Re: Paali

Many thanks for the information on: Pali language and the sound Paali.

"The use of the Anglicised form Pali for the Pāḷibhāsā dates back to the
early nineteenth century and so considerably predates Rhys Davids and
the Pali Text Society" This is certainly correct. Possibly, even earlier:

With regard to the usage of Pali I found: Pali: 1690s, Middle High Indian dialect used in sacred Buddhist writings (the lingua franca of northern India from c. 6c. B.C.E.-2c. B.C.E.), from Sanskrit Pali, from pali bhasa "language of the canonical books," from pali "line, role, canon" + bhasa "language.[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Pali [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Pali]

Childers dictionary is named: "A Dictionary of Pali Language". This dictionary was the forerunner PTS dictionary. [It is somewhat hard to realize, seeing how important and valuable the work has been, that when ROBERT CAESAR CHILDERS published, in 1872, the first volume of his Pali Dictionary, he only had at his command a few pages of the canonical Pali books]. 

However his entry on  PĀLI (f.), an extremely long article, is worthy of note: In this article Childers says "Viewed as a body of sacred literature, the Buddhist canon is called pāḷi". 

This article has more information about the meaning of Pali which appears to be more authentic,  

I suggested Pali be defined as the PTS Tipitaka publications and the dictionary because there is no alternative. [or if you prefer Childers].

The meaning of  "PĀLI" needs further study.

Best wishes

D. C.

On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 5:59 PM, 'L.S. Cousins' selwyn@... [palistudy] <palistudy@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

The use of the Anglicised form Pali for the Pāḷibhāsā dates back to the
early nineteenth century and so considerably predates Rhys Davids and
the Pali Text Society. It is the correct form to use when writing in
English, just as Sanskrit or Prakrit are the correct forms, rather than
Saṃskṛta or Prākṛta.

It's use as a name for the language properly known as Māgadhabhāsā
certainly dates back to the seventeenth century. Kate Crosby has argued
that it is already used in texts from around the twelfth and thirteenth
century. She may be right about this, but I am not completely convinced
by her examples and need to go through them carefully when I have time.

We should not confuse the Māgadha language now known as Pali with the
Māgadhī dialect. The latter is a spoken dialect of  a core locality in
the eventual enlarged kingdom of Māgadha, a dialect which eventually
became a written language described by the Prakrit grammarians. The
language we call Pali was referred to as the language of Māgadha because
that was the only written language in general use across most of North
India in the Maurya and Suṅga periods at a time when the King of Māgadha
ruled large parts of that area.

Lance Cousins


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Posted by: "L.S. Cousins" <selwyn@...>

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