Pali and Sanskrit: some history

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manjughosamani
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Re: Pali and Sanskrit: some history

Post by manjughosamani »

Hi Kare,

You can read the majority, if not all, of the text online here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/207362992/Bro ... arly-India

All the best.
Sabbe saṅkhārā anicca'ti yadā paññāya passati
Atha nibbindati dukkhe esa maggo visuddhiyā.
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Kare
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Re: Pali and Sanskrit: some history

Post by Kare »

manjughosamani wrote:Hi Kare,

You can read the majority, if not all, of the text online here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/207362992/Bro ... arly-India

All the best.
Thank you very much, manjughosamani! :anjali:
Mettāya,
Kåre
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Kare
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Re: Pali and Sanskrit: some history

Post by Kare »

I am reading Bronkhorst's book now. It is interesting, but from what I till now have seen, it does not address the questions I specified. Bronkhorst has a different focus for his writing.
Mettāya,
Kåre
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Assaji
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Re: Pali and Sanskrit: some history

Post by Assaji »

Lance Cousins writes:

"The standard epigraphical language used in the Gangetic plain and beyond in the last centuries B.C. and a little after was a form of Middle Indian rather close to Pali. We have no reason to believe that any other written language existed in that area at that time. Like Pali it is eclectic with word-forms originally from different dialectics and also with no standardized spelling (as was probably originally the case for Pali). So the first Buddhist texts written down in that area should have been in that form. Since the enlarged kingdom of Magadha eventually extended over nearly the whole Gangetic plain, that language was probably called the language of Magadha, if it had a name. And that of course is the correct name of the Pali language.

Pali is essentially a standardized and slightly Sanskritized version of that language. Māgadhī is a language described by the Prakrit grammarians and refers to a written dialect that developed later (early centuries A.D. ?) from the spoken dialect in some part of 'Greater Magadha'.

In effect, then, Pali is the closest we can get to the language spoken by the Buddha. And it cannot have been very different — we are talking about dialect diferences here, not radically distinct languages."

http://www.buddha-l.org/archives/2013-May/018487.html
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Kare
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Re: Pali and Sanskrit: some history

Post by Kare »

Dmytro wrote:Lance Cousins writes:

"The standard epigraphical language used in the Gangetic plain and beyond in the last centuries B.C. and a little after was a form of Middle Indian rather close to Pali. We have no reason to believe that any other written language existed in that area at that time. Like Pali it is eclectic with word-forms originally from different dialectics and also with no standardized spelling (as was probably originally the case for Pali). So the first Buddhist texts written down in that area should have been in that form. Since the enlarged kingdom of Magadha eventually extended over nearly the whole Gangetic plain, that language was probably called the language of Magadha, if it had a name. And that of course is the correct name of the Pali language.

Pali is essentially a standardized and slightly Sanskritized version of that language. Māgadhī is a language described by the Prakrit grammarians and refers to a written dialect that developed later (early centuries A.D. ?) from the spoken dialect in some part of 'Greater Magadha'.

In effect, then, Pali is the closest we can get to the language spoken by the Buddha. And it cannot have been very different — we are talking about dialect diferences here, not radically distinct languages."

http://www.buddha-l.org/archives/2013-May/018487.html
Thank you. It is interesting to see that Lance Cousins has the same general idea of the Pali/Magadhi question as I have.
Mettāya,
Kåre
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