Pali
The word Pali appears in commentarial traditions as a name for the language of the Theravada canon, yet it does not appear in the canonical literature itself. K. R. Norman suggests that its emergence was based on a misunderstanding of the compound pali-bhāsa, with pali being interpreted as the name of a particular language rather than meaning line or series. The spelling of the name varies across textbooks, appearing with both long ā and short a, and also with either a voiced retroflex lateral approximant or non-retroflex l sound. R. C. Childers translates the word as series and states that the language bears the epithet in consequence of the perfection of its grammatical structure. This name seems to have emerged in Sri Lanka early in the second millennium CE during a resurgence in the use of Pali as a courtly and literary language.
Modern scholars generally regard Pali as having originated from a Western dialect rather than an Eastern one, challenging earlier identifications with Magadhi Prakrit. There is no attested dialect of Middle Indo-Aryan with all the features of Pali, making direct continuity with any single ancient language impossible to prove. Pali has some commonalities with both the Junagadh rock inscription of Rudradaman in Kathiawar and the Central-Western Prakrit found in the eastern Hathigumpha inscription. These similarities lead scholars to associate Pali with this region of western India, though it retains some eastern features referred to as Māgadhisms. A number of morphological and lexical features show that it is not a direct continuation of Sanskrit but descends from one or more dialects that were different from it.
The Theravada tradition states that the Tipitaka was first committed to writing during the first century BCE, motivated by threats to the Sangha from famine, war, and the growing influence of rival traditions. This move away from oral preservation occurred under King Vattagamini, according to the Mahavamsa chronicle. By this point in its history, scholars consider it likely that Pali had already undergone some initial assimilation with Sanskrit, such as the conversion of bahmana to brāhmana. The entire corpus of Pali texts known today is believed to derive from the Anuradhapura Maha Viharaya in Sri Lanka. While literary evidence exists of Theravadins in mainland India surviving into the 13th century, no Pali texts specifically attributable to this tradition have been recovered.
By the 11th century, a so-called Pali renaissance began in the vicinity of the Pagan Kingdom, gradually spreading to the rest of mainland Southeast Asia. Royal dynasties sponsored monastic lineages derived from the Anuradhapura Maha Viharaya, leading to the adoption of Sanskrit conventions and poetic forms like kavya. One milestone of this period was the publication of the Subodhālañkāra in the 14th century, a work attributed to Sangharakkhita Mahāsāmi and modeled on the Sanskrit Kavyadarsha. Peter Masefield devoted considerable research to a form of Pali known as Indochinese Pali, also referred to as Kham Pali, which he argues may be an internally consistent dialect rather than a degraded form. Records in Thailand state that a large number of texts were taken during the third reintroduction of Theravada Buddhism into Sri Lanka, when many texts were lost due to the disappearance of monastic ordination there.
Pali was first mentioned in Western literature in Simon de la Loubère's descriptions of his travels in the kingdom of Siam. An early grammar and dictionary was published by Methodist missionary Benjamin Clough in 1824, followed by an initial study published by Eugène Burnouf and Christian Lassen in 1826. The first modern Pali-English dictionary was published by Robert Childers in 1872 and 1875, later receiving the Volney Prize in 1876. Following the foundation of the Pali Text Society, English Pali studies grew rapidly, with planning for a new dictionary beginning in the early 1900s but not completed until 1925 due to delays including World War I. The society was founded partly to compensate for the very low level of funds allocated to Indology in late 19th-century England compared to Germany, Russia, and Denmark.
Pali is a highly inflected language where almost every word contains affixes that modify meaning beyond the root. Nouns are inflected for three grammatical genders and two numbers, displaying eight cases though many are identical in form. Verbal inflections convey information about person, number, tense, voice, and mood, with endings divided into primary, secondary, and imperative sets. The present tense uses primary endings while the preterite employs secondary endings, and the future is formed with the suffix -issa-. Consonant clusters undergo simplification and assimilation, such as when initial clusters reduce to single consonants or when sequences like vv change to bb. Final vowels were usually weak in pronunciation and hence shortened, with all words ending in a vowel or nasal vowel rather than consonants.
Canonical texts include the whole of the Pali Canon consisting of five nikāyas of the Sutta Piñaka, the Vinaya Piñaka, and books of the Abhidhamma Piñaka. Extra-canonical texts divide into commentaries recording additional details, sub-commentaries explaining commentaries, chronicles relating Buddhist history, and manuals including the Visuddhimagga. Some texts may have originated in northern India before being translated from Sanskrit or Gandhari language, yet surviving versions are those preserved by the Mahavihara in Sri Lanka. The secular literature includes medical texts, astrological works, cosmologies, and anthologies collected from canonical sources. While most works originated with the Sri Lankan tradition and spread to other Theravada regions, many manuscripts remain uncatalogued particularly within the Thai tradition.
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Common questions
When did the name Pali first appear in commentarial traditions?
The word Pali appears in commentarial traditions as a name for the language of the Theravada canon, yet it does not appear in the canonical literature itself. The spelling of the name varies across textbooks, appearing with both long ā and short a, and also with either a voiced retroflex lateral approximant or non-retroflex l sound.
Where did the modern scholarly consensus say Pali originated from?
Modern scholars generally regard Pali as having originated from a Western dialect rather than an Eastern one, challenging earlier identifications with Magadhi Prakrit. These similarities lead scholars to associate Pali with this region of western India, though it retains some eastern features referred to as Māgadhisms.
Who wrote the first modern Pali-English dictionary published by Robert Childers?
The first modern Pali-English dictionary was published by Robert Childers in 1872 and 1875, later receiving the Volney Prize in 1876. Following the foundation of the Pali Text Society, English Pali studies grew rapidly, with planning for a new dictionary beginning in the early 1900s but not completed until 1925 due to delays including World War I.
When was the Theravada canon first committed to writing according to King Vattagamini?
The Theravada tradition states that the Tipitaka was first committed to writing during the first century BCE, motivated by threats to the Sangha from famine, war, and the growing influence of rival traditions. This move away from oral preservation occurred under King Vattagamini, according to the Mahavamsa chronicle.
What grammatical features define Pali as a highly inflected language?
Pali is a highly inflected language where almost every word contains affixes that modify meaning beyond the root. Nouns are inflected for three grammatical genders and two numbers, displaying eight cases though many are identical in form, while verbal inflections convey information about person, number, tense, voice, and mood.