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T. W. Rhys Davids in his book Buddhist India, [23] and Wilhelm Geiger in his book Pāli Literature and Language, suggested that Pali may have originated as a lingua franca or common language of culture among people who used differing dialects in North India, used at the time of the Buddha and employed by him.
The earliest Buddhist texts were passed down orally in Middle Indo-Aryan languages called Prakrits, including Gāndhārī language, the early Magadhan language and Pāli through the use of repetition, communal recitation and mnemonic devices. [1] [16] These texts were later compiled into canons and written down in manuscripts.
The Pāli Canon is the most complete Buddhist canon surviving in a classical Indian language, Pāli, which serves as the school's sacred language [1] and lingua franca. [2] In contrast to Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna, Theravāda tends to be conservative in matters of the theoretical study of the doctrine and monastic discipline . [3]
The other two main Buddhist canons in use in the present day are the Chinese Buddhist Canon and the Tibetan Kangyur. The standard modern edition of the Chinese Buddhist Canon is the Taishō Revised Tripiṭaka, with a hundred major divisions, totaling over 80,000 pages.
Burmese-Pali manuscript copy of the Buddhist text Mahaniddesa, showing three different types of Burmese script, (top) medium square, (centre) round and (bottom) outline round in red lacquer from the inside of one of the gilded covers. Pali literature is concerned mainly with Theravada Buddhism, of which Pali (IAST: pāl̤i) is the traditional ...
A Definition Etymology In other languages abhidhamma A category of scriptures that attempts to use Buddhist teachings to create a systematic, abstract description of all worldly phenomena abhi is "above" or "about", dhamma is "teaching" Pāli: abhidhamma Sanskrit: abhidharma Bur: အဘိဓမ္မာ abhidhamma Khmer: អភិធម្ម âphĭthômm Tib: ཆོས་མངོན་པ ...
Buddhist texts present two chronologies which have been used to date the lifetime of the Buddha. [64] The "long chronology", from Sri Lankese chronicles, states the Buddha was born 298 years before Asoka's coronation and died 218 years before the coronation, thus a lifespan of about 80 years.
Glenn Wallis states: "By distilling the complex models, theories, rhetorical style and sheer volume of the Buddha's teachings into concise, crystalline verses, the Dhammapada makes the Buddhist way of life available to anyone...In fact, it is possible that the very source of the Dhammapada in the third century B.C.E. is traceable to the need of ...