.

And for a short post-script to this on the translation of the ariya part, see Why “Noble?” (1990).

In recognition of its pre-eminence among the Master’s epithets, the early Buddhist teachers and their successors have applied their wisdom and erudition to fathoming the multiple implications of this suggestive word.

This Primer makes its concepts approachable and fun, and sets the student up well for studying more advanced textbooks, such as Warder or Duroiselle, later. You can get the book’s answer key here.

… in many cases, I did not know how the inscriptions could possibly mean what I had said they meant, and as a result of not knowing how they could mean what I had said, I had great doubts about what they did actually mean. And so my study of the Aśokan inscriptions led to a situation where every year I understood less and less.

A classic series of ten lectures exploring the languages of ancient India and how they help us unravel the mysteries of early Buddhist history.

For a deeper historical look at this phenomenon, see Levman, 2017.

… how to interpret Buddhist Sanskrit texts in such a way as to avoid unnecessary bastardization of the English language, while still performing the scholarly task of making available the meaning of such texts to the scholarly community

And make sure to add the “Sanskrit (Latin)” keyboard to get access to all the ḍīācṛīṭīcś.

Consistent precedence given to the development of contentment during all activities as well as when settling down for formal meditation goes a long way in preparing the ground for what is, in a way, the direct result of contentment: a mind that is happily settled within and therefore able to gain deep concentration.

Part two of Anālayo’s “excursions,” he continues to explore key Pāli terms, this time exploring Upādāna, Sakkāyadiṭṭhi, Sammādiṭṭhi, Saṅkhārā, Vitakka, Yoniso Manasikāra, Vipassanā, Samatha & Vipassanā, Samādhi, Viveka, Vossagga, and Suññatā.

These two complementary perspectives on happiness — distinguishing between unwholesome and wholesome types and treating the stages of development of its wholesome manifestations — run like a red thread through the entire compass of the teachings in the Pāli discourses, from instructions on basic morality through the path of mental purification all the way up to full awakening.

Bhikkhu Anālayo analyzes a dozen key doctrinal terms in depth: exploring their meaning, nature, imagery and importance.