History of the Pali Language

by Roger Smith

It is thought that when the Aryan-speaking peoples moves into North India, about 2000 years BCE., they brought with them many variations of the Aryan language. Some of these dialects developed literary forms (i.e., with grammar) later. The most important dialect of these was Sanskrit.

The word “Sanskrit” means “the refined language” and its formalisation as a written language arose, it is thought, due to people revering it as the language of educated people and religion. As a result, they used it, but kept it separate from their daily, colloquial language.

This normalisation process was strengthened further by Panini, who lived about 500 years BCE. and subsequently the language became very influential.

Magadhi was a dialect spoken in the Maghadan area in the eastern part of North India and was thought likely to be a composite with features assembled from different geographical areas.

Researchers cannot be certain of Maghadi/Pali’s root origins, but it is more similar to Vedic than to classical Sanskrit. There are other, parallel dialects, such as Prakrit, arising from local use, which have some basis in Sanskrit. But evidence has shown that it is Sanskrit that is the earliest and therefore the closest to some likely Indo-European origins.

Buddhism uses Pali

Theravada Buddhist consider that Magadhi was probably the language preferred and used by the Buddha. It was this language that came to be developed and formalised as a written language, which we now call “Pali”.

Pali is a written language, but it has no special script. It should be noted that the Magadhi/Pali we have now may not be the full and accurate spoken language of those days and in fact, may not have been actually used in this present form.

Pali, (“Pali” means “text”), has a vocabulary that has special significance for the study of Buddhism, because its words have been well defined for the needs of the Buddha’s teachings, which no other language could successfully define.

For example, in Sanskrit, the word “Dharma” has a very wide application - it applies to physical and moral teachings, teachings generally and even to the laws of nature. But in Pali the word “Dhamma”, is reserved exclusively for the Buddha’s ideas. And also, in Sanskrit, “Karma” contains Hindu theistic ideas in a Hindu theistic context. But in Pali the word “Kamma”, signifies the moral law as defined by the Buddha.

It is sonorous, rhythmic, mellifluous and pleasing to hear, especially when chanted properly by monks and is kept alive by Buddhist scholars, monks and devotees of Buddhism in the few remaining Theravada countries. Thus, it can be seen that Pali is the language of Theravada Budhism.

Other schools of Buddhism, both Theravada and Mahayana which emerged soon after the Buddha’s Parinibbana, used the classical language of India for the propagation of the Buddha’s teachings - Sanskrit. There is even a variety of Sanskrit called “Buddhist Sanskrit.”

Pali language used to be called “the language of mankind’s philosophy”. This is because it had the most voluminous literature on religion and philosophy in the entire world before the rise of Western Scholarship.

Buddhist philosophy written and preserved

Pali is the language of the Theravada Buddhist religion’s record of teachings, the “The Tripitaka” the Vinaya Pitaka (the collection of rules for Monks), the Sutta Pitaka (main body of collected teachings), the Abidhamma Pitaka (the more advanced teachings).

The spread of Pali

As trade-links and communications were developed, Buddhist monks and King’s emissaries throughout the region developed and spread its use. It was the “Lingua Franca” of the Buddhist countries of south and south-east Asia for well over a thousand years.

Each country subsequently developed its own Pali literature and chronicles.

Courtesy ‘Ehipassiko’