Pali Language and Literature

PALI LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. Pcili was applied to the text of the Hinayana Buddhist scripture (see BUDDHISM) preserved in Ceylon. Used now for the language in which those texts were written, it usually includes the language of the subsequent commentaries and other writings. By some its meaning has been extended to cover all the cognate Middle Indian dialects found in the inscriptions and other documents. The present article will be confined to the language of the Pali canon and its commentary.

Origin.

The Aryan or Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-Euro pean family of languages was introduced into India by invading tribes during probably the latter half of the second millennium B.C. The oldest document of this language, the Rgveda (see SAN SKRIT) , was handed down only by an oral, though exceedingly exact, tradition. The first contemporary documents, however, the Inscriptions of Asoka (q.v.), are written in a dialect or dialects which, although clearly later forms of that of the Vedic texts, already show marked dialectical differences according to the dis tricts in which they were set up. Although these date only from the middle of the 3rd century B.C., it is certain that even by the latter half of the 6th century B.C. (the probable period of the Buddha's preaching) the Aryan language had spread by conquest and infiltration over very considerable areas of northern India.

There were at this period two considerable kingdoms in the north and east of the Gangetic plain, one Kosala (corresponding roughly to modern Oudh), the other Magadha (corresponding to the dis tricts of Patna and part of Gaya). Magadha later swallowed up Kosala. The Buddha himself, a native of Kosala, passed much of his ministry in Magadha; and it has been held that the language of the Pali texts was based upon the contemporary dialect either of Kosala or of Magadha, the latter view being in particular supported by the use of the term Magadhi or language of Ma gadha applied to Pali. But even if original collections of the Bud dha's sayings were handed down in the current dialect of Kosala or Magadha, they may have been subsequently re-edited or re written in some other dialect. Others see the origin of the language

of the existing texts in the dialect of some later centre of Bud dhist learning, such as Taksaila in the north-west or Ujjeni (mod ern Ujjain), capital of Avanti in the west, the influence of which has been considered by others as predominant in the formation of the language.

Pali, in its earliest texts, is a language of mixed dialectical forms, some common to both north-western and eastern dialects ; others peculiarly eastern. These may be due to the influence of an original recension in an eastern dialect or to the general in fluence of the eastern vernaculars on the other Indo-Aryan lan guages, especially during the predominance of the Mauryan em pire with its eastern capital. Its main characteristics are those of a western dialect. Tradition has it that the Buddhist scrip tures were brought to Ceylon by Asoka's son, Mahinda, who had spent his childhood in Ujjeni. In Ceylon the study and the use of Pali, which died out in India, was prosecuted by the Buddhists and carried thence to Burma and Siam, where it still remains to some extent the language of literature or at least of religion.

Sounds.

Pali possessed the following sounds : Vowels : a, u, J, "6. Consonants: stops and nasals: gutturals: k, kh, g, gh, it; palatals : c, ch, j, jh,A ; cerebrals : t, th, 4h, dentals: t, th, d, dh, n; labials: p, ph, b, bh, m. Liquids: r, 1, 1. Semi vowels : y, v. Sibilant : s. Aspirate : h. Undefined nasal : m. This system derived with certain modifications from that of Vedic Sanskrit. Among the vowels Skt. ai, au became 6, thus fused with original J, ö. Skt. r became a (and in some words i or u). Thus the three members of the characteristic vowel-al ternations of Sanskrit were reduced to two : is e, u: o; while that of r:ar:ar was upset altogether. This system was further con fused by the shortening of all Sanskrit long vowels in closed syllables, which caused, for example, the loss of all distinction between such pairs as Skt. candrdli, "moon" and candralz, "lunar," since both became cando.