An Easy Introduction to Pali
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AN EASY INTROD INDEX INTRODUCTION 1 • The language • Palm-leaf manuscripts LESSON I 8 • Declension of Nouns Ending in -a; nominative and accusative cases • Conjugation of Verbs - Present Tense Active Voice 3rd person LESSON II 14 • Declension of Nouns Ending in -a; instrumental and dative cases • Conjugation of Verbs - Present Tense Active Voice 2nd person LESSON III 18 • Declension of Nouns Ending in -a; ablative and genitive cases • Conjugation of Verbs - Present Tense Active Voice 1st person LESSON IV 22 • Declension of Nouns Ending in -a; locative and vocative cases • Conjugation of Verbs - Present Tense Active Voice (full) LESSON V 26 • Full Declension of Nouns Ending in -a; Masculine & Neuter LESSON VI 29 • Declension of Nouns Ending in-a • Infinitive LESSON VII 32 • Aorist (general past tense) - Active Voice • Special forms aha and ahu • Personal Pronouns - Genitive (Possessive) Form LESSON VIII 37 • Declension of Nouns Ending in -i; Masculine & Neuter • The Gerund with Past Participle LESSON IX 40 • Feminine Nouns Ending in-i • Future Tense • Conditional Tense LESSON X 43 • Nouns Ending in -7 • The Formation of Feminines LESSON XI 46 • Nouns Ending in -u and -u • Imperative/Benedictive Tense LESSON XII 51 • Personal Pronouns - 1st and 2nd Person • Optative Tense LESSON XIII 54 • Relative Pronouns & 3rd Person Personal Pronouns • The Interrogative Pronoun LESSON XIV 58 • Participles LESSON XV 62 • Demonstrative Pronouns • Adjectives LESSON XVI 69 • Cardinal Numerals • Ordinal Numerals • Counting with satam LESSON XVII 73 • The consonantal noun declension, nouns ending in -n • Attan as a reflexive • The seven conjugation classes of verbs LESSON XVIII 76 • The consonantal noun declension - nouns ending in -r • Causal Forms LESSON XIX 79 • The consonantal noun declension - nouns ending in -s • Declension of nouns with diphthongic stem • Imperfect Tense • Perfect Tense LESSON XX 82 • Compound Words • The Word ubho LESSON XXI 86 • Indeclinables LESSON XXII 91 • Nominal Derivatives LESSON XXIII 95 • Verbal Derivatives LESSON XXIV 99 • Rules of Sandhi (Combination) LESSON XXV 101 • Uses of the Cases • The Genitive and Locative Absolutes LESSON XXVI 113 • Passive Voice • Middle Voice • The verb "to be" Selections for Translation 116 Answer keys 129 Paji verb lists 246 Noun declination tables (including all possible endings for each case) 250 Relations between Paji and Sanskrit 252 Vocabulary Paji - English 258 Vocabulary English - Paji 265 Paji grammatical terms 272 Scripts used for writing Paji 275 - Abugida Scripts 277 - Brahmic Scripts 278 - BrahmT 279 - DevanagarT 285 - Sinhalese 302 - Thai 318 - Burmese 332 - Khmer 346 - Tham 360 - Lao 363 - Ariyaka 365 Comparative Table of the Scripts 368 Bibliography 370 (this page intentionally left blank) INTRODUCTION The Middle Indo Aryan dialect originally derived from the Sanskrit language which is found in the Paji Canon of the Theravada Buddhists and is usually called "Pa|i" is nowhere so called in the Theravada Canon. The word "Paji" is found in the Sinhalese chronicles and the commentaries upon the canon which were written many centuries after by the monk Buddhaghosa (5th century AD), but there it has the meaning "canon" and is used in the sense of a canonical text or phrase as opposed to the commentary (atthakatha) upon it. Even up to the 6th or 7th century AD, the term Paji does not appear as a name for any kind of language, and in the Culavamsa, a later supplement to the Mahavamsa (The Great Chronicle of Ceylon) covering the period from the 4th century to 1815 we find that the term Pa|i is used in it clearly in the sense of the texts of the canon as taken apart from the commentaries. The earliest issue of the term Paji can then be traced back to the commentaries of Buddhaghosa and not in any earlier Buddhist writings. It is again in the commentaries that the term Paji was regarded as a synonym for Buddhavacana (word of the Buddha) and Tipitaka, among others. The transition from Pa|i meaning "canonical text" to Paji as a proper name for the language took place by a natural process. It would seem that the word "Paji" being considered as the name for the language is based upon a misunderstanding of the compound "Pajibhasa" (canon language), where the word Paji was thought to stand for the name of a particular language, as a result of which the word was applied to the language of both the canon and the commentaries, following the misleading assumption that the word "Pajibhasa" had the meaning of "Paji language", a concept which was subsequently adopted by western scholars and linguists. Benjamin Clough (1791-1853) was the first westerner to officially adopt the word "Paji" when he published his compendium of grammar in 1824 in Colombo, Sri Lanka (back then still known as Ceylon). Burnouf and Lassen also used the name "Paji" in their essay on Paji grammar which was published in 1826, but in the survey of Paji studies up to that year included in that work Burnouf pointed out that the first person to mention Paji was Simon de la Loubiere who visited Siam in 1687, and published a description of the kingdom of Siam in 1691, which was translated into English in 1693. It is clear from this account that in Thailand in the late 17th century the name "Paji" was already being used for the language of the Theravada texts. La Loubiere noted that in contrast to Thai, which was a monosyllabic language, "Balie" (or "Baly") was inflected just like the languages of Europe. He also drew attention to the fact that the names for the days of the week were similar in Paji and Sanskrit, and reported that he had been told that there were similarities between Paji and the languages spoken near Coromandel (the southeastern coast region of the Indian Subcontinent, between the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal of the Indian Ocean). The Sasanavamsa, written in Burma in 1861, uses the word Paji in a context where it seems to be the name of a language. Since the Sasanavamsa is based upon an earlier Burmese text, the usage of the name "Paji" in Burma is probably earlier than would appear. It seems unlikely that the usage arose independently in all three countries, but in the present state of our knowledge it does not seem possible to determine where the misunderstanding first occurred. A widespread assumption states that the language spoken by the Buddha was actually MagadhT. What we know of MagadhT as described by the grammarians in later times, however, enables us to say that Paji is not MagadhT, and although we have no direct evidence about the characteristics of MagadhT in the centuries before Asoka, we can deduce with some certainty that Pa|i does not agree with that either. It would seem likely that, because the texts tell about the Buddha frequently preaching in the kingdom of Magadha (although none of the scenes of the great events in his life was situated within the boundaries of Magadha as we know it in historical times), the tradition arose that all his sermons were preached in the dialect of that region of North India. It is also possible that the prestige attaching to Magadha, and by implication to MagadhT, during the time of the Mauryan kings, and also the way in which the MagadhT of the original Asokan edicts was everywhere in India "translated" into the local dialect or language, led to the adoption by the Buddhists, at about the time of the council which the Theravada tradition reports was held during the reign of Asoka, of the 1 idea that their "ruler" too employed such a language. Although there is some doubt about the interpretation of the phrase the Buddha used when asked if it was permissible to translate his sermons, it is generally agreed that he did not preach in Sanskrit, but employed the dialect or language of the area where he was preaching. We must assume that his sermons and utterances were remembered by his followers and his audiences as they heard them. In the course of time, during his lifetime and after his death, collections must have been made of his words, and translations or redactions of these must have been made as the need arose, either because the collections were being taken into an area where a different dialect or language was spoken, or because as time went by his words became less intelligible as their language became more archaic. The Theravada tradition tells of councils being held to recite the canon, of which the third was held in the time of Asoka, and although the discrepancies with the Northern tradition cast doubt upon this, there must have been gatherings of some sort where recitations took place, and the "imprimatur" of the Sahgha was bestowed. Such councils would inevitably have led to a normalization of the language of the canon to a greater or less extent. Since this normalized language was an "ecclesiastical" one, being recited by monks who probably spoke a variety of languages or dialects, there is no necessity to assume that it coincided exactly with any one particular spoken language. The tradition recorded in the Sinhalese chronicles states that the Theravada canon was written down on palm leaves during the first century BC as a result of threats to the Sahgha from famine, war, and various political circumstances. Like the Vedic texts, early Buddhist literature was composed during a period of pure orality in India, before script was introduced during the reign of Asoka. This early oral tradition went on for centuries after the Buddha's death, and has left obvious traces in the written literature, particularly in the numerous formulas typical of oral composition which were used to facilitate memorization and the steady repetition of entire paragraphs as a repetitive introduction in order to point out each detail of the idea being conveyed.