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Paali is a member of the Indo-European family of languages, together with most languages of Europe, Iran and northern India. Inside this family it belongs to so-called Middle Indo-Aryan languages. This group is also called Prakrits in Indian linguistic works. Paali can be considered as one of the oldest surviving Prakrits.

Prakrit Prakrit

The origin of Paali is still unclear. It was for a long time considered to be identical with Maagadhii, the Prakrit of Magadha, where the Buddha spent most of his life and teaching career. This ancient region is situated in modern Indian state of Bihar, in North-Eastern India. But more careful examination in recent years showed that Paali bears closer resemblance to Prakrits of Western India than to that of Magadha. The famous Indian emperor and patron of Buddhism A`soka, who lived only a few centuries after the Buddha, left many inscriptions all over his empire which stretched far beyond the borders of present day India. All these inscriptions were written in local vernaculars, using different scripts that were in use in that place and time. Paali is very close in grammar and orthography to the language of the inscriptions in what is now the Indian state of Uttarpradesh.

Prakrit Prakrit

Uttarpradesh

Therefore it is safe to assume that Paali was created artificially, probably not on purpose, but rather as monks and nuns from different parts of India came into contact with each other and were forced to adapt their vernaculars to new environments in order to understand and be understood.

Paali was and is written in many different scripts. In India, it was written in ancient Indian scripts Braahmii and Kharo.s.thii. When Buddhism spread to other parts of the world, local people used either original Indian scripts (so Kharo.s.thii was used for a long time in Central Asia) or switched to their own local scripts. So in Sri Lanka, Paali is written in Sinhalese script, in Burma it is Burmese script, in Thailand Thai script and in Cambodia the Khmer script. Finally, when Western scholars and practitioners started to learn about Buddhism, they used Roman characters to write Paali language.

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This page was created using some material downloaded from Omniglot Omniglot

Miroslav Rozehnal November 2001

2001 11

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( ) Brahmi Script (India)

( ) Kharosthi Script (India)

( ) Devanagari Script (India)

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( ) Sinhalese (Sri Lanka) Script

Burmese Script (Burma/Myanmar)

Thai Script (Thailand)

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( ) Lao Script (Laos)

( ) Khmer Script (Cambodia)

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a a k kh g gh v h i i e c ch j jh b y t th d dh n r t th d dh n l s u u o p ph b bh m v

a a i i u u e o j k kh g gh v c ch j jh b t th d dh n t th d dh n p ph b bh m y r l l lh v s h

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Assaji arahant anicca atha attan ayasmant aha v. buddho bhagavant cittaj ca

1) ( )

Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammasajbuddhassa ( !)

buddhaj saranaj gacchami dhammaj saranaj gacchami savghaj saranaj gacchami

3) (Dhammapada 354)

sabbadanaj dhammadanaj jinati sabbarasaj dhammaraso jinati sabbaratij dhammarati jinati tanhakkhayo sabbadukkhaj jinati

4) (Dhammapada 183)

sabbapapassa akaranaj kusalassa upasampada sacittapariyodapanaj etaj buddhana sasanaj

5) (Vinaya-pitaka, Mahavagga, I. 40. (5))

atha kho ayasma Assaji Sariputtassa paribbajakassa imaj dhammapariyayaj abhasi: : ye dhamma hetuppabhava tesaj hetuj tathagato aha tesab ca yo nirodho evajvadi mahasamano

6) (tini lakkhanani)

(a) Aniccalakkhana (Dhammapada 277)

sabbe savkhara anicca ti , yada pabbaya passati , atha nibbindati dukkhe . esa maggo visuddhiya .

(b) Dukkhalakkhana (Dhammapada 278)

sabbe savkhara dukkha ti , yada pabbaya passati , atha nibbindati dukkhe . esa maggo visuddhiya .

sabbe dhamma anatta ti , yada pabbaya passati , atha nibbindati dukkhe . esa maggo visuddhiya .

7) (Mahaparinibbanasuttanta)

Parinibbute Bhagavati saha parinibbana , Sakko devanam indo imaj gathaj abhasi: : 'Anicca vata savkhara, , uppada-vaya-dhammino; ; Uppajjitva nirujjhanti, , tesaj vupasamo sukho' ti. .

http://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/lesson/pali/lesson_pali1.jsp 2013/10/14