BUDDHA

The original language of the Buddha and his teachings (suttas/sutras)

"The original language of the sutras seems to have been Magadhi, which Buddha used in preaching. Of all the Indic language versions of sutras used as Buddhist texts today, those written in Pali are the most numerous and are widely used in the Southern Buddhist countries Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand. According to Southern Buddhist tradition, Pali is regarded as the language that Buddha spoke, and therefore is called Magadhi or the fundamental language. However, recent studies show that although a little of the Magadhi influence is still evident in the Pali language, the basic characteristics of the two languages are different.

"The two important language families of India are Indic and Dravidian. All Buddhist sutras were originally compiled in Indic languages, which developed in various parts of India over a period of three or four thousand years. In present day India more than ten major languages- including Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Bihari, Marathi, and Punjabi- belong to this family, and together they number several hundred dialects. Sanskrit and fourteen modern languages are now officially sanctioned by the Indian constitution, and in a large house it is possible for several of the recognized languages to be in use, since servants from different areas and family members would all speak in their own languages or dialects.

"This rich linguistic heritage was noted in earlier times, when, for example, in plays one could identify a character's occupation and social status through the prescribed language he or she spoke. Kings, ministers, and Brahmans spoke Sanskrit, the most highly esteemed and inflected language; queens, princesses, nuns and courtesans spoke a graceful language called Shauraseni; the general populace, such as merchants and artisans, spoke Magadhi; and the lower classes spoke Paishachi. Even lyrics had their own pleasant to the ear language, Maharashtri.

"The five languages just mentioned originated in the dialects of different areas, but the languages in Shakyamuni's time belonged to a period earlier than that of these five languages. However, even in Shakyamuni's time, regional languages already differed, and each language had its own unique characteristics, as we can see from the edicts of Ashoka, issued about two centuries after the death of Shakyamuni. Ashoka had his edicts carved on large rocks and stone pillars, and one particular edict was written in a different language in each of the eight areas where it has been found. The languages of the edicts in India, which can be divided into four or five regional groups, correspond to the five languages used in drama of later periods. In time they became regional languages of the Apabhramsha family, and still later they developed into the modern Indic languages.

"The language Shakyamuni spoke was the one in general use around the middle reaches of the Ganges, where he was active. Since the area was later called Magadha, its language was called Magadi (or Old Magadhi), and because many of Emperor Ashoka's edicts have been found in this area, we have an idea of what the Magadhi Shakyamuni spoke was like.

"In the time of Shakyamuni, the Vedas, the holy scriptures of Brahmanism, were transmitted in Vedic Sanskrit, which was the forerunner of classical Sanskrit. Both Vedic Sanskrit and classical Sanskrit are elegant, highly inflected, complex languages. The Vedic scriptures were transmitted only to the educated upper classes, never to the lower classes. Shakyamuni, who wanted his teachings to reach all classes of society equally, thought that the lower classes would be the focus of his ministry and therefore preached his teaching in Magadhi, the everyday language of the common people, so that even the lower classes could understand him."

"We know, and have known for some time, that the Pali canon as we have it- and it is generally conceded to be our oldest source- cannot be taken back further than the last quarter of the first century BCE, the date of the Alu-vihara redaction, the earliest redaction that we can have some knowledge of, and that-for a critical history- it can serve, at the very most only as a source for the Buddhism of this period. But we also know that even this is problematic since as Malalasekera has pointed out '...how far the Tipitaka and its commentary reduced to writing at Alu-vihara resembled them as they have come down to us now, no one can say.' In fact, it is not until the time of the commentaries of Buddhaghosa, Dhammapala, and others- that is to say the fifth to sixth centuries C.E.- that we can know anything definite about the actual contents of this canon.

"We also know that there is no evidence to indicate that a canon existed prior to the Alu-vihara redaction. Although Ashoka in his Dhabra Edict specifically enjoined both monks and laymen to recite certain texts, which he named, he nowhere in his records gives any indication that he knew of a canon, or the classification of texts into nikayas."

I personally have great faith in the memory-power of the monks who memorized the Buddhist Sutras from the time of the Buddha and transmitted them verbally from generation to generation for about 400 years before they were actually written down. And in terms of dating the earliest recorded Sutras, it is my understanding that parts of the Sutta Nipata in Pali and parts of the Mahavastu in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit (from the Shravastivadin tradition) are the oldest known recorded Sutras- both dating back to about 350 years after the Buddha. Again, I didn't mean to be too long-winded in this explanation, but I thought people might be interested in knowing a little more, if they didn't know already, about these questions of language and the Buddhist Sutras.

A little footnote: according to our tradition and the historical records of Ancient China the earliest Sutra translated from the Indic languages into Chinese was the Sutra in 42 Sections in 69 C.E.

Paali is the name given to the language of the texts of Theravaada Buddhism, although the commentarial tradition of the Theravaadins states that the language of the canon is Maagadhii, the language spoken by Gotama Buddha. The term Paali originally referred to a canonical text or passage rather than to a language and its current use is based on a misunderstanding which occurred several centuries ago. The language of the Theravaadin canon is a version of a dialect of Middle Indo-AAryan, not Maagadhii, created by the homogenisation of the dialects in which the teachings of the Buddha were orally recorded and transmitted. This became necessary as Buddhism was transmitted far beyond the area of its origin and as the Buddhist monastic order codified his teachings.

The tradition recorded in the ancient Sinhalese chronicles states that the Theravaadin canon was written down in the first century B.C.E. The language of the canon continued to be influenced by commentators and grammarians and by the native languages of the countries in which Theravaada Buddhism became established over many centuries. The oral transmission of the Paali canon continued for several centuries after the death of the Buddha, even after the texts were first preserved in writing. No single script was ever developed for the language of the canon; scribes used the scripts of their native languages to transcribe the texts. Although monasteries in South India are known to have been important centres of Buddhist learning in the early part of this millennium, no manuscripts from anywhere in India except Nepal have survived. Almost all the manuscripts available to scholars since the PTS began can be dated to the 18th or 19th centuries C.E. and the textual traditions of the different Buddhist countries represented by these manuscripts show much evidence of interweaving. The pattern of recitation and validation of texts by councils of monks has continued into the 20th century.

The main division of the Paali canon as it exists today is threefold, although the Paali commentarial tradition refers to several different ways of classification. The three divisions are known as pi.takas and the canon itself as the Tipi.taka; the significance of the term pi.taka, literally "basket", is not clear. The text of the canon is divided, according to this system, into Vinaya (monastic rules), Suttas (discourses) and Abhidhamma (analysis of the teaching). The PTS edition of the Tipi.taka contains fifty-six books (including indexes), and it cannot therefore be considered to be a homogenous entity, comparable to the Christian Bible or Muslim Koran. Although Buddhists refer to the Tipi.taka as Buddha- vacana, "the word of the Buddha", there are texts within the canon either attributed to specific monks or related to an event post-dating the time of the Buddha or that can be shown to have been composed after that time. The first four nikaayas (collections) of the Sutta-pi.taka contain sermons in which the basic doctrines of the Buddha's teaching are expounded either briefly or in detail.

The early activities of the Society centred around making the books of the Tipi.taka available to scholars. As access to printed editions and manuscripts has improved, scholars have begun to produce truly critical editions and re-establish lost readings. While there is much work still needed on the canon, its commentaries and subcommentaries, the Society is also beginning to encourage work on a wider range of Paali texts, including those composed in Southeast Asia.

Pāli is the name given to the language of the texts of Theravāda Buddhism, although the commentarial tradition of the Theravādins states that the language of the canon is Māgadhī, the language spoken by Gotama Buddha. The term Pāli originally referred to a canonical text or passage rather than to a language and its current use is based on a misunderstanding which occurred several centuries ago. The language of the Theravādin canon is a version of a dialect of Middle Indo-Āryan, not Māgadhī, created by the homogenisation of the dialects in which the teachings of the Buddha were orally recorded and transmitted. This became necessary as Buddhism was transmitted far beyond the area of its origin and as the Buddhist monastic order codified his teachings.

The tradition recorded in the ancient Sinhalese chronicles states that the Theravādin canon was written down in the first century B.C.E. The language of the canon continued to be influenced by commentators and grammarians and by the native languages of the countries in which Theravāda Buddhism became established over many centuries. The oral transmission of the Pāli canon continued for several centuries after the death of the Buddha, even after the texts were first preserved in writing. No single script was ever developed for the language of the canon; scribes used the scripts of their native languages to transcribe the texts. Although monasteries in South India are known to have been important centres of Buddhist learning in the early part of this millennium, no manuscripts from anywhere in India except Nepal have survived. Almost all the manuscripts available to scholars since the PTS began can be dated to the 18th or 19th centuries C.E. and the textual traditions of the different Buddhist countries represented by these manuscripts show much evidence of interweaving. The pattern of recitation and validation of texts by councils of monks has continued into the 20th century.

The main division of the Pāli canon as it exists today is threefold, although the Pāli commentarial tradition refers to several different ways of classification. The three divisions are known as piṭakas and the canon itself as the Tipiṭaka; the significance of the term piṭaka, literally "basket", is not clear. The text of the canon is divided, according to this system, into Vinaya (monastic rules), Suttas (discourses) and Abhidhamma (analysis of the teaching). The PTS edition of the Tipiṭaka contains fifty-seven books (including indexes), and it cannot therefore be considered to be a homogenous entity, comparable to the Christian Bible or Muslim Koran. Although Buddhists refer to the Tipiṭaka as Buddha-vacana, "the word of the Buddha", there are texts within the canon either attributed to specific monks or related to an event post-dating the time of the Buddha or that can be shown to have been composed after that time. The first four nikāyas (collections) of the Sutta-piṭaka contain sermons in which the basic doctrines of the Buddha's teaching are expounded either briefly or in detail.

The early activities of the Society centred around making the books of the Tipiṭaka available to scholars. As access to printed editions and manuscripts has improved, scholars have begun to produce truly critical editions and re-establish lost readings. While there is much work still needed on the canon, its commentaries and subcommentaries, the Society is also beginning to encourage work on a wider range of Pāli texts, including those composed in Southeast Asia.

When the Aryan (a group of people from Central Asia) entered Northern India circa 1750 BCE, they brought with them their culture and their language. As time went on, these people became the ruling class and their civilization became the dominant one, although they must have been very much influenced by the local people that they encountered. Now, the language used by the aristocrats, the ruling class, would be what we can refer to as the Vedic language. The word Vedic came from the word Veda, ‘the knowledge’, which are hymns sung to the gods, and which are still recited unchanged in Hindu rituals today (1). In time, the language evolved to become what we now known as Sanskrit.

At the time of the Buddha, the “official language” would be Sanskrit. It would be used by the high priests (the Brahmins) and the aristocrats. However, most of the common people would be talking in local dialects known as the Prakrits. And because of the relative geographical isolation of the various “small countries”( more like tribes) within India, the dialects within a few hundred miles may already be very different, although they would all be descendants of Sanskrit. This is very much like the dialects in China. As a comparison, one may note that the dialect in Guangzhou in southern China is very much different from the one in Fujian which is only a few hundred miles away, although the written form would be the same for both of them except for some special words that are unique to each dialect.

It must be noted that these local dialects in ancient India would not have written forms because most of the common people were illiterate in those days without books and any mass media. The written form of Sanskrit would be confined to the Brahmins and the aristocrats. However, if one really wanted to commit the dialects to written form, one could use the Sanskrit alphabets and phonetics and write them down.

The life of a language

All languages have a life of their own. A language, especially one that has no written form and is merely spoken in a certain place at a certain time, may be so changed as to become unintelligible to people living in the same place several hundred years later. This is because an actively spoken language will be modified by outside influence and people’s innovations as to new usage and vocabularies. Thus the so-called “middle English” spoken in England in the 12th century is vastly different from modern English and it can be expected that , another 1000 years from now, the English spoken in England will be very different from the English spoken today in Piccadilly, London. On the other hand, a language will only be able to remain unchanged only if there is no body actively using it in everyday life. It would than become the domain of scholars. Examples of such languages are Latin , Sanskrit and Pali. This is rather paradoxical: a dead language( no one using it) will remain alive, albeit among a small group of people who study it as an object of curiosity. Whereas, a living language( with many people using it) will continue to evolve and change to sometimes beyond recognition( especially the spoken form).

What the Buddha actually spoke

As Siddhartha Gautama was born a prince of the Sakya tribe, it can be safely assumed that he may be relatively well educated and that he might be able to read and write Sanskrit. His followers, however, would mostly be illiterate and he would have to communicate with them in the local dialects, the Prakrits. Some people labeled the language that the Buddha used as the Ardhamagadhi language (2) after the Magadha Empire which encompassed all the areas the Buddha would have resided in. It is doubtful whether this label was actually used at the time of the Buddha, and may just be a label used by latter day scholars.

After the parinibbāna (non-Buddhist may use the word “death”) of the Buddha, his teachings were collated in the oral tradition and passed from one generation to another. This is in line with the religious traditions at the time. According to the Sri Lankan chronicles, these teachings were subsequently transmitted to Sri Lanka at the time of King Asoka in India (around 250 years after the parinibbāna of the Buddha) where these teachings were preserved in the Pāli language (3) which was the spoken language used in Northern India at the time of King Asoka.

Around the time of the 1st century BCE, the monks in Sri Lanka decided to commit the Buddha’s teachings to writing and wrote them down on ola leaves. But since Pāli is just a spoken language , the only way one could write them down was to use the Sinhalese alphabets. Sinhalese, the language of the indigenous people of Sri Lanka, is itself an off-shoot of Sanskrit. That is why the Pāli Canon used words that are very similar to Sanskrit.

Finally, it should be noted that the so-called Pāli that we read in Buddhist books today are very indirect records of the scriptures. They are in fact romanised, i.e. using the English alphabet(with phonetic symbols) to transliterate from Sinhalese of the language spoken at the time of King Asoka. This is not to mention the changes that must have taken place among the various Prakrits during the time span of 250 years from the parinibbāna of the Buddha before the appearance of Pāli. One would really wonder if the Buddha should come alive today and we chant the English version of Pāli to him, how much he would really be able to understand what we are chanting about. Well, one would suppose that he already understand everything as he is already the “Enlightened

For the remaining 45 years of his life, the Buddha is said to have traveled in the Gangetic Plain, in what is now Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and southern Nepal, teaching a diverse range of people: from nobles to outcaste street sweepers, murderers such as Angulimala, and cannibals such as Alavaka. From the outset, Buddhism was equally open to all races and classes, and had no castePali may be a standardization. structure, as was the rule in Hinduism. Although the Buddha's language remains unknown, it's likely that he taught in one or more of a variety of closely related Middle Indo-Aryan dialects, of which

The sangha traveled through the subcontinent, expounding the dharma. This continued throughout the year, except during the four months of the vassana rainy season when ascetics of all religions rarely traveled. One reason was that it was more difficult to do so without causing harm to animal life. At this time of year, the sangha would retreat to monasteries, public parks or forests, where people would come to them.

The first vassana was spent at Varanasi when the sangha was formed. After this, the Buddha kept a promise to travel to Rajagaha, capital of Magadha, to visit King Bimbisara. During this visit, Sariputta and Mahamoggallana were converted by Assaji, one of the first five disciples, after which they were to become the Buddha's two foremost followers. The Buddha spent the next three seasons at Veluvana Bamboo Grove monastery in Rajagaha, capital of Magadha.

Upon hearing of his son's awakening, Suddhodana sent, over a period, ten delegations to ask him to return to Kapilavastu. On the first nine occasions, the delegates failed to deliver the message, and instead joined the sangha to become arahants. The tenth delegation, led by Kaludayi, a childhood friend of Gautama's (who also became an arahant), however, delivered the message.

Now two years after his awakening, the Buddha agreed to return, and made a two-month journey by foot to Kapilavastu, teaching the dharma as he went. At his return, the royal palace prepared a midday meal, but the sangha was making an alms round in Kapilavastu. Hearing this, Suddhodana approached his son, the Buddha, saying:

"Ours is the warrior lineage of Mahamassata, and not a single warrior has gone seeking alms"

The Buddha is said to have replied:

"That is not the custom of your royal lineage. But it is the custom of my Buddha lineage. Several thousands of Buddhas have gone by seeking alms"

Buddhist texts say that Suddhodana invited the sangha into the palace for the meal, followed by a dharma talk. After this he is said to have become a sotapanna. During the visit, many members of the royal family joined the sangha. The Buddha's cousins Ananda and Anuruddha became two of his five chief disciples. At the age of seven, his son Rahula also joined, and became one of his ten chief disciples. His half-brother Nanda also joined and became an arahant.

Of the Buddha's disciples, Sariputta, Mahamoggallana, Mahakasyapa, Ananda and Anuruddha are believed to have been the five closest to him. His ten foremost disciples were reputedly completed by the quintet of Upali, Subhoti, Rahula, Mahakaccana and Punna.

In the fifth vassana, the Buddha was staying at Mahavana near Vesali when he heard news of the impending death of his father. He is said to have gone to Suddhodana and taught the dharma, after which his father became an arahant.

The king's death and cremation was to inspire the creation of an order of nuns. Buddhist texts record that the Buddha was reluctant to ordain women. His foster mother Maha Pajapati, for example, approached him, asking to join the sangha, but he refused. Maha Pajapati, however, was so intent on the path of awakening that she led a group of royal Sakyan and Koliyan ladies, which followed the sangha on a long journey to Rajagaha. In time, after Ananda championed their cause, the Buddha is said to have reconsidered and, five years after the formation of the sangha, agreed to the ordination of women as nuns. He reasoned that males and females had an equal capacity for awakening. But he gave women additional rules (Vinaya) to follow.