to Sukin: book suggestions
From: Jim Anderson
Message: 155
Date: 2001-06-16
Dear Sukin,
I think the PTS dictionary and Warder's Introduction to Pali may be all you
need at the present time if you're only just beginning to study Pali. A
number of us here also have these two very valuable books so you could just
ask us about anything in them for clarification and feedback. A lot depends
on what information you're interested in. If you find Warder or the
dictionary doesn't offer all what you're looking for then you might consider
obtaining more books for further study. For these books I'd recommend
Geiger's A Pali Grammar as a useful one for finding rare Pali words. It
also has many declensional and conjugational tables but nothing on syntax.
Another book you might want to consider is Perniola's Pali Grammar. I
haven't seen the book yet but it is one I intend to get for myself. Both of
these books are available from the PTS. The book that I consult as my main
authority on the Pali language is the Saddaniti (928pp) which has not been
translated into English so you'd have to know some Pali in order to make any
sense of it. Teng Kee recently mentioned to me that there is a Thai
translation of it. Even the Saddaniti doesn't explain everything and one
might then have to study Panini's famous Sanskrit grammar to fill in the
gaps. I started with just Warder and it wasn't until about seven years later
that I got started on the Saddaniti.
Wishing you success in your Pali studies,
Jim
>Dear Jim and all,
>Thanks a lot for the welcome.
>Judging from my accumulations I do not fit so well in here, since I
>have never been a studious person.
>But life is short, and at any time death might make a visit.
>Buddhadhamma is important, Pali is important too.
>I have the 'Introduction to Pali' by Warder, ant the PTS pali/english
>dict. And so if anyone can please suggest me any other books that
>would help me with the study I'd appreciate greatly.
>Thanks in advance,
>Sukin.
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