History of Pali Language and Literature

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Venerable Dr. Acharya Buddharakkhita is the founder president of Maha Bodhi Society, Bangalore. He was a member of the Editorial Board of the Sixth Buddhist Synod (Chattha Sangayana) in Yangon, which brought out a complete edition of the sacred Buddhist Scriptures Tipitaka. Since then he has established many Buddhist centers in India and abroad and rendered yeomen spiritual and humanitarian services. He established Mahabodhi Monastic Institute in Bangalore, India, Buddhist Meditation Center in USA and conducted many Dhamma and Pali courses, meditation courses and written numerous books and translations of the Pali Buddhist Texts. They have been published all over the world, including some German, Portuguese, Korean and Chinese translations. He was editing and publishing English monthly DHAMMA Magazine for four decades.
Mahabodhi Academy for Pali and Buddhist Studies and Bhagavan Buddha University of Theravada Buddhism are the result of his effort and research to provide a systematic Theravada Buddhist education as widely as possible, first of its kind in India. The Venerable Dr. Acharya Buddharakkhita passed away on 23rd September 2013 in Maha Bodhi Society, Bangalore at the age of 92.

This work provides a survey of the History of Pali Language and Literature. Unfortunately little is known about this store-house of knowledge. Even oriental scholars of some eminence, in their enthusiasm for Sanskrit, have misconstrued Pali to be a branch of Sanskrit studies. The truth, however, is that Pali, Prakrit and Sanskrit are sister disciplines of Indian philology. Each language has its special features. And together they constitute the linguistic and literary heritage of India.
The heritage of Pali can be divided into three distinct periods of the rise and development of Pali literature. Basically, it is the repository, of the sacred words of the Buddha in pristine purity. The later developments are in the nature of commentarial and sub-commentarial literature. Beside these, Pali literature includes many empirical subjects. Indeed, there are works on history, medicine, politics, literature, dramatic etc., which in their precision and beauty of diction, excel many well-known works in these subjects.
This brief history of the Pali language and literature is presented as a text book for students of Indian culture and religion. The Mahabodhi Monastic Institute conducts courses on Pali language, literature and Buddhist Studies. And this book is specifically prepared to cover the following courses of the MMI, Bangalore.