210-442: Śāriputra ( Sanskrit : शारिपुत्र ; Tibetan: ཤཱ་རིའི་བུ་, Pali : Sāriputta , lit. "the son of Śāri", born Upatiṣya , Pali: Upatissa ) was one of the top disciples of the Buddha . He is considered the first of the Buddha's two chief male disciples , together with Maudgalyāyana (Pali: Moggallāna ). Śāriputra had a key leadership role in the ministry of the Buddha and is considered in many Buddhist schools to have been important in
420-525: A pratyekabuddha in the future. During the visit, it is said that Maudgalyāyana attempted to relieve the suffering of those in hell by creating rain but the rain dispersed. After Śāriputra saw this, he created a rain that did relieve the suffering of those in hell, using a wisdom based meditation. In another Mūlasarvāstivāda text, the Buddha sent Maudgalyāyana to retrieve Śāriputra, who was doing sewing work. When Śāriputra stated he would go after his sewing work
630-415: 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
840-515: 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,
1050-531: 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
1260-447: 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 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
1470-563: A child while comparing Maudgalyāyana to a nurse who raises a child. Śāriputra would train students to sotapanna , the first stage of enlightenment, and Maudgalyāyana would train students to arhatship , the highest stage of enlightenment. However, Nyanaponika Thera notes that there are several individual cases where Śāriputra guided monks to the higher stages of enlightenment as well. Buddhist texts portray Śāriputra as someone who took an active role in debating and converting heretics , considered to have been one of his great prerogatives. In
1680-615: A condensed version of Buddhist doctrine that developed over time with metaphysical aspects to become the Abhidharma . Thomas also states that the Abhidharma had earlier roots and was developed based on existing material, likely a method of discussing the principles of the Buddha's teachings. According to Thomas, different Buddhist schools compiled their own Abhidharma works separately, but based it on common existing material. Śāriputra frequently appears in Mahayana sutras , often asking
1890-611: 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
2100-468: A dead language in the most common usage of the term. Pollock's notion of the "death of Sanskrit" remains in this unclear realm between academia and public opinion when he says that "most observers would agree that, in some crucial way, Sanskrit is dead." Pali Pāli ( / ˈ p ɑː l i / ), also known as Pali-Magadhi , is a classical Middle Indo-Aryan language on the Indian subcontinent . It
2310-552: 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
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#17327658474232520-575: 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
2730-433: A focus on Indian philosophies and Sanskrit. Though written in a number of different scripts, the dominant language of Hindu texts has been Sanskrit. It or a hybrid form of Sanskrit became the preferred language of Mahayana Buddhism scholarship; for example, one of the early and influential Buddhist philosophers, Nagarjuna (~200 CE), used Classical Sanskrit as the language for his texts. According to Renou, Sanskrit had
2940-410: A forest saint. Ray states that while it is possible Śāriputra's scholastic character was the result of texts that were added later, there is insufficient evidence to conclude to this. Sanskrit language Sanskrit ( / ˈ s æ n s k r ɪ t / ; attributively 𑀲𑀁𑀲𑁆𑀓𑀾𑀢𑀁 , संस्कृत- , saṃskṛta- ; nominally संस्कृतम् , saṃskṛtam , IPA: [ˈsɐ̃skr̩tɐm] )
3150-447: A future Buddha. He then made this wish in front of Anomadassī Buddha, who looked into the future and then declared that his aspiration would come true. Upon hearing the prediction, Sarada went to his close friend Sirivaddhana and asked him to resolve to become the second chief disciple of the same Buddha. Sirivaddhana then made a large offering to Anomadassī Buddha and his following, making the wish as suggested. Anomadassī Buddha looked into
3360-665: 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
3570-627: A key role in the development of the Abhidharma texts of the Buddhist Tripitaka. Buddhist scholar monks Rewata Dhamma and Bhikkhu Bodhi describe the Abhidharma as "an abstract and highly technical systemization of the doctrine". According to Theravada tradition, the Abhidharma , or "Higher Dharma", is said to have been preached by the Buddha to devas while he was spending the rainy season in Tavatimsa Heaven. It
3780-591: A language competed with numerous, less exact vernacular Indian languages called Prakritic languages ( prākṛta - ). The term prakrta literally means "original, natural, normal, artless", states Franklin Southworth . The relationship between Prakrit and Sanskrit is found in Indian texts dated to the 1st millennium CE. Patañjali acknowledged that Prakrit is the first language, one instinctively adopted by every child with all its imperfections and later leads to
3990-658: A limited role in the Theravada tradition (formerly known as the Hinayana) but the Prakrit works that have survived are of doubtful authenticity. Some of the canonical fragments of the early Buddhist traditions, discovered in the 20th century, suggest the early Buddhist traditions used an imperfect and reasonably good Sanskrit, sometimes with a Pali syntax, states Renou. The Mahāsāṃghika and Mahavastu, in their late Hinayana forms, used hybrid Sanskrit for their literature. Sanskrit
4200-495: 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 the existing sources specifically document pre-Ashokan Magadhi,
4410-454: A natural part of the earliest Vedic language, and that these developed in the centuries after the composition had been completed, and as a gradual unconscious process during the oral transmission by generations of reciters. The primary source for this argument is internal evidence of the text which betrays an instability of the phenomenon of retroflexion, with the same phrases having sandhi-induced retroflexion in some parts but not other. This
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#17327658474234620-479: A negative evidence to Pollock's hypothesis, but it is not positive evidence. A closer look at Sanskrit in the Indian history after the 12th century suggests that Sanskrit survived despite the odds. According to Hanneder, On a more public level the statement that Sanskrit is a dead language is misleading, for Sanskrit is quite obviously not as dead as other dead languages and the fact that it is spoken, written and read will probably convince most people that it cannot be
4830-415: 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
5040-461: A pair of sandstone boxes with encased bone fragments inside during an excavation of one of the stupas in the city of Sanchi , with Śāriputra's and Maudgalyāyana's names inscribed on them in Brāhmī text. Śāriputra's casket contained pieces of sandalwood , which Cunningham believed was part of Śāriputra's funeral pyre . Śāriputra's box was positioned at the south, while Maudgalyāyana's was positioned at
5250-546: A pan-Indo-Aryan accessibility to information and knowledge in the ancient and medieval times, in contrast to the Prakrit languages which were understood just regionally. It created a cultural bond across the subcontinent. As local languages and dialects evolved and diversified, Sanskrit served as the common language. It connected scholars from distant parts of South Asia such as Tamil Nadu and Kashmir, states Deshpande, as well as those from different fields of studies, though there must have been differences in its pronunciation given
5460-578: A refined and standardized grammatical form that emerged in the mid-1st millennium BCE and was codified in the most comprehensive of ancient grammars, the Aṣṭādhyāyī ('Eight chapters') of Pāṇini . The greatest dramatist in Sanskrit, Kālidāsa , wrote in classical Sanskrit, and the foundations of modern arithmetic were first described in classical Sanskrit. The two major Sanskrit epics, the Mahābhārata and
5670-538: A restrained language from which archaisms and unnecessary formal alternatives were excluded". The Classical form of the language simplified the sandhi rules but retained various aspects of the Vedic language, while adding rigor and flexibilities, so that it had sufficient means to express thoughts as well as being "capable of responding to the future increasing demands of an infinitely diversified literature", according to Renou. Pāṇini included numerous "optional rules" beyond
5880-439: A similar phonetic structure to Tamil. Hock et al. quoting George Hart state that there was influence of Old Tamil on Sanskrit. Hart compared Old Tamil and Classical Sanskrit to arrive at a conclusion that there was a common language from which these features both derived – "that both Tamil and Sanskrit derived their shared conventions, metres, and techniques from a common source, for it is clear that neither borrowed directly from
6090-751: A topic and have Śāriputra elaborate and deliver a sermon on it. In two discourses recorded in the Tripitaka , the Dasuttara Sutta and the Saṅgīti Sutta , the Buddha declared he needed to rest his back, and had Śāriputra teach in his place while the Buddha listened in the audience. His ability to teach the Dharma earned him the title of "General of the Dharma" (Sanskrit: Dharmasenapati ). Buddhist texts indicate that Śāriputra still had some flaws, however. In
6300-456: A way that led to enlightenment. Śāriputra assumed a leadership role in the Buddha's monastic community, or Sangha . Buddhist texts describe that Śāriputra routinely took charge of monastic affairs usually handled by the Buddha himself, such as attending to sick monks or visiting lay followers before their deaths. In one instance, when a group of monks planned to travel elsewhere, the Buddha told them to ask Śāriputra for permission first. Śāriputra
6510-567: A wealthy family in a village near Rājagaha in the ancient Indian kingdom of Magadha . Texts from the Mūlasarvāstivāda tradition state he was named after his father, while the Pali commentaries of the Theravada tradition state he was named after his birth village. Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Faxian refers to Śāriputra's birth village as Nāla (Nālaka) while Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang refers to
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6720-426: A wealthy person named Sarada who gave away his wealth to become an ascetic who developed a large following. At that time, Sarada and his followers were visited by the past Buddha, Anomadassi Buddha , and were given a sermon by Anomadassī Buddha and his chief disciples. Upon hearing the sermon from Anomadassī Buddha's first chief disciple Nisabha, Sarada became inspired and resolved to become the first chief disciple of
6930-509: A wise and powerful arhat , second only to the Buddha, Mahayana texts give him a wider range of depictions. Some Mahayana sutras portray him as a great Buddhist disciple while others portray him as a counterpoint with insufficient understanding of Mahayana doctrine, representative of the Hinayana tradition. Buddhist studies scholar Donald S. Lopez Jr. describes the latter as "intentional irony" aimed at depicting how profound Mahayana doctrine
7140-711: Is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages . It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late Bronze Age . Sanskrit is the sacred language of Hinduism , the language of classical Hindu philosophy , and of historical texts of Buddhism and Jainism . It was a link language in ancient and medieval South Asia, and upon transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia, East Asia and Central Asia in
7350-464: Is akin to that of Latin and Ancient Greek in Europe. Sanskrit has significantly influenced most modern languages of the Indian subcontinent , particularly the languages of the northern, western, central and eastern Indian subcontinent. Sanskrit declined starting about and after the 13th century. This coincides with the beginning of Islamic invasions of South Asia to create, and thereafter expand
7560-502: Is by showing that even the wisest "Hinayana" disciple had difficulty understanding it. In the Vimalakīrti Sūtra , Śāriputra is depicted as being unable to grasp Mahayana doctrines such as non-duality and emptiness . In the sutra, a goddess listening to Vimalakīrti scatters flowers which fall onto Śāriputra's robes. Not wanting to break the monastic rules, which forbid decorating oneself with flowers, he tries to remove them but
7770-425: Is considered the disciple of the Buddha who was foremost in wisdom . His female counterpart was Kṣemā (Pali: Khemā ). According to Buddhist texts , when a fully enlightened Buddha appears in the world, he always has a set of chief disciples. For the current Buddha, Gautama , his chief male disciples were Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana , while his chief female disciples were Khema and Uppalavanna . According to
7980-669: Is considered to have been the Buddha's first chief disciple, foremost in wisdom , a title he shared with the nun Kṣemā (Pali: Khemā ). He shared the title of chief male disciple with Maudgalyāyana, together described in the Mahāpadāna Sutta as "the chief pair of disciples, the excellent pair" (Pali: sāvakayugaṁ aggaṁ bhaddayugaṁ ). In the Mahavagga , the Buddha declared his two chief male disciples as being foremost in wisdom and foremost in psychic powers , referencing Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana respectively. Texts describe that none of
8190-522: 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
8400-436: Is depicted as a wise teacher with meditative vision who becomes ill and dies. In some accounts, he predicts the coming of the Buddha through his visions. After being unable to find what they were looking for, the two friends went their separate ways but made a pact that if one was to find the path to Nirvana , he would tell the other. After leaving Sañjaya, Upatiṣya encountered the monk Aśvajit ( Pali : Assaji ), one of
8610-452: Is found in the writing of Bharata Muni , the author of the ancient Natya Shastra text. The early Jain scholar Namisādhu acknowledged the difference, but disagreed that the Prakrit language was a corruption of Sanskrit. Namisādhu stated that the Prakrit language was the pūrvam ('came before, origin') and that it came naturally to children, while Sanskrit was a refinement of Prakrit through "purification by grammar". Sanskrit belongs to
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8820-536: 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
9030-502: 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
9240-491: Is often depicted as the counterpoint to the true meaning of prajñāpāramitā . In the Astasahasrika Prajñāpāramitā Sutra , Śāriputra is portrayed as being unable to understand the ultimate meaning of prajñāpāramitā and instead must be instructed by the disciple Subhūti . According to Buddhist scholar Edward Conze , the sutra depicts Śāriputra as being preoccupied with dualities, making him unable to grasp
9450-621: 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
9660-532: Is rare in the later version of the language. The Homerian Greek, like Ṛg-vedic Sanskrit, deploys simile extensively, but they are structurally very different. The early Vedic form of the Sanskrit language was far less homogenous compared to the Classical Sanskrit as defined by grammarians by about the mid-1st millennium BCE. According to Richard Gombrich—an Indologist and a scholar of Sanskrit, Pāli and Buddhist Studies—the archaic Vedic Sanskrit found in
9870-423: Is reported to have exhibited several psychic abilities such as levitation and the ability to visit other realms of existence, as well as abilities common among arhats such as recalling past lives and clairvoyance. In one story, a yaksha , or spirit, hit Śāriputra in the head while he was meditating. When Maudgalyāyana saw the incident and came to ask Śāriputra if he was okay, Śāriputra stated he didn't even notice
10080-611: Is said that the Buddha returned to earth daily to give a summary to Śāriputra, who classified and reordered the teachings and relayed it to his disciples, in what would become the Abhidharma Pitaka . Various sets of the Sarvastivada school of Buddhism, however, attribute each of the seven books of the Abhidharma to different authors, with Śāriputra being attributed as the author of just the Sangitiparyaya in
10290-436: 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 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
10500-479: Is taken along with evidence of controversy, for example, in passages of the Aitareya-Āraṇyaka (700 BCE), which features a discussion on whether retroflexion is valid in particular cases. The Ṛg-veda is a collection of books, created by multiple authors. These authors represented different generations, and the mandalas 2 to 7 are the oldest while the mandalas 1 and 10 are relatively the youngest. Yet,
10710-936: 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
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#173276584742310920-561: Is the doctrine of the Great Recluse. This stanza has become particularly famous in the Buddhist world, having been inscribed onto many Buddhist statues. According to philosopher Paul Carus , the stanza breaks away from the idea of divine intervention prevalent in ancient Brahmanism at the time and instead teaches that the origin and end of all things depends on its causation. Following the teaching, Upatiṣya attained sotapanna ,
11130-589: Is the predominant language of one of the largest collection of historic manuscripts. The earliest known inscriptions in Sanskrit are from the 1st century BCE, such as the Ayodhya Inscription of Dhana and Ghosundi-Hathibada (Chittorgarh) . Though developed and nurtured by scholars of orthodox schools of Hinduism, Sanskrit has been the language for some of the key literary works and theology of heterodox schools of Indian philosophies such as Buddhism and Jainism. The structure and capabilities of
11340-461: 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
11550-551: Is unable to. The goddess then accuses Śāriputra of being attached to the duality of what is proper and improper. Later in the sutra, Śāriputra asks that if the goddess is so spiritually advanced, why doesn't she transform out of her female state, indicative of cultural sexism. The goddess responds by using her powers to switch bodies with Śāriputra to demonstrate that male and female is just an illusion because, according to Mahayana doctrine, all things are empty and so male and female don't really exist. In prajñāpāramitā sutras Śāriputra
11760-785: 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
11970-574: 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 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
12180-540: The Bhagavata Purana , the Panchatantra and many other texts are all in the Sanskrit language. The Classical Sanskrit with its exacting grammar was thus the language of the Indian scholars and the educated classes, while others communicated with approximate or ungrammatical variants of it as well as other natural Indian languages. Sanskrit, as the learned language of Ancient India, thus existed alongside
12390-507: The Buddhavaṃsa , all Buddhas of the past followed this pattern of selecting two chief male disciples and two chief female disciples. German Buddhist scholar and monk Nyanaponika Thera states that the reason Buddhas always select two chief disciples is to balance responsibilities according to each disciple's specific skills. According to the Pāli Canon , in the distant past Śāriputra was born
12600-612: The Shorter Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra he is placed as the first. According to accounts from the 7th century Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang , Śāriputra's as well as Maudgalyāyana's relics could be found in the Indian city of Mathura in stupas built by King Asoka . However, as of 1999, no archaeological reports had confirmed such findings at the sites mentioned by either Chinese pilgrims or Buddhist texts, although findings were made at other sites. In 1851, archaeologists Alexander Cunningham and Lieutenant Fred. C. Maisey discovered
12810-552: The bodhisattva path in a past life but gave up and turned to the Śrāvaka path after donating his eye to a beggar who threw the eye on the ground. Religious studies scholar Douglas Osto argues that Śāriputra is portrayed as such in Prajñāpāramitā sutras due to his association with the Abhidharma , which teaches that dharmas are the final reality. This is in contrast to the core teachings of Prajñāpāramitā sutras , which teach that all dharmas are empty, thus making Śāriputra
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#173276584742313020-494: The bodhisattva path in past lives but had forgotten and followed the Śrāvaka path in this life. The Buddha then assures Śāriputra that he will also achieve buddhahood and declares that Śāriputra will become the future Buddha Padmaprabha. In the listing of the great arhats in the assembly at the beginning of the Longer Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra , Śāriputra is mentioned as the fifteenth of the great arhats , while in
13230-467: The Anupada Sutta , the Buddha gave a eulogy of Śāriputra, praising his intellect and virtue. According to a Dighanikaya commentary, the Buddha enshrined Śāriputra's relics in a cetiya at Jetavana . In Mūlasarvāstivāda texts, the relics were given to the lay disciple, Anathapindika , and it is him who builds a stupa and enshrines the relics at Jetavana. Śāriputra is said to have played
13440-548: The Catuma Sutta , when a group of young monks made noise and were ordered by the Buddha to leave, the Buddha reprimanded Śāriputra for not concluding that it was the chief disciples' responsibility to look after the monks, something Maudgalyāyana was able to conclude. On another occasion the Buddha reprimanded Śāriputra for teaching the dying Dhanañjani, in a way that led him to rebirth in the Brahma realm rather than teaching in
13650-472: The Colombo Museum . In 1949, the relics were sent to India where they were put on tour around northern India and various parts of Asia. In 1950, the relics were sent on tour to Burma, with Burmese Prime Minister U Nu later asking India for a portion of the relics. Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru agreed to make a "permanent loan" of a portion of the relics to Burma where they were enshrined in
13860-580: The Dalai Lama , the Sanskrit language is a parent language that is at the foundation of many modern languages of India and the one that promoted Indian thought to other distant countries. In Tibetan Buddhism, states the Dalai Lama, Sanskrit language has been a revered one and called legjar lhai-ka or "elegant language of the gods". It has been the means of transmitting the "profound wisdom of Buddhist philosophy" to Tibet. The Sanskrit language created
14070-613: The Indo-European family of languages . It is one of the three earliest ancient documented languages that arose from a common root language now referred to as Proto-Indo-European : Other Indo-European languages distantly related to Sanskrit include archaic and Classical Latin ( c. 600 BCE–100 CE, Italic languages ), Gothic (archaic Germanic language , c. 350 CE ), Old Norse ( c. 200 CE and after), Old Avestan ( c. late 2nd millennium BCE ) and Younger Avestan ( c. 900 BCE). The closest ancient relatives of Vedic Sanskrit in
14280-782: The Kaba Aye Pagoda in 1952. Sri Lanka also obtained a portion of the relics, which were brought from Sanchi in 1952 and kept at the Maha Bodhi Society in Sri Lanka. The portion of the relics that remained in India were enshrined at the Chethiyagiri Vihara in Sanchi, also in 1952. As the chief disciple of the Buddha, Śāriputra is considered to be a particularly important figure in Buddhism, especially in
14490-732: 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
14700-534: 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
14910-418: 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
15120-701: The Rigveda had already evolved in the Vedic period, as evidenced in the later Vedic literature. Gombrich posits that the language in the early Upanishads of Hinduism and the late Vedic literature approaches Classical Sanskrit, while the archaic Vedic Sanskrit had by the Buddha 's time become unintelligible to all except ancient Indian sages. The formalization of the Saṃskṛta language is credited to Pāṇini , along with Patañjali's Mahābhāṣya and Katyayana's commentary that preceded Patañjali's work. Panini composed Aṣṭādhyāyī ('Eight-Chapter Grammar'), which became
15330-532: The Rigveda , a collection of 1,028 hymns composed between 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE by Indo-Aryan tribes migrating east from the mountains of what is today northern Afghanistan across northern Pakistan and into northwestern India. Vedic Sanskrit interacted with the preexisting ancient languages of the subcontinent, absorbing names of newly encountered plants and animals; in addition, the ancient Dravidian languages influenced Sanskrit's phonology and syntax. Sanskrit can also more narrowly refer to Classical Sanskrit ,
15540-531: The Rāmāyaṇa , however, were composed in a range of oral storytelling registers called Epic Sanskrit which was used in northern India between 400 BCE and 300 CE, and roughly contemporary with classical Sanskrit. In the following centuries, Sanskrit became tradition-bound, stopped being learned as a first language, and ultimately stopped developing as a living language. The hymns of the Rigveda are notably similar to
15750-443: The Theravada tradition. According to Buddhist academic Reginald Ray , Śāriputra was the greatest arhat in the Pali Canon and is ranked in the canon as being close to a second Buddha. In one text, he is referred to as "King of the Dharma" (Sanskrit: Dharmaraja ) a title generally reserved for the Buddha, and is described in several texts as one who "spins the wheel of the Dharma", a prerogative generally associated with Buddhas. In
15960-406: The sandhi rules, both internal and external. Quite many words found in the early Vedic Sanskrit language are never found in late Vedic Sanskrit or Classical Sanskrit literature, while some words have different and new meanings in Classical Sanskrit when contextually compared to the early Vedic Sanskrit literature. Arthur Macdonell was among the early colonial era scholars who summarized some of
16170-500: The verbal adjective sáṃskṛta- is a compound word consisting of sáṃ ('together, good, well, perfected') and kṛta - ('made, formed, work'). It connotes a work that has been "well prepared, pure and perfect, polished, sacred". According to Biderman, the perfection contextually being referred to in the etymological origins of the word is its tonal—rather than semantic—qualities. Sound and oral transmission were highly valued qualities in ancient India, and its sages refined
16380-536: The "prototypical" Buddhist saint who embodied the ideal of the Southern Buddhism that developed in ancient Kosambi . However, Ray points out that some Pali texts, such as the Udana and Theragatha , portray Śāriputra as a forest saint. He concludes that there are at least two traditions linked to him in Pali texts, forest and scholarly. Migot identifies texts that exclude Śāriputra's scholastic character as
16590-490: 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
16800-414: The 13th century, a premier center of Sanskrit literary creativity, Sanskrit literature there disappeared, perhaps in the "fires that periodically engulfed the capital of Kashmir" or the "Mongol invasion of 1320" states Pollock. The Sanskrit literature which was once widely disseminated out of the northwest regions of the subcontinent, stopped after the 12th century. As Hindu kingdoms fell in the eastern and
17010-804: 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
17220-627: 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
17430-532: The 7th century where he established a major center of learning and language translation under the patronage of Emperor Taizong. By the early 1st millennium CE, Sanskrit had spread Buddhist and Hindu ideas to Southeast Asia, parts of the East Asia and the Central Asia. It was accepted as a language of high culture and the preferred language by some of the local ruling elites in these regions. According to
17640-584: The Buddha as the Buddha was delivering the Vedanāpariggaha Sutta to a wandering ascetic. Pali texts state that the ascetic was Śāriputra's nephew but Chinese, Tibetan and Sanskrit texts state he was Śāriputra's uncle. According to commentaries such as the Atthakatha , Śāriputra took longer to achieve enlightenment than Maudgalyāyana because his knowledge had to be more thorough as first chief disciple, and thus required more preparation time. Śāriputra
17850-445: The Buddha had previously laid down a rule forbidding monks to eat garlic, with Śāriputra only taking it after the Buddha rescinded the rule. In another story, Śāriputra found that meal cakes tended to make him greedy and then made a vow to abstain from them. A Buddhist commentary describes that one time when the other monks had left to collect alms, Śāriputra meticulously cleaned and organized the monastery to keep heretics from criticizing
18060-432: The Buddha in Buddhist tradition and art accordingly. As the first chief disciple, Śāriputra's role was the systematization and analysis of the Buddha's teachings. The Buddhist canon often shows Śāriputra asking the Buddha questions and entreating the Buddha to teach, as well as himself clarifying points and questioning disciples, in some cases seemingly to test the knowledge of fellow disciples. The Buddha would often suggest
18270-496: The Buddha to teach or engaging in the dialogue himself. Migot states that it is significant that Śāriputra has a continuity in Mahayana texts, as most of the Buddha's great disciples are usually absent from Mahayana literature. Migot credits the importance of Śāriputra in the early Vatsiputriya Buddhist school with why Śāriputra often appeared in Mahayana texts. While depictions of Śāriputra in the Pāli Canon generally portray him as
18480-523: 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 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
18690-405: The Buddha's first five arhat disciples. Upatiṣya noticed how serene the monk appeared and approached him to ask for a teaching. Aśvajit said he was still newly ordained but would teach what he can, and proceeded to teach the famous Ye Dharma Hetu stanza: Of all those things that from a cause arise, Tathagata the cause thereof has told; And how they cease to be, that too he tells, This
18900-486: The Buddha's monastic community and led some of the Buddha's disciples away, Śāriputra played a key role in restoring the community. According to texts, upon hearing about the schism, Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana pretended to join Devadatta's community. After the chief disciples joined, Devadatta claimed to have had a backache and had Śāriputra preach in his place, but Devadatta fell asleep and Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana used
19110-438: The Buddha's other disciples could answer questions that Maudgalyāyana was able to answer while Maudgalyāyana was unable to answer questions Śāriputra was able to answer. Buddhist tradition maintains that the first chief disciple, Śāriputra, customarily sat to the Buddha's right hand side, while the second chief disciple, Maudgalyāyana, sat to the left. The disciples have thus been stylized as the right hand and left hand disciples of
19320-443: The Buddha's right hand side and Maudgalyāyana usually depicted on the Buddha's left hand side. According to Nyanaponika Thera, this imagery symbolizes the relative positions they held in life, with Śāriputra being the Buddha's right hand monk. In Mahayana Buddhism this iconography of flanking the Buddha on his right and left is sometimes used for other figures as well, such as the Mahayana bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī , or
19530-489: The Buddha, particularly in Theravada Buddhism where he is given a status close to a second Buddha. In Buddhist art , he is often depicted alongside the Buddha, usually to his right. Śāriputra was known for his strict adherence to the Buddhist monastic rules , as well as for his wisdom and teaching ability, giving him the title "General of the Dharma" (Sanskrit: Dharmasenāpati ; Pali: Dhammasenāpati ). Śāriputra
19740-472: The Buddha, with texts generally indicating he died in his hometown. According to Pāli commentaries, Śāriputra arose from meditation one day and realized through his meditative insight that the chief disciples were supposed to achieve parinirvana before the Buddha, and that he had seven more days to live. Śāriputra then traveled to his hometown to teach his mother, who was yet to be converted to Buddhism. After he converted his mother, Śāriputra died peacefully on
19950-443: The Buddha. According to the Pali tradition, Upatiṣya's father was named Vangunta, while according to Mūlasarvāstivāda tradition his father was named Tiṣya ( Pali : Tissa ). Upatiṣya's mother was named Śārī (alternatively called Rūpaśārī, Śārika, or Śāradvatī), because she had eyes like a śārika bird. His mother was the reason Upatiṣya later became known as Śāriputra (son of Śāri) and sometimes Śāradvatīputra (son of Śāradvatī). Upatiṣya
20160-668: The Chinese Sarvastivada tradition and as the author of the Dharmaskandha in the Sanskrit and Tibetan Sarvastivada traditions. In the Vatsiputriya tradition, a subset of the Sarvastivada school, Śāriputra is said to have transmitted the Abhidharma to Rahula, who later transmitted it to the school's founder, Vatsiputra. As the author of the Abhidharma in Buddhist tradition, Śāriputra is considered to be
20370-425: The Classical Sanskrit language launched ancient Indian speculations about "the nature and function of language", what is the relationship between words and their meanings in the context of a community of speakers, whether this relationship is objective or subjective, discovered or is created, how individuals learn and relate to the world around them through language, and about the limits of language? They speculated on
20580-532: The Dravidian languages borrowed from Sanskrit vocabulary, but they have also affected Sanskrit on deeper levels of structure, "for instance in the domain of phonology where Indo-Aryan retroflexes have been attributed to Dravidian influence". Similarly, Ferenc Ruzca states that all the major shifts in Indo-Aryan phonetics over two millennia can be attributed to the constant influence of a Dravidian language with
20790-521: The Dravidian words and forms, without modifying the word order; but the same thing is not possible in rendering a Persian or English sentence into a non-Indo-Aryan language. Shulman mentions that "Dravidian nonfinite verbal forms (called vinaiyeccam in Tamil) shaped the usage of the Sanskrit nonfinite verbs (originally derived from inflected forms of action nouns in Vedic). This particularly salient case of
21000-476: The Indo-Aryan language underwent rapid linguistic change and morphed into the Vedic Sanskrit language. The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit . The earliest attested Sanskrit text is the Rigveda , a Hindu scripture from the mid- to late-second millennium BCE. No written records from such an early period survive, if any ever existed, but scholars are generally confident that
21210-519: The Indo-European languages are the Nuristani languages found in the remote Hindu Kush region of northeastern Afghanistan and northwestern Himalayas, as well as the extinct Avestan and Old Persian – both are Iranian languages . Sanskrit belongs to the satem group of the Indo-European languages. Colonial era scholars familiar with Latin and Greek were struck by the resemblance of
21420-532: The Muslim rule in the form of Sultanates, and later the Mughal Empire . Sheldon Pollock characterises the decline of Sanskrit as a long-term "cultural, social, and political change". He dismisses the idea that Sanskrit declined due to "struggle with barbarous invaders", and emphasises factors such as the increasing attractiveness of vernacular language for literary expression. With the fall of Kashmir around
21630-496: The Muslim rulers. Hindu rulers such as Shivaji of the Maratha Empire , reversed the process, by re-adopting Sanskrit and re-asserting their socio-linguistic identity. After Islamic rule disintegrated in South Asia and the colonial rule era began, Sanskrit re-emerged but in the form of a "ghostly existence" in regions such as Bengal. This decline was the result of "political institutions and civic ethos" that did not support
21840-526: The Mūlasarvāstivāda tradition, when the six heretical teachers of the time challenged the Buddhists to a contest, the Buddha had Śāriputra contend against them. Mūlasarvāstivāda texts state that Śāriputra used psychic powers to create a huge storm and transform himself into various forms, subduing the rival teachers and converting the residents of Savatthi. When the monk Devadatta created a schism in
22050-559: The Pali Canon, Śāriputra is credited as the main expounder of several suttas , due to the Buddha trusting in his profound teaching ability. Indologist Alex Wayman describes Śāriputra as being exemplary of the four brahma-vihārās , and credits these virtues with why the Buddha entrusted him with leadership of the Sangha. In Buddhist art , he is often depicted alongside the Buddha and Maudgalyāyana, with Śāriputra usually depicted on
22260-512: 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
22470-445: 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
22680-739: The Sanchi relics went to Britain along with the Satdhāra ones. In the early 20th century, Buddhist organizations in India and Burma began pressuring the British government to return the relics to India, where they can be properly venerated. Although the Victoria and Albert Museum initially resisted, the British government eventually ordered them to return the relics for diplomatic reasons. The relics were transferred to predominantly Buddhist Sri Lanka in 1947 in accordance with an agreement made with Buddhist organizations, where they were put on temporary display at
22890-575: The Satdhāra relics to Britain and eventually loaning them to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1866. The relics were eventually purchased by the Museum in 1921 from Maisley's son. Cunningham brought his findings to Britain on two ships, one of which sank, thus the Sanchi relics are believed to have been lost. However, historian Torkel Brekke argues that Maisey took all the relics with him, and thus
23100-499: The Saṃskṛta language, both in its vocabulary and grammar, to the classical languages of Europe. In The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World , Mallory and Adams illustrate the resemblance with the following examples of cognate forms (with the addition of Old English for further comparison): The correspondences suggest some common root, and historical links between some of
23310-601: 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
23520-578: The South India, such as the great Vijayanagara Empire , so did Sanskrit. There were exceptions and short periods of imperial support for Sanskrit, mostly concentrated during the reign of the tolerant Mughal emperor Akbar . Muslim rulers patronized the Middle Eastern language and scripts found in Persia and Arabia, and the Indians linguistically adapted to this Persianization to gain employment with
23730-458: 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
23940-541: 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
24150-447: The Vedic Sanskrit in these books of the Ṛg-veda "hardly presents any dialectical diversity", states Louis Renou – an Indologist known for his scholarship of the Sanskrit literature and the Ṛg-veda in particular. According to Renou, this implies that the Vedic Sanskrit language had a "set linguistic pattern" by the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Beyond the Ṛg-veda, the ancient literature in Vedic Sanskrit that has survived into
24360-451: The Vedic Sanskrit's bahulam framework, to respect liberty and creativity so that individual writers separated by geography or time would have the choice to express facts and their views in their own way, where tradition followed competitive forms of the Sanskrit language. The phonetic differences between Vedic Sanskrit and Classical Sanskrit, as discerned from the current state of the surviving literature, are negligible when compared to
24570-407: The alphabet, the structure of words, and its exacting grammar into a "collection of sounds, a kind of sublime musical mold" as an integral language they called Saṃskṛta . From the late Vedic period onwards, state Annette Wilke and Oliver Moebus, resonating sound and its musical foundations attracted an "exceptionally large amount of linguistic, philosophical and religious literature" in India. Sound
24780-562: The audience then rejoice. In the Lotus Sutra , the Buddha starts talking about the higher wisdom of buddhas and his use of skillful means (Sanskrit: upāya ) to teach the Dharma, which leaves the arhats in the assembly confused. Śāriputra then asks the Buddha to explain his teachings for the benefit of other beings, prompting the Buddha to teach the Lotus Sutra . Later in the sutra, the Buddha explains that Śāriputra had followed
24990-696: 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
25200-473: 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
25410-492: The blow and suffered only a minor headache. Maudgalyāyana then praised Śāriputra for his psychic abilities by being able to sustain a blow with little notice, described in the Patisambhidamagga text as an example of “the power of intervention by concentration” (Pali: samādhivipphāra-iddhi ). In Mūlasarvāstivāda texts, Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana descended to hell to give Devadatta the prophecy that he will become
25620-440: The capacity to understand the old Prakrit languages such as Ardhamagadhi . A section of European scholars state that Sanskrit was never a spoken language. However, evidences shows that Sanskrit was a spoken language, essential for oral tradition that preserved the vast number of Sanskrit manuscripts from ancient India. The textual evidence in the works of Yaksa, Panini, and Patanajali affirms that Classical Sanskrit in their era
25830-527: The close relationship between the Indo-Iranian tongues and the Baltic and Slavic languages , vocabulary exchange with the non-Indo-European Uralic languages , and the nature of the attested Indo-European words for flora and fauna. The pre-history of Indo-Aryan languages which preceded Vedic Sanskrit is unclear and various hypotheses place it over a fairly wide limit. According to Thomas Burrow, based on
26040-614: The context of a speech or language, is found in verses 5.28.17–19 of the Ramayana . Outside the learned sphere of written Classical Sanskrit, vernacular colloquial dialects ( Prakrits ) continued to evolve. Sanskrit co-existed with numerous other Prakrit languages of ancient India. The Prakrit languages of India also have ancient roots and some Sanskrit scholars have called these Apabhramsa , literally 'spoiled'. The Vedic literature includes words whose phonetic equivalent are not found in other Indo-European languages but which are found in
26250-593: The crystallization of Classical Sanskrit. As in this period the Indo-Aryan tribes had not yet made contact with the inhabitants of the South of the subcontinent, this suggests a significant presence of Dravidian speakers in North India (the central Gangetic plain and the classical Madhyadeśa) who were instrumental in this substratal influence on Sanskrit. Extant manuscripts in Sanskrit number over 30 million, one hundred times those in Greek and Latin combined, constituting
26460-423: 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
26670-467: The detailed and sophisticated treatise then transmitted it through his students. Modern scholarship generally accepts that he knew of a form of writing, based on references to words such as Lipi ('script') and lipikara ('scribe') in section 3.2 of the Aṣṭādhyāyī . The Classical Sanskrit language formalized by Pāṇini, states Renou, is "not an impoverished language", rather it is "a controlled and
26880-603: The development of the Buddhist Abhidharma . He frequently appears in Mahayana sutras , and in some sutras, is used as a counterpoint to represent the Hinayana school of Buddhism. Historians believe Śāriputra was born in the ancient Indian kingdom of Magadha around the 6th or 5th century BCE. Buddhist texts relate that Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana were childhood friends who became spiritual wanderers in their youth. After having searched for spiritual truth with other contemporary teachers, they came into contact with
27090-471: The differences between the Vedic and Classical Sanskrit. Louis Renou published in 1956, in French, a more extensive discussion of the similarities, the differences and the evolution of the Vedic Sanskrit within the Vedic period and then to the Classical Sanskrit along with his views on the history. This work has been translated by Jagbans Balbir. The earliest known use of the word Saṃskṛta (Sanskrit), in
27300-400: The disciples Ānanda and Mahākāśyapa . In Burma, Śāriputra is believed to grant wisdom to worshippers, and is one of eight arhats commonly shown devotion to in protective rituals. Śāriputra is notable for being representative of scholarship and settled monasticism, rather than the forest Buddhism that most of the Buddha's principal disciples are associated with. Ray describes Śāriputra as
27510-416: The disciples' deaths until the time of King Asoka, who then redistributed them in stupas throughout India. Scholars have also theorized that a Sunga king may have also have done a similar redistribution of the relics of the Buddha and his leading disciples and built stupas such as the one in Sanchi to enshrine them. Cunningham and Maisey later divided their findings among each other, with Maisey bringing
27720-431: The disciples. Several Buddhist texts relate that Śāriputra was reborn as a snake in a previous life and that this was the reason for some of his stubbornness. In a Mahāsāṃghika text the Buddha punished Śāriputra by making him stand in the sun for failing to prevent some monks from making incorrect remarks. When the other monks later asked the Buddha to stop the punishment, the Buddha said that Śāriputra's decision to receive
27930-460: The distant major ancient languages of the world. The Indo-Aryan migrations theory explains the common features shared by Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages by proposing that the original speakers of what became Sanskrit arrived in South Asia from a region of common origin, somewhere north-west of the Indus region , during the early 2nd millennium BCE. Evidence for such a theory includes
28140-405: The earliest sources, and goes on to argue that the historic Śāriputra was different from the person preserved in the Pali Canon. He argues that Śāriputra was venerated as a saint in the ancient Kosambi region and that the early Sthavira school of Buddhism developed his scholarly side in accordance to the tradition's values in the region at the time, indicating that Śāriputra may originally have been
28350-441: 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
28560-490: The early medieval era, it became a language of religion and high culture , and of the political elites in some of these regions. As a result, Sanskrit had a lasting impact on the languages of South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, especially in their formal and learned vocabularies. Sanskrit generally connotes several Old Indo-Aryan language varieties. The most archaic of these is the Vedic Sanskrit found in
28770-410: 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 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
28980-419: The fact that the Buddha traditionally sat facing the east, which would make the south his right hand side, and the north his left hand side. Another excavation by Cunningham and Maisey at stupas in the nearby town of Satdhāra found another pair of caskets with encased bone fragments with the two chief disciples' names inscribed. Cunningham concluded that the relics were enshrined in stupas near Rajagaha after
29190-538: The first stage of enlightenment . Upatiṣya then went to Kolita to tell him about the incident and, after reciting the stanza for him, Kolita also attained sotapanna . The two friends, along with a large chunk of Sañjaya's disciples, then ordained as monks under the Buddha, with everybody in the group becoming arhats that day except for Upatiṣya and Kolita. Nyanaponika Thera states that the friends required longer preparatory periods before enlightening in order to fulfill their roles as chief disciples. Several texts describe
29400-710: The first century CE. However, Migot states that a simpler version of the Abhidharma likely existed in early Buddhism, before it evolved and was written down in its current form. Migot points to the mention of the " Matrka" Pitaka in Cullavagga texts as the precursor to the Abhidharma Pitaka . Migot argues that the Matrka Pitaka , recited by Mahākāśyapa at the First Buddhist Council according to Ashokavadana texts, likely began as
29610-548: The first language of the respective speakers. The Sanskrit language brought Indo-Aryan speaking people together, particularly its elite scholars. Some of these scholars of Indian history regionally produced vernacularized Sanskrit to reach wider audiences, as evidenced by texts discovered in Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. Once the audience became familiar with the easier to understand vernacularized version of Sanskrit, those interested could graduate from colloquial Sanskrit to
29820-412: The foundation of Vyākaraṇa, a Vedānga . The Aṣṭādhyāyī was not the first description of Sanskrit grammar, but it is the earliest that has survived in full, and the culmination of a long grammatical tradition that Fortson says, is "one of the intellectual wonders of the ancient world". Pāṇini cites ten scholars on the phonological and grammatical aspects of the Sanskrit language before him, as well as
30030-538: The full moon day of Kartika a few months before the Buddha. According to Mūlasarvāstivāda texts, however, it is said that Śāriputra achieved paranirvana voluntarily because he didn't want to witness the Buddha's death, in some accounts he was also motivated by Maudgalyāyana intending to achieve paranirvana after being beaten and mortally injured by a rival religious group. In the Sarvāstivāda account, Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana both achieved paranirvana voluntarily on
30240-428: The future and declared that Sirivaddhana's aspiration would also come true. The two friends then spent the rest of their lives and many future lives doing good deeds. According to Buddhist legend, the aspiration came true in the time of Gautama Buddha with Sarada being reborn as Śāriputra and Sirivaddhana as Maudgalyāyana. Buddhist texts describe that Śāriputra was born with the birth name Upatiṣya ( Pali : Upatissa ) to
30450-537: The gods Varuna, Mitra, Indra, and Nasatya found in the earliest layers of the Vedic literature. O Bṛhaspati, when in giving names they first set forth the beginning of Language, Their most excellent and spotless secret was laid bare through love, When the wise ones formed Language with their mind, purifying it like grain with a winnowing fan, Then friends knew friendships – an auspicious mark placed on their language. — Rigveda 10.71.1–4 Translated by Roger Woodard The Vedic Sanskrit found in
30660-431: The historic Sanskrit literary culture and the failure of new Sanskrit literature to assimilate into the changing cultural and political environment. Sheldon Pollock states that in some crucial way, "Sanskrit is dead ". After the 12th century, the Sanskrit literary works were reduced to "reinscription and restatements" of ideas already explored, and any creativity was restricted to hymns and verses. This contrasted with
30870-493: The ideal counterpoint. Śāriputra plays a major role in the Heart Sutra , where the teaching is directed at him. Śāriputra prompts the teaching of the sutra by asking the Mahayana bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara how to practice wisdom . Avalokiteśvara's response to Śāriputra, then makes up the body of the sutra. When Avalokiteśvara finishes the sutra the Buddha shows approval of the teaching, and Śāriputra, Avalokiteśvara, and
31080-486: The intense change that must have occurred in the pre-Vedic period between the Proto-Indo-Aryan language and Vedic Sanskrit. The noticeable differences between the Vedic and the Classical Sanskrit include the much-expanded grammar and grammatical categories as well as the differences in the accent, the semantics and the syntax. There are also some differences between how some of the nouns and verbs end, as well as
31290-539: 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
31500-454: 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
31710-432: The largest cultural heritage that any civilization has produced prior to the invention of the printing press. — Foreword of Sanskrit Computational Linguistics (2009), Gérard Huet, Amba Kulkarni and Peter Scharf Sanskrit has been the predominant language of Hindu texts encompassing a rich tradition of philosophical and religious texts, as well as poetry, music, drama , scientific , technical and others. It
31920-405: 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 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
32130-412: The linguistic expression and sets the standard for the Sanskrit language. Pāṇini made use of a technical metalanguage consisting of a syntax, morphology and lexicon. This metalanguage is organised according to a series of meta-rules, some of which are explicitly stated while others can be deduced. Despite differences in the analysis from that of modern linguistics, Pāṇini's work has been found valuable and
32340-514: The literary works. The Indian tradition, states Winternitz , has favored the learning and the usage of multiple languages from the ancient times. Sanskrit was a spoken language in the educated and the elite classes, but it was also a language that must have been understood in a wider circle of society because the widely popular folk epics and stories such as the Ramayana , the Mahabharata ,
32550-511: The modern age include the Samaveda , Yajurveda , Atharvaveda , along with the embedded and layered Vedic texts such as the Brahmanas , Aranyakas , and the early Upanishads . These Vedic documents reflect the dialects of Sanskrit found in the various parts of the northwestern, northern, and eastern Indian subcontinent. According to Michael Witzel, Vedic Sanskrit was a spoken language of
32760-666: 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
32970-429: The more advanced Classical Sanskrit. Rituals and the rites-of-passage ceremonies have been and continue to be the other occasions where a wide spectrum of people hear Sanskrit, and occasionally join in to speak some Sanskrit words such as namah . Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini , around the fourth century BCE. Its position in the cultures of Greater India
33180-401: The most advanced analysis of linguistics until the twentieth century. Pāṇini's comprehensive and scientific theory of grammar is conventionally taken to mark the start of Classical Sanskrit. His systematic treatise inspired and made Sanskrit the preeminent Indian language of learning and literature for two millennia. It is unclear whether Pāṇini himself wrote his treatise or he orally created
33390-602: The most archaic poems of the Iranian and Greek language families, the Gathas of old Avestan and Iliad of Homer . As the Rigveda was orally transmitted by methods of memorisation of exceptional complexity, rigour and fidelity, as a single text without variant readings, its preserved archaic syntax and morphology are of vital importance in the reconstruction of the common ancestor language Proto-Indo-European . Sanskrit does not have an attested native script: from around
33600-516: 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
33810-423: The north. According to Cunningham, people in ancient India sat facing the east during religious ceremonies and even used the word east ( para ) for "front", as well as the word south ( dakshina ) for "right" and the word north ( vami ) for "left", meaning the positioning of the caskets symbolized each disciple's relative positions as right and left hand disciple respectively. This positioning has also been explained by
34020-597: The numbers are thought to signify a wish to be aligned with the prestige of the language. Sanskrit has been taught in traditional gurukulas since ancient times; it is widely taught today at the secondary school level. The oldest Sanskrit college is the Benares Sanskrit College founded in 1791 during East India Company rule . Sanskrit continues to be widely used as a ceremonial and ritual language in Hindu and Buddhist hymns and chants . In Sanskrit,
34230-500: The opportunity to get the following to return to the Buddha. Buddhist texts generally credit the establishment of the monastic rules to Śāriputra, with Śāriputra being the one to ask the Buddha to create the rules. When Śāriputra asked the Buddha, he said he would lay them down at the right time. Śāriputra was known for his conscientiousness and meticulous adherence to monastic rules. In one story, Śāriputra became ill with an ailment that could be treated with garlic, but refused it because
34440-403: The oral transmission of the texts is reliable: they are ceremonial literature, where the exact phonetic expression and its preservation were a part of the historic tradition. However some scholars have suggested that the original Ṛg-veda differed in some fundamental ways in phonology compared to the sole surviving version available to us. In particular that retroflex consonants did not exist as
34650-427: The ordination with miraculous elements, such as the disciples' clothes suddenly being replaced with Buddhist robes and their hair falling out on its own. After ordaining, Upatiṣya started being called Śāriputra (Pali: Sāriputta ), and Kolita started being called Maudgalyāyana (Pali: Moggallāna ). After Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana ordained, the Buddha declared them his two chief disciples (Pali: aggasavaka ), following
34860-431: The other." Reinöhl further states that there is a symmetric relationship between Dravidian languages like Kannada or Tamil, with Indo-Aryan languages like Bengali or Hindi, whereas the same relationship is not found for non-Indo-Aryan languages, for example, Persian or English: A sentence in a Dravidian language like Tamil or Kannada becomes ordinarily good Bengali or Hindi by substituting Bengali or Hindi equivalents for
35070-476: The patron saint of the Abhidharmists. French religion writer André Migot , argues that the Abhidharma was formulated no earlier than the time of Emperor Asoka , and thus cannot really be attributed to the historic Śāriputra, at least not the version known by modern scholars. English historian Edward J. Thomas dates the development of the Abhidharma as being sometime between the third century BCE and
35280-414: The possible influence of Dravidian on Sanskrit is only one of many items of syntactic assimilation, not least among them the large repertoire of morphological modality and aspect that, once one knows to look for it, can be found everywhere in classical and postclassical Sanskrit". The main influence of Dravidian on Sanskrit is found to have been concentrated in the timespan between the late Vedic period and
35490-439: The previous 1,500 years when "great experiments in moral and aesthetic imagination" marked the Indian scholarship using Classical Sanskrit, states Pollock. Scholars maintain that the Sanskrit language did not die, but rather only declined. Jurgen Hanneder disagrees with Pollock, finding his arguments elegant but "often arbitrary". According to Hanneder, a decline or regional absence of creative and innovative literature constitutes
35700-480: The problems of interpretation and misunderstanding. The purifying structure of the Sanskrit language removes these imperfections. The early Sanskrit grammarian Daṇḍin states, for example, that much in the Prakrit languages is etymologically rooted in Sanskrit, but involves "loss of sounds" and corruptions that result from a "disregard of the grammar". Daṇḍin acknowledged that there are words and confusing structures in Prakrit that thrive independent of Sanskrit. This view
35910-533: The punishment could not be changed, just as he was unwilling to change his mind when he was a snake. In a Mahīśāsaka text, Śāriputra refused to take a type of fruit, even when prescribed as medicine, after another monk suspected him of sneaking delicious food, the Buddha likewise references Śāriputra's life as a snake to explain his stubbornness. Although Maudgalyāyana is described as having been foremost in psychic powers, Buddhist texts state that Śāriputra also exhibited such powers himself. In various texts, Śāriputra
36120-401: 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
36330-541: The regional Prakrit languages, which makes it likely that the interaction, the sharing of words and ideas began early in the Indian history. As the Indian thought diversified and challenged earlier beliefs of Hinduism, particularly in the form of Buddhism and Jainism , the Prakrit languages such as Pali in Theravada Buddhism and Ardhamagadhi in Jainism competed with Sanskrit in the ancient times. However, states Paul Dundas , these ancient Prakrit languages had "roughly
36540-497: The relationship between various Indo-European languages, the origin of all these languages may possibly be in what is now Central or Eastern Europe, while the Indo-Iranian group possibly arose in Central Russia. The Iranian and Indo-Aryan branches separated quite early. It is the Indo-Aryan branch that moved into eastern Iran and then south into South Asia in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Once in ancient India,
36750-562: The role of language, the ontological status of painting word-images through sound, and the need for rules so that it can serve as a means for a community of speakers, separated by geography or time, to share and understand profound ideas from each other. These speculations became particularly important to the Mīmāṃsā and the Nyaya schools of Hindu philosophy, and later to Vedanta and Mahayana Buddhism, states Frits Staal —a scholar of Linguistics with
36960-413: The same day, because they didn't want to witness the Buddha's death. In several versions of the story, various heavenly beings from Buddhist cosmology are said to have come to pay respect to Śāriputra near his time of death. A funeral was held for Śāriputra in the city of Rajgir where his remains were cremated. His relics were then brought by Śāriputra's assistant, Cunda, to the Buddha in Śrāvastī . In
37170-496: The same relationship to Sanskrit as medieval Italian does to Latin". The Indian tradition states that the Buddha and the Mahavira preferred the Prakrit language so that everyone could understand it. However, scholars such as Dundas have questioned this hypothesis. They state that there is no evidence for this and whatever evidence is available suggests that by the start of the common era, hardly anybody other than learned monks had
37380-556: The semi-nomadic Aryans . The Vedic Sanskrit language or a closely related Indo-European variant was recognized beyond ancient India as evidenced by the " Mitanni Treaty" between the ancient Hittite and Mitanni people, carved into a rock, in a region that now includes parts of Syria and Turkey. Parts of this treaty, such as the names of the Mitanni princes and technical terms related to horse training, for reasons not understood, are in early forms of Vedic Sanskrit. The treaty also invokes
37590-466: 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
37800-615: The social structures such as the role of the poet and the priests, the patronage economy, the phrasal equations, and some of the poetic metres. While there are similarities, state Jamison and Brereton, there are also differences between Vedic Sanskrit, the Old Avestan, and the Mycenaean Greek literature. For example, unlike the Sanskrit similes in the Ṛg-veda, the Old Avestan Gathas lack simile entirely, and it
38010-406: 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
38220-408: The teachings of the Buddha and ordained as monks under him, after which the Buddha declared the friends his two chief disciples. Śāriputra was said to have attained enlightenment as an arhat two weeks after ordination. As chief disciple Śāriputra assumed a leadership role in the Sangha , doing tasks like looking after monks, assigning them objects of meditation, and clarifying points of doctrine. He
38430-479: 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
38640-429: 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
38850-425: 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,
39060-499: The tradition of appointing a pair of chief disciples as the past Buddhas did, according to Buddhist belief. Since they were newly ordained some of the monks in the assembly felt offended, but the Buddha explained that he gave them the roles because they had made the resolve to become the chief disciples many lifetimes ago. Maudgalyāyana attained arhatship seven days after ordaining following intense meditation training. Śāriputra attained arhatship two weeks after ordaining while fanning
39270-414: The true meaning of prajnaparamita . In the Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra , Śāriputra is one of the principal interlocutors, asking questions and being instructed. Conze states that Śāriputra has to be instructed in this sutra because, despite his great wisdom, prajnaparamita doctrine was too advanced for his comprehension. The Da zhidu lun commentary to the sutra describes Śāriputra as someone who pursued
39480-535: The turn of the 1st-millennium CE, it has been written in various Brahmic scripts , and in the modern era most commonly in Devanagari . Sanskrit's status, function, and place in India's cultural heritage are recognized by its inclusion in the Constitution of India 's Eighth Schedule languages . However, despite attempts at revival, there are no first-language speakers of Sanskrit in India. In each of India's recent decennial censuses, several thousand citizens have reported Sanskrit to be their mother tongue, but
39690-446: The two friends and their following of youths became students under only one of the teachers, the ascetic Sañjaya Vairatiputra (Pali: Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta ), who was staying nearby. Pali texts describe Sañjaya as a teacher in the Indian Sceptic tradition, with Upatiṣya and Kolita eventually becoming dissatisfied with his teachings and leaving. In Mūlasarvāstivāda texts, the Chinese Buddhist Canon and in Tibetan accounts , however, he
39900-404: The two friends during a festival in Rājagaha and they developed a sense of spiritual urgency . Realizing the pointlessness of the impermanent material world, the two friends set out as ascetics to search for an end to rebirth . In Mūlasarvāstivāda texts, the two friends visited all six major teachers of India at the time before realizing none of them had the right path. According to Pali texts,
40110-408: The variants in the usage of Sanskrit in different regions of India. The ten Vedic scholars he quotes are Āpiśali, Kaśyapa , Gārgya, Gālava, Cakravarmaṇa, Bhāradvāja , Śākaṭāyana, Śākalya, Senaka and Sphoṭāyana. In the Aṣṭādhyāyī , language is observed in a manner that has no parallel among Greek or Latin grammarians. Pāṇini's grammar, according to Renou and Filliozat, is a classic that defines
40320-564: The vernacular Prakrits. Many Sanskrit dramas indicate that the language coexisted with the vernacular Prakrits. The cities of Varanasi , Paithan , Pune and Kanchipuram were centers of classical Sanskrit learning and public debates until the arrival of the colonial era. According to Lamotte , Sanskrit became the dominant literary and inscriptional language because of its precision in communication. It was, states Lamotte, an ideal instrument for presenting ideas, and as knowledge in Sanskrit multiplied, so did its spread and influence. Sanskrit
40530-443: The village as Kālapināka. The village has been variously identified as being either modern-day Sarichak, Chandiman (Chandimau), or Nanan (considered most likely to be the correct location). Upatiṣya is described as having had a "golden complexion". He had six siblings; three brothers named Upasena, Cunda and Revata, and three sisters named Cāla, Upacālā and Sīsupacālā. Each of his siblings would grow up to become arhat disciples of
40740-446: 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
40950-446: The Ṛg-veda is distinctly more archaic than other Vedic texts, and in many respects, the Rigvedic language is notably more similar to those found in the archaic texts of Old Avestan Zoroastrian Gathas and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey . According to Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton – Indologists known for their translation of the Ṛg-veda – the Vedic Sanskrit literature "clearly inherited" from Indo-Iranian and Indo-European times
41160-408: Was a spoken language ( bhasha ) used by the cultured and educated. Some sutras expound upon the variant forms of spoken Sanskrit versus written Sanskrit. Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang mentioned in his memoir that official philosophical debates in India were held in Sanskrit, not in the vernacular language of that region. According to Sanskrit linguist professor Madhav Deshpande, Sanskrit
41370-427: Was a spoken language in a colloquial form by the mid-1st millennium BCE which coexisted with a more formal, grammatically correct form of literary Sanskrit. This, states Deshpande, is true for modern languages where colloquial incorrect approximations and dialects of a language are spoken and understood, along with more "refined, sophisticated and grammatically accurate" forms of the same language being found in
41580-472: Was adopted voluntarily as a vehicle of high culture, arts, and profound ideas. Pollock disagrees with Lamotte, but concurs that Sanskrit's influence grew into what he terms a "Sanskrit Cosmopolis" over a region that included all of South Asia and much of southeast Asia. The Sanskrit language cosmopolis thrived beyond India between 300 and 1300 CE. Today, it is believed that Kashmiri is the closest language to Sanskrit. Reinöhl mentions that not only have
41790-568: Was also the language of some of the oldest surviving, authoritative and much followed philosophical works of Jainism such as the Tattvartha Sutra by Umaswati . The Sanskrit language has been one of the major means for the transmission of knowledge and ideas in Asian history. Indian texts in Sanskrit were already in China by 402 CE, carried by the influential Buddhist pilgrim Faxian who translated them into Chinese by 418 CE. Xuanzang , another Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, learnt Sanskrit in India and carried 657 Sanskrit texts to China in
42000-412: Was born the same day as Kolita (who would later be known as Maudgalyāyana ), a boy from a neighboring village whose family had been friends with Upatiṣya's family for seven generations, and became friends with him as a child. Upatiṣya and Kolita both became masters of the Vedas through their education and each developed a large following of youths. One day the realization that life is impermanent overtook
42210-435: Was complete, Maudgalyāyana attempted to force him to come by using his psychic powers to shake the ground but Śāriputra was unaffected. When Śāriputra told him to return first, Maudgalyāyana went back to the Buddha and found that Śāriputra had already arrived. When Maudgalyāyana saw this, he stated that the power of psychic abilities was no match for the power of wisdom. Buddhist texts all state that Śāriputra died shortly before
42420-600: 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:
42630-421: 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
42840-516: 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
43050-506: 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
43260-410: 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
43470-401: Was the first disciple of the Buddha who was asked to ordain monks in his place, with the Buddha giving him the ordination procedure. He was also entrusted to ordain the Buddha's son Rahula . When Śāriputra trained pupils, he gave them material and spiritual help, and assigned them an object of meditation. In the Saccavibhanga Sutta , the Buddha compared Śāriputra to a mother who gives birth to
43680-423: Was the first disciple the Buddha allowed to ordain other monks. Śāriputra died shortly before the Buddha in his hometown and was cremated. According to Buddhist texts, his relics were then enshrined at Jetavana Monastery. Archaeological findings from the 1800s suggest his relics may have been redistributed across the Indian subcontinent by subsequent kings. Śāriputra is regarded as an important and wise disciple of
43890-431: 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
44100-442: Was visualized as "pervading all creation", another representation of the world itself; the "mysterious magnum" of Hindu thought. The search for perfection in thought and the goal of liberation were among the dimensions of sacred sound, and the common thread that wove all ideas and inspirations together became the quest for what the ancient Indians believed to be a perfect language, the "phonocentric episteme" of Sanskrit. Sanskrit as
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