PALI
WORKSHOP DISCUSSION :
..............
POST-
1. P. K. Sasidharan
WORKSHOP ON PALI LANGUAGE AND BUDDHIST CULTURES
(theme-note
draft)
16-30
December, 2015.
Context:
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 archeological 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.
........
POST-
2. P. K. Sasidharan
Significance:
(draft)
It
may be for the first time that a training programme in Pali language
is being conducted in Kerala (perhaps in south India itself). Pali
and Prakrit were some of the ancient languages spoken widely by the
people of Indian subcontinent. Kosala and Magadha (present-day Nepal,
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar regions) are considered to be the heartland of
Pali. However, it has been observed that larger presence of Pali
words still remain to exist in the south Indian languages, especially
in Tamil and Malayalam. That means it is in south India that Pali
continues to remain, at least, as a partial living language. At the
same time, grammatically the Pali and Prakrit are more akin to the
Sanskrit. Such a unique linguistic phenomenon seems to open up wider
scope for research in different areas. The historical and cultural
conditions in which Pali is found to be a constitutive factor of the
south Indian languages are yet to be explored.
For
the study of Buddhism and Jainism, Pali texts are considered as more
ancient and authentic sources. Ancient inscriptions, which are found
to be in Brahmi scripts bear the legacy of Pali. Many Sanskrit
literatures are also found carrying portions conveyed the Pali within
the devanagari script.
As
far as the derivation or meaning of the word ‘Pali’ is concerned,
scholars hold different opinions. Preaching of Buddha
(Buddhavachana), Tripitaka canons, the language of Buddhist canons,
doctrine of dharma, etc. are some of the meanings attribute to it.
There are different views regarding its derivation. For some, it is
derived from the word ‘palli’ (village), which signifies that
Pali was the language of village people. For some others, it is
derivation of the Sanskrit ‘padd’ (text). It is also related to
the word ‘padaliputra’.
The
above matters would suggest that a study programme of the Pali
language could not be confined simply to its grammatical aspects. It
has to be accomplished a through familiarization of different aspects
enshrined in the language. Therefore, the present workshop proposes
to include, besides the training in grammatical and scriptural
aspects, some scholarly lectures on subject matters that are
enshrined in the Pali language.
..........
POST-
3. Prof. Yojana Bhagat: (Chief Pali Resource Person)
PALI
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE WITH BUDDHIST STUDIES- A note (draft)
Introduction:
Pali is one of the ancient languages of India and is the MOTHER of
most of the languages spoken in India today.
The
importance of the Pali language lies in the fact that ‘Pali has
protected the buddhavacana- that is the words of the Buddha’- and
hence it is called Pali. The name Pali is given to the language in
the 5th CE by acariya Buddhaghosa thera, prior to that Pali was known
by the name of Magadhi.
As
we all know that Buddha used the lingua franca the local language of
the people to give the dhamma- the teachings, so that it reaches all.
We
have references in the Pali literature where Buddha admonished his
disciples who wanted to translate the teachings in the Chandas
language, Chandas being the name of Sanskrit prior to its
modification by Panini. We thus understand that learning Pali or the
original words of the Buddha is more relevant to know the dhamma than
the gist of the dhamma through translation.
The
traditional learning of Pali is with Pariyatti, Patipatti and
Pativedhana, where Pariyatti is listening to the dhamma, reading the
books, discussions on the subject and so on, the Patipatti means
genuine efforts to walk on the path of the dhamma, that is following
the precepts, being aware of oneself through meditational practices
and so on and the last is the Pativedhana- which means the
experiential knowledge of the teachings of the Buddha, which develops
your insight- the Panna.
Each
and every word of the Buddha can be experienced and that is the
beauty of the teachings of the Buddha.
We
donot learn Pali through translation, because no language of the
world has the richness or the strength of the words to hold or carry
the meanings or experience which the Pali words carry. That is the
reason the most of thebuddhavacana cannot be translated in any other
language and remains the same in Pali as the Buddha, the Dhamma, the
Sangha- the Vipassana and so on.
Learning
Pali is very important today because- Pali has the teachings of the
Buddha and whatever written on the teachings of the Buddha for 2500
years. Pali has the Dhamma- and the characteristic of the dhamma is
it isakaliko- that is not bound by time.
The
teachings of the Buddha were true 2500 years ago, are true today and
will be true 2500 years henceforth. That is the reason; the scholars
all over the world are learning Pali to find answers to the
contemporary issues faced by the society today. The problem could be
personal or social; the answer is in the teachings of the Buddha.
Buddha
is called the Management guru, who gave the principles of Management
which still governs the Sangha after 2500 years, Buddha is called the
Mahabhessajja guru- the greatest doctor, who not only cured the
illness, but showed the path to eradicate completely the suffering,
Buddha is called the greatest psychotherapist who explained that Mind
is the sixth sense, Buddha is the greatest leader who showed the
right path to the millions and gave the principles of democracy and
equality. Buddha is the greatest teacher the world has ever seen.
Thus
when one learns Pali, it is not just the language- it is the way of
life.
THINGS
WE CAN DO AT THE 15 DAYS WORKSHOP ON PALI LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
WITH BUDDHIST STUDIES.
Introduction
to the Pali Language and Literature
Recitation
of the Pali suttas
Workshop
on Brahmi Script and Pali Language
Relation
of Pali language and Buddhist Art and Architecture
Places
of Buddhist interest and Buddhist Pilgrimage
Contemporary
Issues and the Teachings of the Buddha
Decline
and Revival of Buddhism in India
Flower
Arrangement and the Teachings of the Buddha.
Buddhist
Education and Culture
Dr.
Babasaheb Ambedkar and Buddhism
.....
RESPONSES:
POST-
4. K. Sugathan:
Pali
is basically a language belonging to Indo-European family. But it has
borrowed freely from Moola Dravida language as well as Austric
languages. Sanskrit was made "pure" by removing
Dravida and Austric elements. Once Prof. Sukumar Azheekode said, the
language of Indian Culture is Pali and not Sanskrit. It is difficult
to read Pali in Roman script. Brahmi script is quite simple and
easy to learn.
..............
POST-
5. K. G. Krishna Kumar:
It
is very important to see the reality that it is the Pali language,
which made possible the present day Malayalam. Among the Dravidian
languages, the Malayalam has certain uniqueness due to its influence
by the Pali. Unfortunately our linguists do not show any
interest towards the Pali or give any attention to the influence Pali
had on our language. For a proper understanding of the development of
Malayalam language and the culture of Kerala requires familiarity
with the Pali. Hope the workshop on Pali would help our people to
rediscover its cultural roots.
..........
POST-
6. Ajay Sekher:
The
Pali Workshop is academically and politically significant in the
current conjecture. It is also a desirable follow up to the cultural
buddhism workshop. As the scholar behind the Prakrit-Malayalam
dictionary we also need to include Prof T Pavithran's class on Brahmi
script and Vattezhutu towards the end of the Pali workshop to link it
to our own cultural contexts. He could introduce Brahmi scripts
in 2 days. That would be a further enabling and liberating break for
all of us who wants to read ancient Pali texts and Tamil texts or
inscriptions in Brahmi scripts found all over south India.
.........
POST-
7. K. Sugathan:
A
study of Pali will help us to understand many things
(1)
We got hundreds of words of Magadhi through the people who came to
Kerala to propagate Buddhism
(2)
The word 'amma' is not a thalbhavam of sanscrit word 'amba'
(3)
Members of the Viswakarma community are Buddhists who came from
Bihar.
(4)
Sanskrit is an artificial language .
..........
POST-
8. Rajasree. S
The
study of Pali language and Brahmi script is essential for the study
of Buddhist culture in India. The degradation of real values and the
consequent revival of meaningless rituals are the grave problems
faced by all present day religions in the world. The reconstruction
of Buddhist ideas matching to the requirements of liberation from the
sufferings seems to a possible way out. For this,the recovery
of Pali language is a must. But it should not be linked to the
purpose of any power plitics.
..........
POST-
9. Ajay Sekher:
It
is a liberating break to learn Pali through the Brahmi script that
was introduced in South India in BC third century by Asokan
missionaries. Prof T Pavithran who has deciphered so many Pali
inscriptions from Idakal to Pattanamwould be a vital contributor in
this academic event by Prof Yojana Bhagat. The Brahmi inscriptions
and the Brahmi script in particular form the still surviving concrete
and material link of South India with Pali apart from the vocabulary
and usages that exist in disguised ways in Malayalam and other
South
Indian languages.
........
POST-
10. M. Dasan:
There
was no period in the history of India when only one system of
philosophy one culture only were n vogue. in fact various cultures
languages, and epistemology existed simultaneously. Then
how comes Sanskrit became the language and HIndu/Brahminic
culture became the culture of India? Let us explore . In order to
understand how the dominant discourse interpolated , translated
the original Pali in which Buddha expressed his dhamma ( also
insisted not to use Chandas/sanskrit)a knowledge of Pali is
essential. Any attempt to learn Pali language would also be an
attempt to learn the way of life Buddha had shown.
.......
POST-
11 . T. Mini:
A
study of Pali is essential to understand Buddhist culture. Early
literature of Buddhism is stored through the medium of Pali. Hence to
know Buddhism from the early period [that is from period of
Buddha to 1st or Second century of common era] a working
knowledge in Pali becomes essential.We are now studying and
interpreting Buddhism mainly based on translations.We learn Sanskrit
Buddhist texts of later period also through translations from
Chinese, English or other languages. Hence to be familiar with
the original Pali texts is imperative to understand
Buddhist cultures. It is highly appreciable that such an attempt is
being undertaken.There are courses in some North Indian Institutions
to teach Pali and Prakrt.
.......
POST-
12. P. Madhu:
What
matters is not the identity of language vis a vis that of the other
but the semiotic/collective assemblage making that language - which
determines usage of sense making with the language. Collective
assemblage that effectuate & construct the language in question
determines it's enunciative capabilities. If we
project
Pali as language of 'good' Buddhists vis a vis bad Brahmins and trace
a conspiracy in the 'elimination' of Pali influence from Malayalam
then that would result in impoverished historiography and poor
understanding of languages in the making. I wish the best for the
workshop. A strong pull towards identity fetishism however may spoil
it too.
........
POST-
13. P. K.Sasidharan:
Of
course, assertions of cultural rights need not be yet another
instance of perpetrating violation or injustice. It may be self
defeating. Such provocations might be leading to misdirect the
target. We can very image a situation that the region of Kerala soon
witnessing the demise of the Malayalam language and script. Can the
possibility of it becoming another linguistic grave yard of the
Malayalam be considered as natural and evolutionary? Who will
be the beneficiaries and losers of such a situation?
......................
POST-
14. P. Madhu:
Problematizing
milieus constituting enunciative practices culminating in languages
and their signifiers and thereby hierarchising the social world
unjustly can be the orientation. That will problematize processes
instead playing a identitarian blame games and provocations.
............................
15.
P. K. Sasidharan:
The
concerns conveyed by the above questions are to be addressed.
Conspiracy may not be the apt term to characterize the forces working
to the creation of such situation. Interests of social and
cultural domination are apparently there. They may be in force
through economic and political structures.
...........................
POST-
16. P. Madhu:
Do
you presuppose some conspirators villains work behind the screen
consistently for Millenniums to deliberately sabotage goodness of
good languages? It is wonderful to study languages and the
enunciative struggles or context making, breaking, diminishing
or enhancing them - but a conspiratory presuppositions muddled with
current concerns of identity claims spoil the brat. That linearises
and flattens history to unjustifiable ideological claims that are
methodologically vacuous.
..............................
POST-
17. P. K. Sasidharan:
Question
of purity of language may not be the present concern. Why do we go
after some dead languages and scripts? Why do we struggle to decipher
the Indus script? Why the Pali and Prakrit are considered to so
valuable? How the recovery Hebru became liberative? There are many
factors and conditions which made the demise of languages. Some may
be natural and evolutionary. Others may be created or
pressurized. There is a socializing process going on whereby
some tongues are made silent and some others are being made louder.
How could we think of such situations are encouraging?
Activism
seems to spring from the space of some common cause that are to be
achieved. It may happen in such a way keeping both justice and
cruelty in view. In this scheme, the activism for the recovery
of Pali has to be placed in the former side. Pali cannot be the sake
of Pali alone
.........................
POST-
18. P. Madhu:
1.assuming
languages to be pure monads & positioning them as oppressed and
oppressor is problematic
2.conspitatory
claims of someone deliberately making forgetful of somebody
else's ancestry does not go well with the understanding of the
discursive production of language.
3.languages
are flows in response to ethologically triggered necessities. No
language can remain statically true to its ancestry- because
ethological conditions and enunciative necessities don't remain same.
About
activism: engineering action against other with claims of justice - I
think can't be authentic activism.
........................
POST-
19. P. K. Sasidharan:
An
activism for the recovery of Pali language seems to convey many
things. It embodies a cultural politics that emerges from the
awareness on historical wars of oppression and marginalization fought
by means of language. Primarily, it has to seek an explanation
on why certain people are made forgetful of the tongue in which their
ancestors were negotiating with natural and cultural environments for
survival of them, including the progenies to come. The present day
Kerala had been a region where the tongue Tamil was prevailed for a
long time in the history of human civilization. That means, Keralites
were too Tamilians as the people of the present Tamil Nadu.
Unfortunately, Keralites consider Tamilians are different or rather
culturally inferior. If we go further in the history of the
sub-continent, we might be able to see a same model of cultural
metamorphosis happened to the Dravidian India that is known now in
hearsay only. If Pali and Prakrit were popular tongues, what
caused their demise? Asking such questions of cultural and historical
justice cannot be branded as identity fanaticism.
.........................
POST-
20. P. Madhu:
Except
by politics no language can be presented in its purity. Destabilizing
it's unity is a welcome 'minority politics'. Speaking in terms of
'minority politics' is genuinely radical than what lobbies of various
identity positions market.....
The
enunciative pressures upon the making (variating) languages is worth
problematized than associating them with purity of languages or their
associative good or badness.
..........
POST-
21. Rajasree. S:
According
to Alexander Cunningham, Pali is the refined form of Sanskrit. But
unfortunately Buddhists themselves discarded Pali and accepted
Sanskrit.So the effort to revive Pali can be considered as a historic
mission.
........
POST-
22. P. K. Sasidharan:
The
remark on Cunningham's view regarding Pali has to be cross chequed.
Are sure he said the same way you wrote? Can you get me details
of that statement?
......
POST-
23. Rajasree. S:
I
got that information from a book named "Nalanda" by
UmayanalloorBalakrishnaPilla published in 1963. I am searching for
that book from my collection . That old book contains rare collection
of facts.
...
POST-
24. P. K. Sasidharan:
Please
verify whether Cunningham has said the same way or other way around
...
POST-
25. Rajasree. S:
I
went through the pages once again.Cunningham's opinion is that the
introduction of "thantrayana" and the importance given to
Sanskrit by Guptha rulers accounts for the deterioration of "Pali,
which was the refined version of Sanskrit" .
......
POST-
26. P. K. Sasidharan:
I
still find something confused somewhere. If Pali was
deteriorated with the introduction of Sanskrit, how comes pali be a
refined form of Sanskrit? It should be a case other way around. We
have to find out more details.
.......
POST-27.
Rajasree. S:
Whatever
is abandoned or ignored, may lose its quality. As Pali was the most
popular and rich language, and the language used by the Buddhists,
those who want to finish it off might have purposely discouraged
Pali.Sanskrit must have been projected as a competitor to Pali. We
know the role of Alexander Cunningham in excavating Nalanda.The sole
credit goes to him. We can't expect a wrong statement from him.But we
have to confirm it first from his own writings.
........
POST-
28. P. K. Sasidharan
yes,
Cunningham has a book, Corpus Inscriptionum, related to the study of
the Pali. I think, he and many others find Pali as an independent
language. If the Sanskrit is, by the very conception of
sophistication or purity signified by the word Sanskrit, a well
regimented or stylised language, how could it be anterior to the
Pali, which was a popular tongue and unsophisticated, primitive or
Prakrit?
.......
POST-
29. Rajasree. S:
When
I discussed this issue with a scholar in Sanskrit, he too opined in
the same way. He said that Pali is Prakrit and Sanskrit, the most
purified. But why did Cunningham make such a remark..? I don't know
anybody who knows Pali. It would be better, if you discuss the
problem with the resource person who has agreed to teach us Pali.
...........
POST-
30. P. K. Sasidharan:
There
are Sankritists who argue that the Sankrit is the mother of all
lnguages, especiall of Indian languages. For the all indian languages
are derivatives or apabramsams from the Skt. Sanskrit, being part of
the Indo-European family of languages, it is all likely that
Cunningha had a disposition to high light Sanskrit's superiority.
Chattambi swamikal had already argued that the Tamil has all the
features of being an adibhasha, since it is the simplest language. in
the evolutionary history, laguages have evolved from simple to
complex. he had also showed sanskrit was developed from the tamil.
though swamikal was very much appreciated by the Hinduists in
general, they never consider him for his argument for
Tamil.
.........
POST-
31. Prof. Yojana Bhagat: (Chief Pali Resource Person)
From the
above responses i can see that people are eager and ready to know
more about the language and literature of Buddhism.
thus
taking into consideration the interests of the people in general we
should conduct the workshop accordingly.
more
of different information, exploration of different ideas of how
Buddhism and Pali language was prevalent in south India specially
Kerala.
we
would be needing simple Pali grammar books for the basic study. i am
also preparing the basic information notes which we can give the
students in photocopies.
PPTs
should be prepared to give information on Buddhist archaeological
sites of India. Papers on the topics of contribution of south India
to Buddhism is necessary for better understanding.
i
am working on these areas. kindly let me know any topic you think
would be of interest to the people, to create more interest in Pali
and Buddhist studies.
