PROPOSED WORKSHOP ON PALI AND BUDDHIST CULTURES - concept note

WORKSHOP ON PALI LANGUAGE AND BUDDHIST CULTURES

(A TWO-WEEK COURSE PROGRAMME FOR LANGUAGE TRAINING AND CULTURAL ANALYSIS)

During the period of DECEMBER vacation, 2015

Department of Philosophy, Sree Sankaracharya University, Kalady.

(Draft)

The idea of this course programme stems from the deliberations on Buddhist cultures, which took place in the workshop on cultural Buddhism conducted recently by the department of philosophy. There had many presentations attempting to trace the vestiges and continued presence of Buddhist elements in the south Indian cultures. Exploration in tune to the specific topic of the workshop; ‘Buddhist-Matters of Kerala and Elsewhere: Learning(s) From Cultural Legacies’, it seems to have succeeded to impress upon the participants about the nature of future course of academics in this connection. Many presentations were found employing a kind of linguistic archaeological analysis for suggesting to the plausible Buddhist connections of different social institutions and cultural practices in south India. Buddhist connections are often attempted to establish by tracing the Pali etymological roots of many words that are seemingly integral to the prevailing cultures. This has sounded wider scope for linguistic explorations in order to have a better understanding of those cultural expressions that are otherwise accounted as belonging to cultural traditions other than Buddhist. As it has been surfaced in the deliberations, there is an urgent need of getting a familiarity with the phenomenon of Pali language as such. The factor of pervasiveness or admixture of Pali words, especially in Malayalam (the language of present Kerala) and Tamil languages seems to widen the scope of critical academics on cultural history of the region. It might provide substantial resource for challenging the received history of the region in general as well as the history of Buddhism of the region. Since the idea of cultural Buddhism has been considered by underlining the plurality of Buddhist cultures as against its perceptions as monolithic slab, visitations to the Pali sources of Buddhism also assume profound significance. To be able to equip for all these, a wider access to the Pali language needs to be created.

(To be concluded)

P.  K. sasidharan, co-ordinator.