Chronology of the Pali Canon

Explore the ancient language of the Tipitaka and Theravāda commentaries
Post Reply
User avatar
Assaji
Posts: 2106
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2009 7:24 pm

Chronology of the Pali Canon

Post by Assaji »

Hello Pali friends,

I would like to share some sources and thoughts on the chronology of the Pali Canon.

First, the research on chronology.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE PALI CANON
BY DR. BIMALA CHURN LAW

http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-ENG/bcl.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE NIKĀYAS
Bhikkhu Thich Minh Thanh

http://www.viet.net/anson/ebud/mind/02_chap2.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

STUDIES IN THE ORIGINS OF BUDDHISM
GOVIND CHANDRA PANDE

http://www.exoticindia.ru.com/book/deta ... sm-IDC304/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Buddha Spoke Pāli
by Stefan Karpik

http://pali.nibbanam.com/kosalan.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

How old is the Suttapitaka? The relative value of textual and epigraphical sources for the study of early Indian Buddhism.
by Alexander Wynne

http://www.ocbs.org/images/documents/Wynne.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Cooking the Buddhist Books: The Implications of the New Dating of the Buddha for the History of Early Indian Buddhism"
by Charles S. Prebish

http://blogs.dickinson.edu/buddhistethi ... rticle.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Recovering the Buddha's Message
R.F. Gombrich

http://www.scribd.com/doc/64865244/Reco ... h-TBF-1988" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
User avatar
Assaji
Posts: 2106
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2009 7:24 pm

Re: Chronology of the Pali Canon

Post by Assaji »

Next, the epigraphic evidence.

The Hati-Gumpha inscription of Kharavela, dated the 160th year of the Maurya era (second century BCE) is written in a language which is very close to Pali:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hathigumpha_inscription" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://books.google.com.ua/books?id=QYx ... 9&lpg=PA19" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://books.google.com.ua/books?id=XdC ... A5&lpg=PA5" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://orissa.gov.in/e-magazine/Journal ... f/9-10.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://gujaratisbs.webs.com/Abstracts%2 ... 20More.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The language of Girnar Asokan edicts is also very close to Pali.

Research of Dr Meena Talim:

http://www.exoticindia.ru.com/book/deta ... on-IHF006/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.aryanbooks.co.in/product.asp?pro_id=65" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The minor differences between the languages of these inscriptions and Pali are described on the pages 4-5 of K.R. Norman's work "The Pali Language and the Theravadin Tradition":

http://www.scribd.com/doc/61312930/The- ... orman-1983" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
User avatar
Assaji
Posts: 2106
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2009 7:24 pm

Re: Chronology of the Pali Canon

Post by Assaji »

Now, as to the question of the stratification of Pali Canon by lexical and grammatical markers.

Rhys-Davids'es Pali-English dictionary mentions the words which are used only in the later texts:

ānubhāva
kilesa
bhāva
mālaka
yujjhati
yogin
rasmi
laddhi
vaḍḍhaki
vasabha
viññāṇaka
vimāna
vetulla

Sanskritized prefixes:

ava-
samabhi-

plural of "citta"
yuvassa

There's also a formidable work on the evolution of the Pali metre:

http://www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/T ... utline.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Paul Kingsbury has done a great work on inducing the chronology through the grammatical markers:

Inducing a Chronology of the Pali Canon
Paul Kingsbury

http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/publications/C ... gsbury.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The chronology of the Pali Canon: The case of the aorists
by Kingsbury, Paul

http://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI3073020/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The results of his work support the conclusions of Dr. Bimala Churn Law - the gradual evolution of sigmatic vs non-sigmatic aorists is evident from early to late texts, from Sutta-Nipata to Apadana.

So the thorough approach to chronological analysis of the Pali Canon, which will use grammatical, lexical and metrical markers, will make it possible to produce more accurate chronology.

It may even be possible to sort out the chronology of suttas by geographical locations, from the first Buddha's rainy season at Deer Park, to the Mahaparinibbana sutta.

http://stylomilo.com/files/mv/YMBASr1/D ... ddhism.doc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Meta, Dmytro
Last edited by Assaji on Mon Jun 04, 2012 12:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Sekha
Posts: 789
Joined: Wed Jan 20, 2010 12:32 am
Location: Earth
Contact:

Re: Chronology of the Pali Canon

Post by Sekha »

Excellent!

Thanks for sharing!

This is very useful info!
:namaste:
Where knowledge ends, religion begins. - B. Disraeli

http://www.buddha-vacana.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
User avatar
Assaji
Posts: 2106
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2009 7:24 pm

Re: Chronology of the Pali Canon

Post by Assaji »

There's a certain synchronicity in evolution of various Indo-European languages:

http://universalium.academic.ru/240829/ ... _languages" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://folk.uio.no/eysteind/PaperICHL.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So it may be possible to establish the linguistic timeline of evolution of grammatical forms.
Then we would be able to date the strata of the Pali Canon in the global context.
danieLion
Posts: 1947
Joined: Wed May 25, 2011 4:49 am

Re: Chronology of the Pali Canon

Post by danieLion »

Hi Dmytro,
Stellar.
Best Wishes,
Daniel
User avatar
Assaji
Posts: 2106
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2009 7:24 pm

Re: Chronology of the Pali Canon

Post by Assaji »

Dmytro wrote:There's also a formidable work on the evolution of the Pali metre:

http://www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/T ... utline.htm
A.K. Warder provides a table of chronological strata, according to the metre used:

http://www.palitext.com/palitext/PaliMetre.pdf#page=124
User avatar
Assaji
Posts: 2106
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2009 7:24 pm

Re: Chronology of the Pali Canon

Post by Assaji »

Dan Zigmond conducted a computational analysis of the Pāli Canon:
Toward a Computational Analysis of the Pali Canon

Abstract

This paper describes the results of applying computational text mining to the Tipiṭaka, or Pali Canon, the canonical scripture of Theravāda Buddhism. Individual volumes of the Tipiṭaka are divided into “clusters” using purely computation tools, and in many cases these clusters appear to match the rough scholarly consensus around the relative age of the volumes.

Image
Image

Texts are also summarized into “word clouds” based on relative word frequency, and these also seem to reflect the underlying themes of the texts.

Image

While these initial results are essentially confirmational rather than novel, they suggest these approaches will be valuable additions to the Pali scholar’s toolbox.

http://jocbs.org/index.php/jocbs/article/view/236
See the details at:

https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages ... EADME.html
https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages ... index.html
https://github.com/cran/tipitaka
User avatar
Assaji
Posts: 2106
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2009 7:24 pm

Re: Chronology of the Pali Canon

Post by Assaji »

THE DIFFERENT STRATA IN THE LITERARY MATERIAL OF THE DĪGHA NIKĀYA
P. V. BAPAT

https://www.jstor.org/stable/44028008

The Digha Nikaya, as it exists at present, consists of the three volumes, which appear to be differentiated from one another, by the subject matter in each of them, and the manner and method of its presentation. The first volume is called the Silakkhandha, the second the Mahāvagga and the third the Patikavagga. The name of the first is significant, as it contains in all the suttas, except the last, the Buddhist teaching of good conduct. In all suttas, except the first and the last, the burden of the sutta is the Buddhist teaching of good conduct (Sīla), concentration (samadhi) and wisdom (Paññā), culminating into the ideal of Arhatship. The second volume is called the Mahavagga (or as it is traditionally called in Burma the Sutta-mahāvā), as it contains several suttas which appear to be amplified versions of originally small suttas. It contains the famous Mahaparinibbana sutta, which has reached an abnormal length, perhaps on account of frequent later additions, and which gives us some historical account of the last few days of Gotama Buddha. The third volume is called the Patikavagga, named after the First sutta, the Patika sutta. It perhaps represents the continuation of the Buddhist attempt of presenting the matter, in a manner, that would most attract and appeal to the common people (a beginning of which is already marked in the first and second volumes), and that was likely to produce a greater impression on the common people.

... (detailed description of the first volume)

With this sutta the first volume comes to an end, We see in all these suttas the plain and simple teaching of good conduct, self-control, etc. in prominence and further we mark that the Buddha is considered as a teacher of all, but he is considered merely as a superior being of the same category as that of the Arhats.

When we turn to the second vol. we find ourselves to be breathing a new atmosphere. The old atmosphere of the plain and simple teaching of the moral law and of self-discipine by the three stages of Sīla, Samādhi and Paññā we no longer breathe.

... (detailed description of the second volume)

Almost all the suttas in the second volume particularly 17-23 seem to be at a remote distance from the majority of the suttas of the first volume.

Another feature that deserves notice is that in the first vol. there are only three gāthās while in the second vol. there are as many as 134, many of which are intended to repeat and sing what is already said in prose.

... (detailed description of the third volume)

Thus we find in the third vol. another distinct literary stratum, in which we mark, that Buddhism has much deviated from its original simplicity of faith and purity of conduct, In this vol. we have marked Gotama compromising his position on the question of miracles in the Patika sutta, the mention of Metteyya Buddha, the love of Pauranic legends, beginnings of Tāntric literature and, the special feature of the last two suttas in their form of presentation.

Thus after a detailed examination of the contents of the suttas in these three volumes, we think that all these suttas cannot possibly be supposed to be belonging to one and the same literary stratum. An extensive range in the evolution of Buddhism is covered by the suttas in these volumes. We can not even think of the simple suttas in the first vol. detailing the teachings of the Buddha under the three headings of Sīla, Samādhi and Paññā, in the same breath with the suttas of the mythological nature, like the Mahāsamaya, Janavasabha, Mahāgovinda, or Sakkapañha suttas of the second vol., or the Patika, Ātānātiya, Cakkavatti, Aggañña, or the Sangīti and Dasuttara suttas of the third vol.

There thus appear to be at least three different literary strata to which the suttas in the three vols. as they are at present, may be said to belong. It is not however meant to be said that the suttas of the first stratum have remained in exactly the same form and in the same place, when subsequent literary strata had come into existence. There may have been shuffling, arranging and rearranging, slight additions, or alterations, but in the main they seem to have been left over as they were then.
User avatar
Assaji
Posts: 2106
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2009 7:24 pm

Re: Chronology of the Pali Canon

Post by Assaji »

Sanskrit research that can be transferred to Pali in the future:

Dating Sanskrit texts using linguistic features and neural networks
Oliver Hellwig

https://www.academia.edu/53885816/Datin ... l_networks
User avatar
Assaji
Posts: 2106
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2009 7:24 pm

Re: Chronology of the Pali Canon

Post by Assaji »

Assaji wrote: Mon Jun 04, 2012 8:37 am Now, as to the question of the stratification of Pali Canon by lexical and grammatical markers.

Rhys-Davids'es Pali-English dictionary mentions the words which are used only in the later texts:...
Ven. Nyanatiloka lists a number of chronological markers:
https://www.budsas.org/ebud/bud-dict/dic4_append.htm
Post Reply