An Introduction to Kachchāyana's Grammar of the Pāli Language |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Abhidharma affix ahosi Ajjatanì akkhara ancient Apabhransa appellation Asiatic Asoka Atha Attanopada attha Atthakatha Avanti Bactria Bàlavatàra Bhagavà bhante bhavissanti bhikkhus Brah Brahmans Buddha Buddhist Buddhist era Burnouf century Ceylon deva dhamma doctrines dukkha elided evan existence expressed fact forms gachchhati Gàthà Gotama Grammarians Hindu hoti India inferred Kachchàyana Katyayana king krit language letter literature Magadha Màgadhì Mahà Mahà Kachchàyana Mahavansa Majjhima mark the exception Max Muller nàma Nepal nirvana nouns original Pakarana Pàli Pali Grammar Pali language pana Panchamì Panini Parassapada Parokkhà Patanjali Prakrit priests Professor radical ràjà ratanan reign remarks rendered root rule Sadda Sanskrit says sense shew Sinhalese substituted suttan tassa tato tenses terminations thera thou tion Upàli Vararuchi Vedas Vedic verb vichinati vowel Vutti Wherefore optionally words writers Yavanas ඉච්චෙතෙ කිමත්ථං ති තෙ ධාතු ධාතුස්ස වාතිකිමත්ථං හොති හොන්ති
Popular passages
Page iii - Inscrip. the Pitakattaya); and in an expression as in a letter.' From thence again Pali has become the name of the Magadhi language in which Buddha delivered his doctrines. The terms Pali and Magadhi are names which are at the present day indifferently employed in Ceylon, Ava, Siam, and even China, to express the sacred language of the Buddhists; and being confined to those countries, the term Pali is not met with in any of the Indian writings. The Pali has also received the designation of Tanti,...
Page ii - Hardy states that the high state of cultivation to which the Pali language was carried, and the great attention that has been paid to it in Ceylon, may be inferred from the fact that a list of works in the possession of the Singhalese, which he found during his residence in this Island, included thirty-five works on Pali Grammar, some of them being of considerable extent.
Page 60 - Scriptures comprise a fourth digest, which he ' regards as the crude composition of writers to whom the Sanskrit was no longer familiar, and who endeavoured to write in a learned language they ill understood, with the freedom which is imparted by the habitual use of a popular but imperfectly determined dialect.
Page cxxi - The language of the Vedas is an older dialect, varying very considerably, both in its grammatical and lexical character, from the classical Sanskrit. Its grammatical peculiarities run through all departments : euphonic rules, wordformation and composition, declension, conjugation, syntax.
Page lxi - Panini,263 but there is another fact connected with this name which is still more remarkable. The great schism which divided ancient India into two hostile creeds, centres in the notion which each entertained of the nature of eternal bliss. The Brahmanic Hindus hope that their soul will ultimately become united with the universal spirit ;' which, in the language of the Upanishads, is the neuter Brahman ; and, in that of the sects, the supreme deity, who takes the place of this philosophical and impersonal...
Page cix - They cannot speak of their race or of their sacred languages without assigning to them an origin the remotest in the world. In ' a spirit of adulation and hyperbole ' they exalt them as high as the object of their adoration and worship. This is peculiarly the case with Eastern nations. Although such extravagantly high pretensions are by themselves of no value, yet, when some of these traditions are partially supported by the concurrence of other testimony, such as the high antiquity of the...
Page 68 - Panvaran annotations, six books of the Abhidamma, the Patisambida, the Niddesa^ and a portion of the Jatakas, without replacing anything in their stead. They, moreover, disregarded the nature of nouns, their gender, and other accidents, as well as the various requirements of style ; and corrupted them in various ways. The above passage clearly indicates that there was a code different from the orthodox version of the sacred writings, which were authenticated at three different convocations, and that...
Page lxi - ... and impersonal god. And however indefinite this god Brahman may be, it is nevertheless, to the mind of the Brahmanic Hindu, an entity. The final salvation of a Buddhist is entire non-entity. The various expressions for eternal bliss in the Brahmanic creed, like apavarga, moksha, mukti, nihsreyasa, all mean either ' liberation from this earthly career' or ' the absolute good'; they therefore imply a condition of hope.
Page v - S'iva. See S'AKTAS. A Tantra is said to comprise five subjects — the creation and destruction of the world, the worship of the gods, the attainment of all objects, magical rites for the acquirement of six superhuman faculties, and four modes of union with spirit by meditation. A variety of other subjects, however, are introduced into many of them...
Page lxxxv - Where Sanskrit differs in words or grammatical peculiarities from the northern members of the Aryan family, it frequently coincides with Zend. The numerals are the same in all these languages up to 100. The name for thousand...