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118-605: As such, Benzaiten is now also associated with dragons, snakes, local Japanese deities, wealth, fortune, protection from disease and danger, and the protection of the state. Saraswati (Sanskrit: Sarasvatī ; Pali : Sarassatī ) was originally in the Rigveda a river goddess, the deification of the Sarasvati River . She was identified with Vach (Skt. Vāc ), the Vedic goddess of speech, and from there became considered to be

236-510: A biwa performer sings monophonically , with melismatic emphasis throughout the performance. These monophonic do not follow a set harmony. Instead, biwa singers tend to sing with a flexible pitch without distinguishing soprano , alto , tenor , or bass roles. This singing style is complemented by the biwa , which biwa players use to produce short glissandi throughout the performance. The style of singing accompanying biwa tends to be nasal, particularly when singing vowels,

354-415: A Middle Indo-Aryan language , is different from Classical Sanskrit more with regard to its dialectal base than the time of its origin. A number of its morphological and lexical features show that it is not a direct continuation of Ṛgvedic Sanskrit. Instead it descends from one or more dialects that were, despite many similarities, different from Ṛgvedic . The Theravada commentaries refer to

472-515: A before doubled consonants: The vowels ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩ are lengthened in the flexional endings including: -īhi, -ūhi and -īsu A sound called anusvāra (Skt.; Pali: niggahīta ), represented by the letter ṁ (ISO 15919) or ṃ (ALA-LC) in romanization, and by a raised dot in most traditional alphabets, originally marked the fact that the preceding vowel was nasalized. That is, aṁ , iṁ and uṁ represented [ã] , [ĩ] and [ũ] . In many traditional pronunciations, however,

590-531: 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. Another scholar states that at that time it was "a refined and elegant vernacular of all Aryan-speaking people". Modern scholarship has not arrived at a consensus on the issue; there are a variety of conflicting theories with supporters and detractors. After

708-421: A benevolent deity, but also as Yami , the sister of Yama . He then describes her eight-armed form with all its attributes — bow, arrow, sword, spear, axe, vajra , iron wheel , and noose . The poem describes Saraswati as one who "has sovereignty in the world", as one who is "good fortune, success, and peace of mind". It also states that she fights in battlefields and is always victorious. One key concern of

826-664: A continuation of a language spoken in the area of Magadha in the time of the Buddha. Nearly every word in Pāḷi has cognates in the other Middle Indo-Aryan languages, the Prakrits . The relationship to Vedic Sanskrit is less direct and more complicated; the Prakrits were descended from Old Indo-Aryan vernaculars . Historically, influence between Pali and Sanskrit has been felt in both directions. The Pali language's resemblance to Sanskrit

944-552: A degraded form of Pali, But Masefield states that further examination of a very considerable corpus of texts will probably show that this is an internally consistent Pali dialect. The reason for the changes is that some combinations of characters are difficult to write in those scripts. Masefield further states that upon the third re-introduction of Theravada Buddhism into Sri Lanka (The Siyamese Sect), records in Thailand state that large number of texts were also taken. It seems that when

1062-575: A few loan-words from local languages where Pali was used (e.g. Sri Lankans adding Sinhala words to Pali). These usages differentiate the Pali found in the Suttapiṭaka from later compositions such as the Pali commentaries on the canon and folklore (e.g., commentaries on the Jataka tales ), and comparative study (and dating) of texts on the basis of such loan-words is now a specialized field unto itself. Pali

1180-468: A five-tone or five-note scale), meaning that each octave contains five notes. This scale sometimes includes supplementary notes, but the core remains pentatonic . The rhythm in biwa performances allows for a broad flexibility of pulse. Songs are not always metered, although more modern collaborations are metered. Notes played on the biwa usually begin slow and thin and progress through gradual accelerations, increasing and decreasing tempo throughout

1298-665: A high degree of mutual intelligibility. Theravada tradition, as recorded in chronicles like the Mahavamsa , states that the Tipitaka was first committed to writing during the first century BCE. This move away from the previous tradition of oral preservation is described as being motivated by threats to the Sangha from famine, war, and the growing influence of the rival tradition of the Abhayagiri Vihara . This account

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1416-455: A modern biwa with five strings and five frets, was popularised by the 20th-century biwa player and composer Suitō Kinjō ( 水藤錦穣 , 1911–1973) . Its plectrum is the same as that used for the satsuma-biwa . Its tuning is C, G, c, g, g. The biwa , considered one of Japan's principal traditional instruments, has both influenced and been influenced by other traditional instruments and compositions throughout its long history; as such,

1534-525: A number of Buddhist and local deities, including the goddess Kisshōten whose role as goddess of fortune eventually became ascribed to Benzaiten in popular belief). As such, she was eventually also worshiped as a bestower of monetary fortune and became part of the set of popular deities known as the Seven Lucky Gods ( shichifukujin ). Benzaiten is depicted a number of ways in Japanese art. She

1652-414: A number of different musical styles played with the biwa exist. Generally speaking, biwa have four strings, though modern satsuma- and chikuzen-biwa may have five strings. The strings on a biwa range in thickness, with the first string being thickest and the fourth string being thinnest; on chikuzen-biwa , the second string is the thickest, with the fourth and fifth strings being

1770-415: A number of similarities between surviving fragments and Pali morphology. Ardhamagadhi Prakrit was a Middle Indo-Aryan language and a Dramatic Prakrit thought to have been spoken in modern-day Bihar & Eastern Uttar Pradesh and used in some early Buddhist and Jain drama. It was originally thought to be a predecessor of the vernacular Magadhi Prakrit, hence the name (literally "half-Magadhi"). Ardhamāgadhī

1888-543: A significant number of professional and amateur practitioners, but the zato , heike , and moso-biwa styles have all but died out. As biwa music declined in post- Pacific War Japan, many Japanese composers and musicians found ways to revitalize interest in it. They recognized that studies in music theory and music composition in Japan almost entirely consisted in Western theory and instruction. Beginning in

2006-600: A water drop–shaped body with a short neck, typically with four (though sometimes five) strings. In Japan, the biwa is generally played with a bachi instead of the fingers, and is often used to play gagaku . One of the biwa 's most famous uses is for reciting The Tale of the Heike , a children's fable of the Princess Biwa Breb from the Kamakura period (1185–1333). In previous centuries,

2124-542: Is A, c, e, a or A, c-sharp, e, a. The satsuma-biwa ( 薩摩琵琶 ) , a biwa with four strings and four frets, was popularized during the Edo period in Satsuma Province (present-day Kagoshima ) by Shimazu Tadayoshi . Modern biwa used for contemporary compositions often have five or more frets, and some have a doubled fourth string. The frets of the satsuma-biwa are raised 4 centimetres (1.6 in) from

2242-503: Is a Japanese short-necked wooden lute traditionally used in narrative storytelling. The biwa is a plucked string instrument that first gained popularity in China before spreading throughout East Asia , eventually reaching Japan sometime during the Nara period (710–794). Typically 60 centimetres (24 in) to 106 centimetres (42 in) in length, the instrument is constructed of

2360-583: Is also enshrined as Ichikishima Hime-no-Mikoto at the Munakata Taisha shrine. Pali Pāli ( / ˈ p ɑː l i / ), also known as Pali-Magadhi , is a classical Middle Indo-Aryan language on the Indian subcontinent . It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist Pāli Canon or Tipiṭaka as well as the sacred language of Theravāda Buddhism . Pali

2478-591: Is also portrayed (albeit rarely) with the head of a snake or a dragon. Benzaiten's worship also spread to Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period, and she is still venerated in certain locations in Taiwan, such as the Xian Dong Yan temple in Keelung City . Due to her status as a water deity, Benzaiten was also linked with nāgas , dragons , and snakes . Over time, Benzaiten became identified with

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2596-602: Is as follows: In Japan , the places of worship dedicated to Benzaiten are often called "辯天堂" ( benten-dō ) or benten-sha ( 弁天社 ) . Shinto shrines dedicated to her are also called by this name. Entire Shinto shrines can be dedicated to her, as in the case of Kamakura's Zeniarai Benzaiten Ugafuku Shrine or Nagoya's Kawahara Shrine . Benzaiten temples or shrines places are commonly located near bodies of water like rivers, ponds, or springs due to her association with water. Benzaiten's worship became integrated with native Japanese beliefs, including serpent and dragon symbolism, as she

2714-577: Is currently relatively little known, particularly in the Thai tradition, with many manuscripts never catalogued or published. Paiśācī is a largely unattested literary language of classical India that is mentioned in Prakrit and Sanskrit grammars of antiquity. It is found grouped with the Prakrit languages, with which it shares some linguistic similarities, but was not considered a spoken language by

2832-587: Is designated as a classical language by the Government of India . The word 'Pali' is used as a name for the language of the Theravada canon. The word seems to have its origins in commentarial traditions, wherein the Pāli (in the sense of the line of original text quoted) was distinguished from the commentary or vernacular translation that followed it in the manuscript. K. R. Norman suggests that its emergence

2950-448: Is essentially a 4-string instrument as the 5th string is a doubled 4th that are always played together) and five or more frets, and the construction of the tuning head and frets vary slightly. Ueda Junko and Tanaka Yukio , two of Tsuruta's students, continue the tradition of the modern satsuma-biwa . Carlo Forlivesi 's compositions Boethius ( ボエティウス ) and Nuove Musiche per Biwa ( 琵琶のための新曲 ) were both written for performance on

3068-536: Is frequently chanted in a ritual context. The secular literature of Pali historical chronicles, medical texts, and inscriptions is also of great historical importance. The great centres of Pali learning remain in Sri Lanka and other Theravada nations of Southeast Asia: Myanmar , Thailand , Laos and Cambodia . Since the 19th century, various societies for the revival of Pali studies in India have promoted awareness of

3186-502: Is generally accepted by scholars, though there are indications that Pali had already begun to be recorded in writing by this date. By this point in its history, scholars consider it likely that Pali had already undergone some initial assimilation with Sanskrit , such as the conversion of the Middle-Indic bahmana to the more familiar Sanskrit brāhmana that contemporary brahmans used to identify themselves. In Sri Lanka, Pali

3304-445: Is no single, standard spelling of the term, and all four possible spellings can be found in textbooks. R. C. Childers translates the word as "series" and states that the language "bears the epithet in consequence of the perfection of its grammatical structure". There is persistent confusion as to the relation of Pāḷi to the vernacular spoken in the ancient kingdom of Magadha , which was located in modern-day Bihar . Beginning in

3422-426: Is not used to accompany singing. Like the heike-biwa , it is played held on its side, similar to a guitar, with the player sitting cross-legged. In gagaku , it is known as the gaku-biwa ( 楽琵琶 ) . The gogen-biwa ( 五絃琵琶 , lit.   ' five-stringed biwa ' ) , a Tang variant of biwa , can be seen in paintings of court orchestras and was used in the context of gagaku ; however, it

3540-637: Is often depicted holding a biwa (a traditional Japanese lute) similar to how Saraswati is depicted with a veena in Indian art, though she may also be portrayed wielding a sword and a wish-granting jewel ( cintāmaṇi ). An iconographic formula showing Benzaiten with eight arms holding a variety of weapons (based on the Golden Light Sutra ) meanwhile is believed to derive from Durga's iconography. As Uga Benzaiten, she may also be shown with Ugajin (a human-headed white snake) above her head. Lastly, she

3658-677: Is often exaggerated by comparing it to later Sanskrit compositions—which were written centuries after Sanskrit ceased to be a living language, and are influenced by developments in Middle Indic , including the direct borrowing of a portion of the Middle Indic lexicon; whereas, a good deal of later Pali technical terminology has been borrowed from the vocabulary of equivalent disciplines in Sanskrit, either directly or with certain phonological adaptations. Post-canonical Pali also possesses

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3776-506: Is one of the Twenty-Four Protective Deities ( Chinese : 二十四諸天; pinyin : Èrshísì Zhūtiān ). She remained associated with wealth, music, and eloquence and also took on aspects of a fierce protector of the state (due to the influence of the Golden Light Sutra which promises to protect a country where the sutra is chanted). During the medieval period onwards, Benzaiten came to be associated or even conflated with

3894-477: Is particularly utilized with satsuma-biwa . What the plectrum is made of also changes the texture, with ivory and plastic plectrums creating a more resilient texture to the wooden plectrum's twangy hum. Biwa usage in Japan has declined greatly since the Heian period . Outside influence, internal pressures, and socio-political turmoil redefined biwa patronage and the image of the biwa ; for example,

4012-936: Is that literature in Paiśācī is fragmentary and extremely rare but may once have been common. The 13th-century Tibetan historian Buton Rinchen Drub wrote that the early Buddhist schools were separated by choice of sacred language : the Mahāsāṃghikas used Prakrit, the Sarvāstivādins used Sanskrit, the Sthaviravādins used Paiśācī, and the Saṃmitīya used Apabhraṃśa . This observation has led some scholars to theorize connections between Pali and Paiśācī; Sten Konow concluded that it may have been an Indo-Aryan language spoken by Dravidian people in South India, and Alfred Master noted

4130-517: Is thought to have entered into a period of decline ending around the 4th or 5th century (as Sanskrit rose in prominence, and simultaneously, as Buddhism's adherents became a smaller portion of the subcontinent), but ultimately survived. The work of Buddhaghosa was largely responsible for its reemergence as an important scholarly language in Buddhist thought. The Visuddhimagga , and the other commentaries that Buddhaghosa compiled, codified and condensed

4248-501: Is traditionally made from Japanese mulberry , although other hard woods such as Japanese zelkova are sometimes used in its construction. Due to the slow growth of the Japanese mulberry, the wood must be taken from a tree at least 120 years old and dried for 10 years before construction can begin. The strings are made of wound silk. Its tuning is A, E, A, B, for traditional biwa , G, G, c, g, or G, G, d, g for contemporary compositions, among other tunings, but these are only examples as

4366-486: Is tuned to B ♭ , E ♭ , B ♭ and b ♭ . The heike-biwa ( 平家琵琶 ) , a biwa with four strings and five frets, is used to play The Tale of the Heike . Its plectrum is slightly larger than that of the gagaku-biwa , but the instrument itself is much smaller, comparable to a chikuzen-biwa in size. It was originally used by traveling biwa minstrels, and its small size lent it to indoor play and improved portability. Its tuning

4484-785: Is usually divided into canonical and non-canonical or extra-canonical texts. Canonical texts include the whole of the Pali Canon or Tipitaka . With the exception of three books placed in the Khuddaka Nikaya by only the Burmese tradition, these texts (consisting of the five Nikayas of the Sutta Pitaka , the Vinaya Pitaka , and the books of the Abhidhamma Pitaka ) are traditionally accepted as containing

4602-441: The biwa hōshi , helped proliferate biwa musical development for hundreds of years. Biwa hōshi performances overlapped with performances by other biwa players many years before heikyoku ( 平曲 , The Tale of the Heike ) , and continues to this day. This overlap resulted in a rapid evolution of the biwa and its usage and made it one of the most popular instruments in Japan. In spite of its popularity,

4720-401: The biwa and sparked a series of collaborative efforts by other musician in genres ranging from J-Pop and enka to shin-hougaku and gendaigaku . Other musicians, such as Yamashika Yoshiyuki, considered by most ethnomusicologists to be the last of the biwa hōshi , preserved scores of songs that were almost lost forever. Yamashika, born in the late Meiji period, continued

4838-416: The biwa does not play in tempered tuning, pitches are approximated to the nearest note. The gagaku biwa ( 雅楽琵琶 ) , a large and heavy biwa with four strings and four frets, is used exclusively for gagaku . It produces distinctive ichikotsuchō ( 壱越調 ) and hyōjō ( 平調 ) . Its plectrum is small and thin, often rounded, and made from a hard material such as boxwood or ivory . It

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4956-517: The biwa is being revived. Japanese and foreign musicians alike have begun embracing traditional Japanese instruments, particularly the biwa , in their compositions. While blind biwa singers no longer dominate the biwa , many performers continue to use the instrument in traditional and modern ways. The biwa arrived in Japan in the 7th century, having evolved from the Chinese bent-neck pipa ( 曲項琵琶 ; quxiang pipa ), while

5074-503: The biwa was revived during the Edo period (1600–1868), when Tokugawa Ieyasu unified Japan and established the Tokugawa shogunate . Ieyasu favored biwa music and became a major patron, helping to strengthen biwa guilds (called Todo ) by financing them and allowing them special privileges. Shamisen players and other musicians found it financially beneficial to switch to

5192-612: The biwa was used in ceremonies and religious rites. The biwa became known as an instrument commonly played at the Japanese Imperial court , where biwa players, known as biwa hōshi , found employment and patronage. However, following the collapse of the Ritsuryō state, biwa hōshi employed at the court were faced with the court's reconstruction and sought asylum in Buddhist temples. There, they assumed

5310-713: The biwa , bringing new styles of biwa music with them. The Edo period proved to be one of the most prolific and artistically creative periods for the biwa in its long history in Japan. In 1868, the Tokugawa shogunate collapsed, giving way to the Meiji period and the Meiji Restoration , during which the samurai class was abolished, and the Todo lost their patronage. Biwa players no longer enjoyed special privileges and were forced to support themselves. At

5428-541: The mōsō-biwa , the satsuma-biwa was used for moral and mental training by samurai of the Satsuma Domain during the Warring States period , and later for general performances. The chikuzen-biwa was used by Buddhist monks visiting private residences to perform memorial services, not only for Buddhist rites, but also to accompany the telling of stories and news. Though formerly popular, little

5546-524: The nishiki-biwa was created and gained popularity. Of the remaining post-war biwa traditions, only higo-biwa remains a style almost solely performed by blind persons. The higo-biwa is closely related to the heike-biwa and, similarly, relies on an oral narrative tradition focusing on wars and legends. By the middle of the Meiji period, improvements had been made to the instruments and easily understandable songs were composed in quantity. In

5664-541: The pipa itself was derived from similar instruments in West Asia . This type of biwa , known as the gaku-biwa , was later used in gagaku ensembles and became the most commonly known type. However, another variant of the biwa – known as the mōsō-biwa or the kōjin -biwa – also found its way to Japan, first appearing in the Kyushu region. Though its origins are unclear, this thinner variant of

5782-415: The satsuma-biwa designed by Tsuruta and Tanaka. These works present a radical departure from the compositional languages usually employed for such an instrument. Also, thanks to the possibility of relying on a level of virtuosity never before attempted in this specific repertory, the composer has sought the renewal of the acoustic and aesthetic profile of the biwa , bringing out the huge potential in

5900-468: The Sutra of Golden Light ( Suvarṇaprabhāsa Sūtra ) into Classical Chinese ( Taishō Tripitaka 885), Saraswati (大辯才天女, pinyin : Dàbiàncáitiānnǚ ; Japanese: Daibenzaitennyo , lit. "great goddess of eloquence") appears before the Buddha 's assembly and vows to protect all those who put their faith in the sutra, recite it, or copy it. In addition, she promises to increase the intelligence of those who recite

6018-469: The Golden Light Sutra is the protection of the state, and as such, Saraswati here also takes on some form of a warrior goddess, similar to Durga . Bernard Faure also notes that the Vach already had martial attributes, which may have been retained in some form. Saraswati became the Chinese 辯才天 (Bencaitian) or "great eloquence deity" (大辯天). This became the Japanese 弁財天 (Benzaiten). In East Asian Buddhism, she

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6136-432: The Kamakura period (1185–1333), the heike-biwa had emerged as a more popular instrument, a cross between both the gaku-biwa and mōsō-biwa , retaining the rounded shape of the gaku-biwa and played with a large plectrum like the mōsō-biwa . The heike-biwa , smaller than the mōsō-biwa , was used for similar purposes. While the modern satsuma-biwa and chikuzen-biwa both originated from

6254-732: The Mahāsāṃghika branch became influential in Central and East India . Akira Hirakawa and Paul Groner also associate Pali with Western India and the Sthavira nikāya, citing the Saurashtran inscriptions, which are linguistically closest to the Pali language. Although Sanskrit was said in the Brahmanical tradition to be the unchanging language spoken by the gods in which each word had an inherent significance, such views for any language

6372-783: The Milindapanha ) may have been composed in India before being transmitted to Sri Lanka, but the surviving versions of the texts are those preserved by the Mahavihara in Ceylon and shared with monasteries in Theravada Southeast Asia. The earliest inscriptions in Pali found in mainland Southeast Asia are from the first millennium CE, some possibly dating to as early as the 4th century. Inscriptions are found in what are now Burma, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia and may have spread from southern India rather than Sri Lanka. By

6490-625: The Pali Canon and non-canonical texts, and include several examples of the Ye dhamma hetu verse. The oldest surviving Pali manuscript was discovered in Nepal dating to the 9th century. It is in the form of four palm-leaf folios, using a transitional script deriving from the Gupta script to scribe a fragment of the Cullavagga . The oldest known manuscripts from Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia date to

6608-583: The asura Namuchi . In a hymn in Book 10 of the Rigveda (10.125.6), Vach declares: "I bend the bow for Rudra that his arrow may strike and slay the hater of devotion. I rouse and order battle for the people, and I have penetrated Earth and Heaven." Saraswati, like many other Hindu deities, was eventually adopted into Buddhism, figuring mainly in Mahayana texts. In the 15th chapter of Yijing 's translation of

6726-476: The Ōnin War and subsequent Warring States Period disrupted biwa teaching and decreased the number of proficient users. With the abolition of Todo in the Meiji period , biwa players lost their patronage. By the late 1940s, the biwa , a thoroughly Japanese tradition, was nearly completely abandoned for Western instruments. However, thanks to collaborative efforts by Japanese musicians, interest in

6844-468: The Ōnin War of the Muromachi period (1338–1573) and the subsequent Warring States period (15th–17th centuries) disrupted the cycle of tutelage for heikyoku performers. As a result, younger musicians turned to other instruments and interest in biwa music decreased. Even the biwa hōshi transitioned to other instruments such as the shamisen (a three-stringed lute). Interest in

6962-490: The 11th century, a so-called "Pali renaissance" began in the vicinity of Pagan , gradually spreading to the rest of mainland Southeast Asia as royal dynasties sponsored monastic lineages derived from the Mahavihara of Anuradhapura . This era was also characterized by the adoption of Sanskrit conventions and poetic forms (such as kavya ) that had not been features of earlier Pali literature. This process began as early as

7080-749: The 13th–15th century, with few surviving examples. Very few manuscripts older than 400 years have survived, and complete manuscripts of the four Nikayas are only available in examples from the 17th century and later. Pali was first mentioned in Western literature in Simon de la Loubère 's descriptions of his travels in the kingdom of Siam. An early grammar and dictionary was published by Methodist missionary Benjamin Clough in 1824, and an initial study published by Eugène Burnouf and Christian Lassen in 1826 ( Essai sur le Pali, ou Langue sacrée de la presqu'île au-delà du Gange ). The first modern Pali-English dictionary

7198-493: The 5th century, but intensified early in the second millennium as Pali texts on poetics and composition modeled on Sanskrit forms began to grow in popularity. One milestone of this period was the publication of the Subodhalankara during the 14th century, a work attributed to Sangharakkhita Mahāsāmi and modeled on the Sanskrit Kavyadarsa . Peter Masefield devoted considerable research to a form of Pali known as Indochinese Pali or 'Kham Pali'. Up until now, this has been considered

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7316-442: The Japanese Buddhist monk Kōkei (皇慶) in 1047. According to Kōkei, Benzaiten is the third daughter of the dragon-king of Munetsuchi (無熱池; literally "lake without heat"), known in Sanskrit as Anavatapta , the lake lying at the center of the world according to an ancient Buddhist cosmological view. Ryōhō-ji , also known as the "Moe Temple", enshrines Benzaiten. It is famous for anime style depictions of Buddhist deities. Benzaiten

7434-402: The Japanese snake kami Ugajin . She also became identified with the kami Ichikishima-hime . Benzaiten was also adopted as a female kami in Shinto , with the name Ichikishima-hime-no-mikoto ( 市杵島姫命 ) . This kami is one of three kami believed to be daughters of the sun goddess Amaterasu , the ancestress of the imperial family . She is also believed by Tendai Buddhists to be

7552-450: The Pali language as " Magadhan " or the "language of Magadha". This identification first appears in the commentaries, and may have been an attempt by Buddhists to associate themselves more closely with the Maurya Empire . However, only some of the Buddha's teachings were delivered in the historical territory of Magadha kingdom . Scholars consider it likely that he taught in several closely related dialects of Middle Indo-Aryan, which had

7670-445: The Prakrits." According to K. R. Norman , differences between different texts within the canon suggest that it contains material from more than a single dialect. He also suggests it is likely that the viharas in North India had separate collections of material, preserved in the local dialect. In the early period it is likely that no degree of translation was necessary in communicating this material to other areas. Around

7788-467: The Sinhala commentarial tradition that had been preserved and expanded in Sri Lanka since the 3rd century BCE. With only a few possible exceptions, the entire corpus of Pali texts known today is believed to derive from the Anuradhapura Maha Viharaya in Sri Lanka. While literary evidence exists of Theravadins in mainland India surviving into the 13th century, no Pali texts specifically attributable to this tradition have been recovered. Some texts (such as

7906-399: The Sri Lankan tradition and then spread to other Theravada regions, some texts may have other origins. The Milinda Panha may have originated in northern India before being translated from Sanskrit or Gandhari Prakrit . There are also a number of texts that are believed to have been composed in Pali in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burma but were not widely circulated. This regional Pali literature

8024-425: The Theravada commentaries, Pali was identified with ' Magadhi ', the language of the kingdom of Magadha, and this was taken to also be the language that the Buddha used during his life. In the 19th century, the British Orientalist Robert Caesar Childers argued that the true or geographical name of the Pali language was Magadhi Prakrit , and that because pāḷi means "line, row, series", the early Buddhists extended

8142-422: The UK; incongruously, the citizens of the UK were not nearly so robust in Sanskrit and Prakrit language studies as Germany, Russia, and even Denmark . Even without the inspiration of colonial holdings such as the former British occupation of Sri Lanka and Burma, institutions such as the Danish Royal Library have built up major collections of Pali manuscripts, and major traditions of Pali studies. Pali literature

8260-487: The anusvāra is pronounced more strongly, like the velar nasal [ŋ] , so that these sounds are pronounced instead [ãŋ] , [ĩŋ] and [ũŋ] . However pronounced, ṁ never follows a long vowel; ā, ī and ū are converted to the corresponding short vowels when ṁ is added to a stem ending in a long vowel, e.g. kathā + ṁ becomes kathaṁ , not *kathāṁ , devī + ṁ becomes deviṁ , not * devīṁ . Biwa The biwa ( Japanese : 琵琶 )

8378-453: The beginning of the Taishō period (1912–1926), the satsuma-biwa was modified into the nishiki-biwa , which became popular among female players at the time. With this, the biwa entered a period of popularity, with songs reflecting not just The Tale of the Heike , but also the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War , with songs such as Takeo Hirose , Hitachimaru and Hill 203 gaining popularity. However,

8496-540: The beginning of the Meiji period, it was estimated that there were at least one hundred traditional court musicians in Tokyo; however, by the 1930s, this number had reduced to just 46 in Tokyo, and a quarter of these musicians later died in World War II . Life in post-war Japan was difficult, and many musicians abandoned their music in favor of more sustainable livelihoods. While many styles of biwa flourished in

8614-530: The bite of snakes. Many people in Theravada cultures still believe that taking a vow in Pali has a special significance, and, as one example of the supernatural power assigned to chanting in the language, the recitation of the vows of Aṅgulimāla are believed to alleviate the pain of childbirth in Sri Lanka. In Thailand, the chanting of a portion of the Abhidhammapiṭaka is believed to be beneficial to

8732-437: The consonant ん , and syllables beginning with "g", such as ga ( が ) and gi ( ぎ ) . Biwa performers also vary the volume of their voice between barely audible to very loud. Since biwa pieces were generally performed for small groups, singers did not need to project their voices as opera singers did in Western music tradition. Biwa music is based on a pentatonic scale (sometimes referred to as

8850-423: The death of the Buddha, Pali may have evolved among Buddhists out of the language of the Buddha as a new artificial language. R. C. Childers, who held to the theory that Pali was Old Magadhi, wrote: "Had Gautama never preached, it is unlikely that Magadhese would have been distinguished from the many other vernaculars of Hindustan, except perhaps by an inherent grace and strength which make it a sort of Tuscan among

8968-482: The early 1900s (such as kindai-biwa between 1900 and the 1930s), the cycle of tutelage was broken yet again by the war. In the present day, there are no direct means of studying the biwa in many biwa traditions. Even higo-biwa players, who were quite popular in the early 20th century, may no longer have a direct means of studying oral composition, as the bearers of the tradition have either died or are no longer able to play. Kindai-biwa still retains

9086-441: The early grammarians because it was understood to have been purely a literary language. In works of Sanskrit poetics such as Daṇḍin 's Kavyadarsha , it is also known by the name of Bhūtabhāṣā , an epithet which can be interpreted as 'dead language' (i.e., with no surviving speakers), or bhūta means past and bhāṣā means language i.e. 'a language spoken in the past'. Evidence which lends support to this interpretation

9204-515: The essence of the kami Ugajin , whose effigy she sometimes carries on her head together with a torii (see photo below). As a consequence, she is sometimes also known as Uga ( 宇賀 ) Benzaiten or Uga Benten. The bīja or seed syllable used to represent Benzaiten in Japanese esoteric Buddhism is su (सु, traditionally read in Japanese as so ), written in Siddhaṃ script . In Japanese esoteric Buddhism ( mikkyo ), Benzaiten's main mantra

9322-760: The existing sources specifically document pre-Ashokan Magadhi, the available sources suggest that Pali is not equatable with that language. Modern scholars generally regard Pali to have originated from a western dialect, rather than an eastern one. Pali has some commonalities with both the western Ashokan Edicts at Girnar in Saurashtra , and the Central-Western Prakrit found in the eastern Hathigumpha inscription . These similarities lead scholars to associate Pali with this region of western India. Nonetheless, Pali does retain some eastern features that have been referred to as Māgadhisms . Pāḷi, as

9440-501: The five string version. Its plectrum is much smaller than that of the satsuma-biwa , usually about 13 cm (5.1 in) in width, although its size, shape, and weight depends on the sex of the player. The plectrum is usually made from rosewood with boxwood or ivory tips for plucking the strings. The instrument itself also varies in size, depending on the player. Male players typically play biwa that are slightly wider and/or longer than those used by women or children. The body of

9558-453: The five-stringed variants of modern biwa , such as chikuzen-biwa . The mōsō-biwa ( 盲僧琵琶 ) , a biwa with four strings, is used to play Buddhist mantras and songs. It is similar in shape to the chikuzen-biwa , but with a much more narrow body. Its plectrum varies in both size and materials. The four fret type is tuned to E, B, E and A, and the five fret type is tuned to B, e, f ♯ and f ♯ . The six fret type

9676-533: The foundation for edo-uta ( 江戸歌 ) styles of playing, such as shinnai and kota . From these styles also emerged the two principal survivors of the biwa tradition: satsuma-biwa and chikuzen-biwa . From roughly the Meiji period (1868–1912) until the Pacific War , the satsuma-biwa and chikuzen-biwa were popular across Japan, and, at the beginning of the Shōwa period (1925–1989),

9794-423: The instrument is never struck with the plectrum during play, and the five string instrument is played upright, while the four string is played held on its side. The instrument is tuned to match the key of the singer. An example tuning of the four string version is B, e, f ♯ and b, and the five string instrument can be tuned to C, G, C, d and g. For the five string version, the first and third strings are tuned

9912-417: The instrument is tuned to match the key of the player's voice. The first and second strings are generally tuned to the same note, with the 4th (or doubled 4th) string is tuned one octave higher. The most eminent 20th century satsuma-biwa performer was Tsuruta Kinshi , who developed her own version of the instrument, which she called the tsuruta-biwa . This biwa often has five strings (although it

10030-607: The language and its literature, including the Maha Bodhi Society founded by Anagarika Dhammapala . In Europe, the Pali Text Society has been a major force in promoting the study of Pali by Western scholars since its founding in 1881. Based in the United Kingdom, the society publishes romanized Pali editions, along with many English translations of these sources. In 1869, the first Pali Dictionary

10148-454: The language underwent a small degree of Sanskritisation (i.e., MIA bamhana > brahmana, tta > tva in some cases). Bhikkhu Bodhi , summarizing the current state of scholarship, states that the language is "closely related to the language (or, more likely, the various regional dialects) that the Buddha himself spoke". He goes on to write: Scholars regard this language as a hybrid showing features of several Prakrit dialects used around

10266-429: The late 1960s, these musicians and composers began to incorporate Japanese music and Japanese instruments into their compositions; for example, one composer, Tōru Takemitsu , collaborated with Western composers and compositions to include the distinctly Asian biwa . His well-received compositions, such as November Steps , which incorporated biwa heikyoku with Western orchestral performance, revitalized interest in

10384-582: The meaning of the term to mean "a series of books", so pāḷibhāsā means "language of the texts". However, modern scholarship has regarded Pali as a mix of several Prakrit languages from around the 3rd century BCE, combined and partially Sanskritized. There is no attested dialect of Middle Indo-Aryan with all the features of Pali. In the modern era, it has been possible to compare Pali with inscriptions known to be in Magadhi Prakrit, as well as other texts and grammars of that language. While none of

10502-666: The monastic ordination died out in Sri Lanka, many texts were lost also. Therefore the Sri Lankan Pali canon had been translated first into Indo-Chinese Pali, and then back again into Pali. Despite an expansion of the number and influence of Mahavihara-derived monastics, this resurgence of Pali study resulted in no production of any new surviving literary works in Pali. During this era, correspondences between royal courts in Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia were conducted in Pali, and grammars aimed at speakers of Sinhala, Burmese, and other languages were produced. The emergence of

10620-516: The natural language, the root language of all beings. Comparable to Ancient Egyptian , Latin or Hebrew in the mystic traditions of the West , Pali recitations were often thought to have a supernatural power (which could be attributed to their meaning, the character of the reciter, or the qualities of the language itself), and in the early strata of Buddhist literature we can already see Pali dhāraṇī s used as charms, as, for example, against

10738-413: The neck allowing notes to be bent several steps higher, each one producing the instrument's characteristic sawari , or buzzing drone. Its boxwood plectrum is much wider than others, often reaching widths of 25 cm (9.8 in) or more. Its size and construction influences the sound of the instrument as the curved body is often struck percussively with the plectrum during play. The satsuma-biwa

10856-539: The patron of music and the arts, knowledge, and learning. In addition to their association with eloquence and speech, both Saraswati and Vach also show warrior traits: Saraswati for instance was called the " Vritra -slayer" ( Vṛtraghnī ) in the Rigveda (6.61.7) and was associated with the Maruts . She was also associated with the Ashvins , with whom she collaborates to bolster Indra 's strength by telling him how to kill

10974-424: The performance. The texture of biwa singing is often described as "sparse". The plectrum also contributes to the texture of biwa music. Different sized plectrums produced different textures; for example, the plectrum used on a mōsō-biwa was much larger than that used on a gaku-biwa , producing a harsher, more vigorous sound. The plectrum is also critical to creating the sawari sound, which

11092-429: The playing of the biwa nearly became extinct during the Meiji period following the introduction of Western music and instruments, until players such as Tsuruta Kinshi and others revitalized the genre with modern playing styles and collaborations with Western composers. There are more than seven types of biwa , characterised by number of strings, sounds it could produce, the type of plectrum , and their use. As

11210-406: The predominant biwa musicians would have been blind monks ( 琵琶法師 , biwa hōshi ) , who used the biwa as musical accompaniment when reading scriptural texts. The biwa 's Chinese predecessor was the pipa ( 琵琶 ), which arrived in Japan in two forms; following its introduction to Japan, varieties of the biwa quadrupled. Guilds supporting biwa players, particularly

11328-401: The recently departed, and this ceremony routinely occupies as much as seven working days. There is nothing in the latter text that relates to this subject, and the origins of the custom are unclear. Pali died out as a literary language in mainland India in the fourteenth century but survived elsewhere until the eighteenth. Today Pali is studied mainly to gain access to Buddhist scriptures, and

11446-466: The role of Buddhist monks and encountered the mōsō-biwa . Seeing its relative convenience and portability, the monks combined these features with their large and heavy gaku-biwa to create the heike-biwa , which, as indicated by its namesake, was used primarily for recitations of The Tale of the Heike . Through the next several centuries, players of both traditions intersected frequently and developed new music styles and new instruments. By

11564-427: The same note, the second string three steps down, the fifth string an octave higher than the second string, and the fourth string a step down from the fifth. So the previously mentioned tuning can be tuned down to B ♭ , F, B ♭ , c, d. Asahikai and Tachibanakai are the two major schools of chikuzen-biwa . Popularly used by female biwa players such as Uehara Mari . The nishiki-biwa ( 錦琵琶 ) ,

11682-445: The same thickness on chikuzen- and satsuma-biwa . The varying string thickness creates different timbres when stroked from different directions. In biwa , tuning is not fixed. General tones and pitches can fluctuate up or down entire steps or microtones . When singing in a chorus, biwa singers often stagger their entry and often sing through non-synchronized, heterophony accompaniment. In solo performances,

11800-466: The short variants occur only in closed syllables, the long variants occur only in open syllables. Short and long e and o are therefore not distinct phonemes. e and o are long in an open syllable: at the end of a syllable as in [ne-tum̩] เนตุํ 'to lead' or [so-tum̩] โสตุํ 'to hear'. They are short in a closed syllable: when followed by a consonant with which they make a syllable as in [upek-khā] 'indifference' or [sot-thi] 'safety'. e appears for

11918-529: The sound material: attacks and resonance, tempo (conceived not only in the chronometrical but also deliberately empathetical sense), chords, balance and dialogue (with the occasional use of two biwa s in Nuove Musiche per Biwa ), dynamics and colour. The Chikuzen -biwa ( 筑前 琵琶 ) , a biwa with four strings and four frets or five strings and five frets, was popularised in the Meiji period by Tachibana Satosada. Most contemporary performers use

12036-461: The subtle nuances of that thought-world. According to A. K. Warder , the Pali language is a Prakrit language used in a region of Western India . Warder associates Pali with the Indian realm ( janapada ) of Avanti , where the Sthavira nikāya was centered. Following the initial split in the Buddhist community , the Sthavira nikāya became influential in Western and South India while

12154-456: The sutra so that they will be able to understand and remember various dharanis . She then teaches the assembly various mantras with which one can heal all illnesses and escape all manner of misfortune. One of the Buddha's disciples, the brahmin Kaundinya , then praises Saraswati, comparing her to Vishnu's consort Narayani ( Lakshmi ) and declaring that she can manifest herself not only as

12272-479: The term 'Pali' as the name of the language of the Theravada canon also occurred during this era. While Pali is generally recognized as an ancient language, no epigraphical or manuscript evidence has survived from the earliest eras. The earliest samples of Pali discovered are inscriptions believed to date from 5th to 8th century located in mainland Southeast Asia, specifically central Siam and lower Burma . These inscriptions typically consist of short excerpts from

12390-429: The third century BCE, subjected to a partial process of Sanskritization. While the language is not identical to what Buddha himself would have spoken, it belongs to the same broad language family as those he might have used and originates from the same conceptual matrix. This language thus reflects the thought-world that the Buddha inherited from the wider Indian culture into which he was born, so that its words capture

12508-425: The time of Ashoka there had been more linguistic divergence, and an attempt was made to assemble all the material. It is possible that a language quite close to the Pali of the canon emerged as a result of this process as a compromise of the various dialects in which the earliest material had been preserved, and this language functioned as a lingua franca among Eastern Buddhists from then on. Following this period,

12626-518: The use of Pali as a courtly and literary language. As such, the name of the language has caused some debate among scholars of all ages; the spelling of the name also varies, being found with both long "ā" [ɑː] and short "a" [a] , and also with either a voiced retroflex lateral approximant [ɭ] or non-retroflex [l] "l" sound. Both the long ā and retroflex ḷ are seen in the ISO 15919 / ALA-LC rendering, Pāḷi ; however, to this day there

12744-446: The words of the Buddha and his immediate disciples by the Theravada tradition. Extra-canonical texts can be divided into several categories: Other types of texts present in Pali literature include works on grammar and poetics, medical texts, astrological and divination texts, cosmologies, and anthologies or collections of material from the canonical literature. While the majority of works in Pali are believed to have originated with

12862-404: Was based on a misunderstanding of the compound pāli-bhāsa , with pāli being interpreted as the name of a particular language. The name Pali does not appear in the canonical literature, and in commentary literature is sometimes substituted with tanti , meaning a string or lineage. This name seems to have emerged in Sri Lanka early in the second millennium CE during a resurgence in

12980-600: Was not exclusively used to convey the teachings of the Buddha, as can be deduced from the existence of a number of secular texts, such as books of medical science/instruction, in Pali. However, scholarly interest in the language has been focused upon religious and philosophical literature, because of the unique window it opens on one phase in the development of Buddhism . Vowels may be divided in two different ways: Long and short vowels are only contrastive in open syllables; in closed syllables, all vowels are always short. Short and long e and o are in complementary distribution:

13098-421: Was not shared in the early Buddhist traditions, in which words were only conventional and mutable signs. This view of language naturally extended to Pali and may have contributed to its usage (as an approximation or standardization of local Middle Indic dialects) in place of Sanskrit. However, by the time of the compilation of the Pali commentaries (4th or 5th century), Pali was described by the anonymous authors as

13216-842: Was originally a river goddess. Benzaiten is enshrined on numerous locations throughout Japan; for example, the Enoshima Island in Sagami Bay , the Chikubu Island in Lake Biwa and the Itsukushima Island in Seto Inland Sea (Japan's Three Great Benzaiten Shrines); and she and a five-headed dragon are the central figures of the Enoshima Engi , a history of the shrines on Enoshima written by

13334-576: Was prominently used by Jain scholars and is preserved in the Jain Agamas. Ardhamagadhi Prakrit differs from later Magadhi Prakrit in similar ways to Pali, and was often believed to be connected with Pali on the basis of the belief that Pali recorded the speech of the Buddha in an early Magadhi dialect. Magadhi Prakrit was a Middle Indic language spoken in present-day Bihar, and eastern Uttar Pradesh. Its use later expanded southeast to include some regions of modern-day Bengal, Odisha, and Assam, and it

13452-506: Was published by Robert Childers in 1872 and 1875. Following the foundation of the Pali Text Society , English Pali studies grew rapidly and Childer's dictionary became outdated. Planning for a new dictionary began in the early 1900s, but delays (including the outbreak of World War I) meant that work was not completed until 1925. T. W. Rhys Davids in his book Buddhist India , and Wilhelm Geiger in his book Pāli Literature and Language , suggested that Pali may have originated as

13570-593: Was published using the research of Robert Caesar Childers, one of the founding members of the Pali Text Society. It was the first Pali translated text in English and was published in 1872. Childers' dictionary later received the Volney Prize in 1876. The Pali Text Society was founded in part to compensate for the very low level of funds allocated to Indology in late 19th-century England and the rest of

13688-450: Was removed with the reforms and standardization made to the court orchestra during the late 10th century. It is assumed that the performance traditions died out by the 10th or 11th century ( William P. Malm ). This instrument also disappeared in the Chinese court orchestras. Recently, this instrument, much like the konghou harp, has been revived for historically informed performances and historical reconstructions. Not to be confused with

13806-431: Was used in some Prakrit dramas to represent vernacular dialogue. Preserved examples of Magadhi Prakrit are from several centuries after the theorized lifetime of the Buddha, and include inscriptions attributed to Asoka Maurya . Differences observed between preserved examples of Magadhi Prakrit and Pali lead scholars to conclude that Pali represented a development of a northwestern dialect of Middle Indic, rather than being

13924-457: Was written about the performance and practice of the biwa from roughly the 16th century to the mid-19th century. What is known is that three main streams of biwa practice emerged during this time: zato (the lowest level of the state-controlled guild of blind biwa players), shifu (samurai style), and chofu (urban style). These styles emphasized biwa-uta ( 琵琶歌 ) – vocalisation with biwa accompaniment – and formed

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