Pali, the Language of the Southern Buddhists

Summary

This long essay reviews competing theories about the origin of Pāli, the canonical language of Theravāda Buddhism. One school holds that Pāli is Magadhan, basing the claim on a passage in the Cullavagga where monks propose to recite the Buddha’s words in Sanskrit and he instructs them to use their own dialect (sakāya niruttiyā). Proponents argue that the Buddha spoke Magadhī and that his teachings were preserved in that vernacular. Others suggest that Pāli derives from the dialect of Avanti, Ujjain or Kosala, or that it is an artificial literary language combining features of several dialects to facilitate pan‑regional communication. Examining phonology, morphology and vocabulary, the author notes that Pāli exhibits both eastern and western traits: assimilation of consonant clusters and change of r to l, typical of Magadhan speech, coexist with forms characteristic of northwest India. It lacks a single distinctive trait that would identify it with one region. The paper reviews inscriptions and manuscripts which show that early Buddhist texts were written in various local prakrits; even Sanskrit was used alongside vernaculars. The author concludes that Pāli was standardised by missionaries who selected forms intelligible to a wide audience in southern India and Sri Lanka. Its origin cannot be pinned to a single city, and its development reflects the cosmopolitan character of Buddhism’s expansion.