Pāli and Buddhism: Language and Lineage [1 ed.] 1527575551, 9781527575554

Table of contents :
Table of Contents
Preface
1. Introduction
Section One: The Lineage Paramparā
2. The Linguistic Scene at the Time of the Buddha
3. The Buddha’s Autochthonous Heritage
4. Structural Influence of Dravidian on Pāli
5. The Muṇda/muṇḍaka Crux: What Does the Word Mean?
Section Two: Pālibhāsā The Language
6. The Language of Early Buddhism
7. The Evolution of Pāli
Section Three: Pāli, The Transmission Sankamana
8. The Meaning of sati in the Burmese Tradition and an Introduction to the Pāli Myanmā Abhidhān’ Dictionary
9. Nasalization in Pāli: How to Pronounce “Buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi”
10. Conclusions
Abbreviations
Works Cited
Indices

Citation preview

Pali and Buddhism

Pali and Buddhism: Language and Lineage By

Bryan G. Levman

Cambridge

Scholars Publishing

Pali and Buddhism: Language and Lineage By Bryan G. Levman This bookfirst published 2021 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright© 2021 by Bryan G. Levman All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10):1-5275-7555-1 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-7555-4

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface ......... .

.. Vll

Chapter One .. Introduction

..... 1

Section One: The Lineage Parampara Chapter Two The Linguistic Scene at the Time of the Buddha Chapter Three ................................................. ..... . The Buddha's Autochthonous Heritage Appendix One ...................................... ....... Appendix Two .......... ... Appendix Three Appendix Four. ........... ....... ..................... . Chapter Four Structural Influence of Dravidian on Pali Chapter Five . The Mw:u;lalmw:u;laka Crux: What Does the Word Mean?

............ 16

...... 42 .......... .......... ············· ....... ......... .

140 141 149 152

.......... 183

..... 210

Section Two: Palibhasa The Language Chapter Six ....................................... ...... . The Language of Early Buddhism

....... 236

Chapter Seven ..................... ...... . The Evolution of Pali

....... 275

V1

Table of Contents

Section Three: Pali, The Transmission Sankamana Chapter Eight.......... ............. ............. ....... 310 The Meaning of sati in the Burmese Tradition and an Introduction to the Pali Myanma Abhidhan' Dictionary Chapter Nine . .. . . 357 Nasalization in Pali: How to Pronounce "Buddhal'fl sarm:ial'fl gacchiimt' Chapter Ten Conclusions

....... 377

Abbreviations

........ 381

Works Cited

....... 386

Indices ............................. ... .......................... ..... ····· ········ ····· ········ 413 Pali index ·············· ........ 413 Old Indic and other Indic Languages .. ······· ······· . 419 Dravidian Languages ······ ······· ······ ······· . 425 Munda Languages .......... 437 Tibetan .............. . ·················· ····· ····· ········ ············· 444 Other Languages .......... 444 Subject Index ... . 447

PREFACE

The central theme of this work is the teaching of the Buddha as embodied in the Pali language. To some, Pali was the language the Buddha spoke, while I argue that, although it was indeed close to the demotic speech of his day, the Pali that has come down to us has changed quite a bit from its fifth century BCE usage by the Teacher. This is only natural, as change is the fundamental law of Buddhism and the world, and language is no exception. Pali is a great treasure to mine. It contains the earliest record we possess of the Buddha's teachings about life and within it his "technology" for liberation, a series of procedures which, followed as he instructed, are the ekiiyana, the one way path to the end of suffering. Pali is a rich tapestry with many strands. Originating, as I argue, from a koine (~ Kozvr, ozci..lcKw,;-, "the common dialect"), a simplified common

language of north India used for social, cultural, political and business purposes at the time of the Buddha and prior, it contains elements of all the Indo-Aryan dialects of the time. Equally important is the imprint of the indigenous languages, preserved in Pali just under the surface like a palimpsest. Because no record of the Buddha's teachings has been preserved in an indigenous language (Dravidian, Munda or Tibeto-Burman for example), scholars tend to view the Buddha's insights as the exclusive product of an lndo-Aryan culture. But in north-east India, the Inda-Aryan speaking peoples were a minority, even during the time of the Buddha. The majority were the indigenes whose first language was not lndo-Aryan. In order to participate in the new order of things, these peoples had to learn the Inda-Aryan languages which were the linguistic strata of what was fast becoming the dominant culture; and this bilingualism left a lasting imprint of borrowings from the local culture on the Inda-Aryan languages and Pali in particular: hundreds, perhaps thousands of words, dozens of phonological constraints and idiosyncrasies, and several key and syntactical structures were adopted from the local peoples into the Indo-Aryan languages. More important than this is what these adaptations and adoptions represented, that is cultural appropriation, which is one of the main themes of this book.

viii

Preface

Buddhism is an eclectic teaching, drawing from many sources, especially from the established culture of the autochthons. This same polymorphism may be ascribed to Pali whose complex fabric contains many diverse features to be examined here: 1) Pali is a mixed language, containing elements of the various vernacular dialects of north India which evolved over many centuries from the late second millennium BCE. 2) The composite nature of Pali reflects its origin from a "common" (Gk Ko1v6~) language to facilitate communication between diverse dialects (koine') and diverse language groups (lingua franca), like Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Munda, etc. 3) The phonological structure of local dialects and the indigenous languages constrained and entrained various phonetic idiosyncrasies in Pali by linguistic diffusion. 4) In Pali one finds extensive word borrowing from the local languages-especially of local toponyms and biota-imperfectly adapted to a foreign phonetic structure. 5) These linguistic borrowings also reflect a significant amount of cultural borrowing from the local population which are also manifested in 6) The adoption of structural and syntactical features from the local languages superimposed on the normal Indo-Aryan sentence pattern. 7) Pali shows the n01mal diachronic change as the language evolved over time as well as 8) Extensive Sanskritization, that is, back formation to make it more like the sacred Vedic language from which it (in part) evolved. 9) Pali has also been affected by transmissional errors due to the oral system of propagating the teachings for the first few centuries after the Buddha's passing, and, 10) Harmonization of the language by tradents at various stages in the language's history, bringing divergent readings into agreement, making corrections, etc., and 11) Standardization by the Pali grammarians in medieval times. These are some of the principal themes of this book which traces Pali's lineage from the time of the Buddha down to modem times, with a penultimate chapter on the meaning of the important doctrinal term sati (usually translated "mindfulness") and a final chapter on Pali's "correct" pronunciation. The first approximately two-thirds of the book examine the effect of the local languages on Pali itself and the Buddhist teachings it represents, a very under-studied and important new area of research which adds a whole new dimension to Buddhist studies. This book stands on the shoulders of many great Buddhist scholars and linguists, with a lineage that extends back over a century: Richard Pischel, Sylain Levi, Wilhelm Geiger, Heinrich Luders, Ernst Waldschmidt, Thomas Burrow, Murray Emeneau, Manfred Mayrhofer, Franciscus Kuiper, John Brough, Franklin Southworth, Kenneth Norman, OskarvonHinuber, David Stampe, Michael Witzel, to name some of the more prominent ones; without

Pali and Buddhism: Language and Lineage

IX

their work and such essential data bases as the Dravidian (Burrow and Emeneau), Munda (Stampe) and Sanskrit etymological dictionaries (Mayrhofer), it would be impossible to even make a start. The same must be said for the Pali Lexicographers starting with Robert Childers (Dictionary of the Pali Language), Thomas William Rhys Davids and William Stede (Pali-English Dictionary), Vilhelm Trenckner, Dines Andersen, Helmer Smith, Hans Hendriksen and later editors (Critical Pali Dictionary), Franklin Edgerton (Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary), and Margaret Cone (Dictionary of Pali). Hundreds of other important sources are listed in the Bibliography. Closer to home I would like to thank the many colleagues and associates who have taken the time to read and comment on different aspects of the book and whose suggestions have helped to improve the final manuscript. Dr. Christoph Emmrich of the University of Toronto; Ven. Thanuttamo and Ven. Ari yadhamm ika of the Sasanarakkha Buddhist Sanctuary in Malaysia; Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi of the Chuang Yen Monastery, New York; Ven. Ashin Sara.1fa, Ven. Dhammasami and Ven. Pafiiiabhoga from Myanmar; Dr. Madhev Deshpande and Dr. George Cardona, professors emeriti. A special thanks as well to my two Tamil teachers Vaidehi Herbert and Mohan Thiruvengadam whose instruction in classical Tamil has deepened my understanding of the language; to Liwen Liu, doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto who has been an invaluable help with the indexing, proofreading and final editing of the book; to my jubilee wife Rosemarie for her proofreading and ever constant support and love; and to my son Jacob who created the computer program to sort the very complex indices of this book according to the syllabaries of the various non-Western languages. Lastly I honour the Buddha who made all this possible with his brilliant discoveries into the nature oflife yathabhutarri ("the way things are"); in the words of Ananda, labha vata me suladdhaYJ1 vata me yassa me sattha evaYJ1 mahiddhiko evaYJ1 mahanubhavo ti (AN 1, 22820- 21 , Ananda, speaking to the Buddha). "It is a gain to me, it is a great gain to me indeed that my teacher is possessed of such great power, of such majesty!" His teachings are as relevant and essential to us today as they were twentyfive hundred years ago. Homage (namo) to that Venerable one (tassa Bhagavato), to that noble one (Arahato), the fully enlightened one (Sammi'isambuddhassa) ! This book is dedicated to the memory of my first love, my mother, Belle ("Beautiful") Sachs-Levman 1922-2020, ever beautiful in body and soul.

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

Abstract Chapter One provides a brief introduction to the major themes in this book. Its first section deals with the history of early Buddhism which was largely written by Brahmans centuries after the Buddha lived. Although the Buddha came from a mixed ethnic and linguistic background, much of his background has been obscured by a Brahmanical overprint which obfuscates his connection with the indigenous tribes and presents the Buddha as an exclusive product of an Indo-Aryan Brahmanical culture. Yet parts of the older, earlier culture can still be found in the suttas and especially in the loan-words from the Dravidian and Munda languages adopted into Pali. Section one of the book will be examining these words and interpreting their significance in terms of the cultural continuity of the autochthonous population in early Buddhism. Section Two discusses the nature of the Pali language and its evolution and Sanskritization. Section Three gives two case examples of the transmission ofPali over time. The first looks at the word sati and its semantic evolution from "memory" to "present moment awareness," arguing that memory of the Buddha's teachings is still a core meaning of the word; and the second looks at nasalization in Pali and how the popular refuge formula Buddhal/1 sara1Jaf!1 gacchiimi is to be pronounced.

That history is written by the winners is an old adage of historiography. In the case of the Buddha and the community he founded, only a very lopsided account of its history has survived, one written largely by Brahman converts primarily for a Brahman audience. Although the Buddha came from an eastern tribe-the Sakyas-who were looked down upon by the Indo-Aryan immigrants as the "other" in language, culture and race, in Asvagho$a's Sanskrit biography written many centuries after his death (the Buddhacarita,

2

Chapter One

ca. second century CE), he is historicized as "the crowning and consummation of the Brahmanical religion" (Olivelle 2008, xix). He is portrayed as an Aryan prince, son of an Aryan king and a prominent khattiya (warrior class) member of the Aryan caste system; his biography is thoroughly Brahmanized: The young Buddha is represented as the fulfillment of a long line of famous Brahmanical and Vedic ancestors; he is given a Brahmanical gotta (family or clan name), Gotama; recognized as a Mahiipuruea (P. Mahiipurisa) by the comt purohitas (priests) with all the marks of a great man, "handed do= in our Vedic mantras" (iigatiini ... amhiikam mantesu); likened to the Vedic gods; and administered the saf{lskiiras (sacred Vedic rites) starting with the naming ceremony (Rhys Davids 1878, 160; Cowell 1895, 8-9; Olivelle 2008, 15-17, 23) ... yet Suddhodana as rnler of the Sakyas was not a king, but an elected leader of a gm_1a-saligha, a tribal republic (Thapar 2002, 46; Malalasekera 1938/ 2003 = DPPN, s.v. Sakiya) and Gotama never called himself a prince. His teachings are sometimes presented as a heterodox or reformist development of an earlier Upani~adic tradition; yet they are often radically different from orthodox Brahrnanical beliefs. Buddhism itself is viewed, not as a separate teaching that may or may not have cultural affinities with the indigenous peoples, but as a set of antitheses to Brahmanical doctrines, or even a schismatic reform movement from within Brahmanism. (Levman 2013: 153-54). 1

His mixed, cultural background, originating in the indigenous tribes of the sub-Himalayan foothills, is thoroughly camouflaged. By the time these 1 There are four major biographies of the Buddha, all very late: the earliest of these is the Mahiivastu, parts of which date perhaps from the middle of the second century BCE. The Lalitavistara dates perhaps from the first century CE and is thought to be a work of the Sarvastivadin school. The Nidiinakathii, which has a Sri Lankan provenance, was written as a preface to the Jiitaka commentary and is probably the latest of the four ancient bios. All treat the Buddha as the son of a king (which he wasn't) and the descendant of along line of cakkavattin (cakravartin), world-rulers, an ancient Brahrnanical legend preserved in the Vedas (it isn't), a legend apparently invented by the Buddhists to curry favour with the Brahrnanical establishment (see below page 57 and Levman 2013: 162-65, hereinafter CR). Johannes Bronkhorst talks of this bias in his 2011 book and 2014 article where he describes the Brahmanization of the Buddha's background and the obfuscation of his OM'! culture which he calls "Greater Magadha." He distinguishes the presentation of the Buddha's story in the Buddhacarita, which is wholly Brahmanized, from its presentations in the Lalitavistara and the Mahiivastu which were "quite different", that is, not as overtly Bral1manized (page 318). I take issue with this latter statement (see for example the Brahmanization of Asita in the Mahiivastu andJiitaka Nidiina, page 57 below), however, it is not particularly germane to this discussion, so for another time.

Introduction

3

biographies were written (the earliest parts of the Mahavastu, perhaps 2ndl st century BCE) the tribes had been thoroughly assimilated into the IndoAryan political and cultural hegemony, their past independent history forgotten or recalled only with embarrassment, their customs lost or assimilated, the Buddha's teachings in their language(s) lost. For the Sakyas were historically a Dravidian and/or Munda speaking group-or perhaps more accurately described, based on the proportions of words borrowed into Pali, as a Dravidian speaking group with a Munda substrate-and the Buddha almost certainly taught them in their own language, but none of his teachings have survived except the loan-words borrowed into Middle In.die. The "intensive interrelations between Dravidian, Munda and Aryan dating from pre-Vedic times" (Kuiper 1948a: 9, hereinafter Kuiper) make it difficult, sometimes impossible to settle etymological and diffusionary questions amongst these languages. 2 This is further complicated by the increasing political and economic dominance of the In.do-Aryan (IA) immigrants (beginning well before the birth of the Buddha), which forced the Sakyas and other tribes of north-eastern India to learn their language as a second tongue; they were Middle In.die as a second language speakers (MISL)-like the twentieth century immigrants to North America, who had their own language but had to learn English to interact with society at large, with the major difference that the Sakyas were the native population and the Indo-Aryans the immigrants. At the time of the Buddha it was a complex and very mixed linguistic culture. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of non-Indo-Aryan words preserved in Pali, the earliest and only relatively complete record of the Buddha's teachings we possess in an In.die language, a linguistic form very close to the vernacular that the Buddha actually spoke. Other Middle In.die idioms have also survived, but nothing has survived from the indigenous languages of the time. Yet there is no reason to believe that the Buddha only spoke in Middle In.die. There is too much evidence to the contrary.

2 For a summary of some of the substrate and adstrate strata in the India linguistic area at the time of the Vedas and following see Emeneau 1980 (a compendium of his earlier essays by A. S. Di!), Masica 1976, Witzel 1999a: 1-5 (hereinafter Witzel), and Southworth 2005: Chapter Two (pp. 39-61, hereinafter Southworth). The word "Dravidian" is itself a native (desi) word, derived from proto-Dravidian *tammi:;, "own speech" and tami:;, "Tamil language or people" with the characteristic change of-m- > -v- (Southworth 77). For derivation of the wordMunda/mu17('.l'a, see Chapter Four. In this book I use the word desi to refer to the autochthonous languages of Dravidian, Munda and other tribes. It is also sometimes employed to signify IA Prakrits.

4

Chapter One

Most of the place names of north-east India are derived from Munda or Dravidian etymons, as are the names for the flora and fauna of the region which were not known to the IA immigrants (Thomas 1931: 23). This is to be expected. More important are the many religious, cultural and political terms of the north-eastern clans assimilated into Middle Indic. This shows more than just word borrowing, but reveals a heretofore untold history of pervasive, indigenous infusion of autochthonous values into the Buddhist belief system. One cannot just view Buddhism as a reaction to or against Brahmanical teachings; this is only part of the story, and perhaps the less important part. Linguistic scholars have long noted the influence of the indigenous peoples on the incoming IA peoples. Emeneau called this process "Indianization" and attributed bilingualism as the cause (1956: 7). For Southworth the process was facilitated by the need for economic cooperation which he called "village coexistence" (1979: 207- 08), where features of the majority language (Dravidian) diffused into that of the minority. According to Krishnamurti Middle Indic was "built on a Dravidian substratum," where the structure of the Dravidian language was imported into and imposed on the IA language by autochthonous speakers who were constrained to accept the dominant IA language as their lingua franca; they adopted their vocabulary but kept a lot of the structural features of their mother tongue (2003: 41 ). The influence of this substrate is apparent in lexical, phonological and structural borrowing from Dravidian into the IA languages (for a summary, see Krishnamurti 2003, 38-42). How does one take this influence into account when none of the teachings have survived? One method is through the words and what they signify; examining them can prove very revelatory. They uncover, for example, a highly developed indigenous ascetic tradition which the Buddha inherited. The matted hair ascetics (Jatilas, a Dravidian word) are looked down upon in the Buddhist suttas, but KaI_lha, a Jatila, was present at the Buddha's birth and prophesied his future enlightenment. Descended from King Okkaka him self, 3 the legendary founder of the Sakya tribe, KaI_lha is a native seer, 3

Ambatthasutta, DN 1, 934-5 : ranno kho panaAmbattha OkkiikassaDisii niima diisz ahosi. sii km.zharti niima janesi, "Disa was a slave of King Ollika, Ambattha. She gave birth to Kal)ha." Okkaka is a non-IA name per Kuiper (1991: 7) and see Mayrhofer 1956-76: vol 1: 84, s.v. ik.$u, "sugar cane" who says the derivation is "unklar" (unclear, hereinafter Ml). Witzel (2009: 90) derives it from Dravidian *itcu "sweet juice", after Southworth (218). Mayrhofer 1992-96, vol. 1: 185 says it is "wohl Fremdwort" (probably a foreign word; hereinafter M2), mentioning Berger who takes it from a prefixed Austro-Asiatic (AA) form with the meaning of "bitter squash." The Berger article was not available to me.

Introduction

5

despite the fact that Buddhaghosa later tries to Brahmanize him as a court purohita (Brahmanical priest). 4 The kafhina practice is inherited from the indigenous recluse tradition. The word ka/hina refers to both the wooden frame on which cloth is fashioned to make robes (cfvara) for the monks, and, by synecdochic extension, the ceremony itself in which cloth is presented to the Sangha by the laity and robes are made. Both ka/hina and cfvara are Dravidian words, as are many of the technical terms used to describe the practice (see below pages 65). The likening of the Buddha to a snake (naga) or tree spirit (yakkha) as a mark of respect, alludes to snake- and tree-worshipping practices amongst the indigenous tribes, a cultural tradition which was assimilated into Buddhism at a very early time. Indeed, right after the Buddha's enlightenment, the serpent king Mucalinda5 protects the Buddha by coiling around him seven times and covering his head with his hood (pha,:ia). 6

4

Pj II, 483 30: abhisitta-kiile purohitoyeva ahosi. "At the time of his (Suddhodana's) consecration, he (Kat)ha) was just the purohita." In this book I will divide all compounds with a hyphen (-) to make it easier for the reader to parse them, regardless of whether the PTS edition (which I use wherever possible) employs the hyphen or not. Some volumes do and some do not; there is no standard practice. Proper names and names of suttas will not be hyphenated; capitalization of proper names will follow the PTS practice where they are usually capitalized (but not always). Negative compounds beginning with a- or an- will not be hyphenated. When the parsing of the compound is unclear, I will leave it as in the source text. 5 Mucalinda is also the name of the tree spirit who inhabits the tree; according to Ml vol. 2: 649 ( s.v. mucukunda), itis aPterospennum suberifolium tree, which is "wohl unarische Planzennamen" (probably non-Aryan plant names). M2, vol. 2: 360, "nicht klar" (not clear). Cp Santali mackundr;i, Pterospermum acerifolium. 6 Connected with the wordpha/ii. Kuiper 1948a: 163 (hereinafter Kuiper) gives the word a Munda etymology ( < Santali pu{i, "to swell"), while Burrow (1948: 386) a Dravidian one (cp. Kannada pe!/e, Tamil patam, "expanded hood of a cobra"). See Ml vol. 2: 3 89-91, s.v. phiitii, "expanded hood of a serpent." The Munda root has a more extensive distribution than the Dravidian (Sora,pe/, "to swell"; Bodo-Gadaba pulei, "to swell"; Juang puli, "to swell"; Ho puti, ''to swell"; Sora pu1J, ''to be swollen";pul)- pu1J, "to swell"; Juray pul)-cbJ-, "to swell"), which, barring borrowing, tends to suggest its chronological priority; see discussion below on methodology ( on page 31 f). Dravidian etymologies are taken from Burrow and Emeneau's Dravidian Etymological Dictionary (DED) unless otherwise noted. For Munda derivational material see footnote 17.

6

Chapter One

The ga,:ia-sangha political organization, rule by a council of equals, in contradistinction to the monarchies of the Indo-Aryans, was also a homeborn mode of governance, as are the linguistic terms associated with it. The funeral practices of the native people were also adopted by the Buddhists and had little or nothing to do with Brahmanism. The Indo-Aryan immigrants were-at least initially-numerically inferior to the indigenous population; presumably this was also the case with the distribution of their linguistic terms. Deshpande notes that non-Sanskrit linguistic usages (that is, Prakrit or apasabda, "vulgar speech") were numerically more than Sanskrit usages (1979b: 9). But this is only part of the story; autochthonous designations for common things often outnumbered the OI and MI terms. Take the famous statement in the Ara,:iavibhangasutta (MN 139) where the Buddha says that one should not insist on local language (jana-pada-nirutti) and should not override normal usage (samanfialfl). He lists six synonyms for a receptacle, only one of which might be considered "standard" Indic, patta, "bowl" (OI patra < or pa, "to drink"+ affix -tra, "that by which something is drunk"), and its fem. form or patrf, P pati, "vessel, plate, dish, pot" (patra > patrf > patti > pati); presumably this is "normal usage", the others are "local language", all desi terms, that is loan-words from the local languages, either Dravidian or Munda. 7 These outnumber the standard Sanskrit term by five to one. The Buddha's injunction is quite ambiguous and has been interpreted in various ways, but if one goes with Lamotte's explanation (1958/1988: 553), the Buddha is saying that no one single term (e.g. the Sanskrit one) is correct,

7

MN 3, 2343 r,-3 1:jana-pada-niruttil'(I niibhiniveseyya, samanfial'(I niitidhiiveyya; the other words are 1) vittha/vitta, "bowl" (01 ?) < etymology unknown; 2) seriivalsariiva (OI sariiva), etymology not understood per Ml 1956-76, vol. 2: 307 ("nicht befriedigend erklart," not satisfactorily explained). Possibly from Dravidian Tuju teriya "circular pad of wicker or straw placed under a vessel to make it steady" by metonymy and change oft- > s- (nos- in proto-Dravidian). Or from Munda, cp Santali sorwa or sorha, "leaf cup"; 3) dhiiropalharosa (var.) "bowl, dish, pan" < etymology unknown ? < dhr, "to hold"? Cone: a dialect word for a bowl, a dish; hapax legomenon, cp Kannada r;loppe, doppe, "cup or dish of leaves"; 4) poT:Zalhana (var.), "pot," hapax legomenon < unknown etymology; cp Gta' (Munda language) borna, "small pot"; 5) piszla/szla/pipila (var.) Skt pifilam, "wooden vessel"; Mayrhofer: "nicht geniigend erklart" (not sufficiently explained), perhaps from root pis, "hew out, carve out, cut into shape" hapax legomenon; more likely non-Aryan, cp Dravidian Tamil patalai, "large-mouthed pot."

Introduction

7

but one may adopt the term in use in the region one is in (see also Levman 2014: 110 for a different interpretation). This book is divided into three sections. Section One consists of Chapters Two to Five, all of which deal with certain aspects of the linguistic scene and what they reveal about the political, cultural and religious roots of Buddhism in the autochthonous population, one of the most unexplored, opaque areas of Buddhist study. In Chapter Two I will provide a general introduction to the linguistic scene in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, both the indigenous languages and the Middle Indic dialects which flourished at the time, and how they interacted and affected each other. I will provide examples (from the Vinaya) of linguistic mixing of Pali and indigenous languages to show the reader some of the general theoretical and methodological principles of this section of the book. A detailed methodology on how to determine whether a word has been borrowed into MI is also introduced and discussed. Some of this material I have already discussed in my 2013 article "Cultural Remnants of the Indigenous Peoples in the Pali Scriptures" (hereinafter abbreviated as CR) which provides a great deal more detailed information on what Emeneau calls the "India Linguistic Area" (1954), the complex linguistic scene of local languages and Middle Indic dialects which interacted at the time of the Buddha. Chapter Three expands on this article with many more details from the historiographic and linguistic side, looking at what we can piece together of the indigenous sama,:ia (recluse) tradition, including the above-mentioned Jatilas, some details on the ka/hina practice, and more information on the burial customs. I will also look at the names of all the villages the Buddha visited during the last few months of his life as they provide a lot of information on the cultural and linguistic mixing at the time the Buddha lived (see, for example, Appendix Three on page 149 which discusses the town Bhm;9agama and the meaning of bha,:it;la). I also try to deal with some potential objections to my overall thesis-that linguistic mixing is isomorphic with cultural mixing-on page 133. Chapter Four continues the discussion on Dravidian influence on OI and MI in terms of syntactical structure. Here I look at the "Tamilization" of Pali, an expression coined by Koemaad de Vreese in 1980 to describe certain grammatical correspondences between Old Tamil and Pali which he attributed to the influence of the former language. Here I also look at the

8

Chapter One

similar structure of complex sentences between the two languages, composed of strings of non-finite verbs. Chapter Five is an article on the meaning of the non-Aryan word mw:u;la ("bald") in the Pali scriptures, reprinted from the Canadian Journal of Buddhist Studies, 2011. Scholars are generally agreed that the word has a non-IA source, but differ as to its various meanings. r argue that it was used as a pejorative name for a non-Aryan ethnic or tribal group-the Buddha was called a mw:u;laka as a form of insult-and demonstrates the disapprobation of the IA immigrants for the indigenous tribes. Section Two is about the languages the Buddha spoke, that is, the languages we know of that have been handed down in the oral tradition. Ever since Buddhaghosa announced that the Buddha spoke the language of Magadha (MagadhI), which he considered identical to Pali, this has been a controversial subject. Most Theravadin monks take Buddhaghosa at his word and believe that Pali or MagadhI was the actual language that the Buddha spoke. But starting with Sylvain Levi's important article in 1912, in which he identified "une langue precanonique" underlying Pali, a scholarly consensus has emerged that has uncovered a pre-Pali layer in the canon inferable by comparing cognate parallel passages in the different Indic transmissions. This earlier layer is closer to the language the Buddha spoke and has been characterized as a lingua franca or koine, that is, a common inter-language of trade and commerce, what is called a vohara in Middle Indic (< vy-ava-hr, "to carry on commerce, trade, deal in"). As a result of its vohiira heritage, Pali shows a mixture of many rndic dialects from the north, east and west, as well as a large number of borrowings from the indigenous Munda and Dravidian languages; and to further complicate matters Pali contains a lot of Sanskritizations, where backward-looking Old rndic elements are introduced into the idiom, dovetailing with a general trend towards the desacralization, secularization and politicization of or from around the time of Asoka. Although the vernacular, colloquial character of the pre-Pali idiom was never lost, many artificial or elements were added in, in addition to the mixed, synthetic character of the koine itself. Although Pali was not the language the Buddha spoke, it was close; and it is the oldest record we possess, closest to the time of the Buddha. Von Hin-Uber, for example, dates the core parts of the Mahaparinibbanasutta, which tells the story of the Buddha's death, to within sixty years of his death (2009b: 64). And he has this to say about those who doubt the historicity of the Pali tradition:

Introduction

9

During the past decades the age of the Theravada tradition has been thrown into doubt occasionally, not rarely in a rather general and sweeping way. However, wherever it is possible to use comparatively hard arguments that is to say linguistics, it becomes soon more than obvious that it is possible to dig considerably deeper into the past here than in any other tradition. Even though the old Pali texts are created out of a Buddhist Middle lndic, and, consequently, nowhere preserve, but at best reflect the language of the earliest Buddhism, they contain the earliest redaction of Buddhist texts, linguistically near to the Asokan inscriptions at Gimar, followed by the Mahasarpghika (-lokottaravada) and of course the Dharmaguptaka texts in Gandhar1. This concerns first of all the age of the redaction, which also protects the content. On the other hand, revisions such as a change of language, e.g., from Middle Indic to Sanskrit, always opens the opportunity to introduce new concepts. In this context it is remarkable that new concepts sometimes found their way only into the Theravada commentaries, while they still could be included in canonical scriptures of other traditions, which points to a rather early closure of the Theravada canon ... Therefore, T. W. Rhys Davids and H. Oldenberg were not at all wrong in their judgement when pointing out the comparatively high age of the Theravada tradition, which, however, does not mean that all old material is preserved only there, and that all other tradition are necessarily recent in each and every respect, but only that the roots of the Theravada tradition reach much deeper into the soil here and there than elsewhere (ibid, page 48-49, footnote 43).

While I would disagree with Prof. von Hinuber that the Pali texts "nowhere preserve, but at best reflect the language of the earliest Buddhism" (see Levman 2019a, and Chapters Five and Six of this volume), it is undeniable that Pali has undergone a lot of changes from the pre-Pali idiom which the Buddha and his immediate disciples used. The change of the language of the Buddha and its evolution into Pali until it was at least partially fixed in the first century BCE by writing it down was caused by a number of factors, including normal diachronic language change over time, synchronic change from natural dialect variation, artificial Sanskritizations, and borrowings from the indigenous languages, to name the four principal factors. Some still claim that Pali was the actual language the Buddha spoke-despite so much evidence against it-and maintain that all variation found in Pali is due to "natural variation and transmission errors" (Chapter Seven), denying Sanskritization and diachronic change completely. I also have friends in the monkhood who are doubtful that Pali wasn't the language the Buddha spoke, as stated by Buddhaghosa, for, with so many monks reciting the Dhamma, they don't understand how change would have been introduced. This would make Pali the only dhamma, linguistic or otherwise, where the law of anicca did not

10

Chapter One

apply. Linguistic change, especially in an oral environment where there is no written guide to adhere to, happens naturally over time, according to regular linguistic laws to which Pali was not immune. To argue that this is all "natural variation" is also to miss the point; this is like the Ajivaka heretics, contemporaries of the Buddha whose leader Mak:khali Gosala argued that everything in the universe was random, and there were no laws, including no law of karma that led to either liberation or affliction. Certainly there is such a thing as random change, but the priority of paficca samuppiida, that is, change according to specific causes and conditions, is not only a linguistic, but a universal law. Language too must follow the tilakkha,:ia, being impermanent, changing according to causes and conditions; inaccurate and unsatisfactory, for it posits things (like the "I") which do not truly exist and are without a permanent essence. An unchanging Pali as the language the Buddha spoke is another form of essentialism, which the Buddha eschewed. In my 2016 paper "The Language of Early Buddhism" I outlined the methodology and argument for identifying a koine or inter-language as the earliest recoverable language of Buddhism, and probably the language the Buddha spoke--or at least one of the languages he taught in~that later, through the processes noted above, evolved into Pali. It is reprinted here as Chapter Six.

An article entitled "Sanskritization in Pali" was originally planned for this chapter, but in the interim it was accepted for publication by the Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics (2020b). The article examines cognate correspondence sets of the Dhammapada, comparing Pali verses with parallel GandharI, Sanskritized Prakrit and Sanskrit verses, confirming the existence of the koine, the interpretation of which is in many cases the source of the phonological differences in the transmission. Chapter Seven is a new discussion on the "Evolution of Pali" which picks up on an article entitled "The Language the Buddha spoke" published in 2019 in the Oxford Journal of Buddhist Studies. That article answered Stefan Karpik and Richard Gombrich' s assertion that the Buddha spoke Pali. Section Three examines the transmission and evolution of the Buddha's teachings over time. This is a very complex process involving multiple vectors and tens of thousands of protagonists over many centuries. Outside of Pali, the earliest renditions we have preserved of Buddhist teachings is in GandharI, the language of the Gandhara kingdom in the north-west (parts of present Afghanistan and Pakistan); fragments of GandharI manuscripts

Introduction

11

have been dated to as early as the first century BCE, making them the oldest Buddhist manuscripts in existence (for comparison, the oldest Pali manuscript is dated to approx. the ninth century CE). Evidently the Buddha's teachings were transmitted along the silk routes, both northwest and northeast, starting from the lifetime of the Buddha, while at the same time the teachings diffused within India along established trade routes to the west and south The Asokan edicts of the mid third century BCE, inscribed 100-150 years after the Buddha's parinibbana, bear witness to at least three principal dialect areas in India at the time, in the northwest, west and east, and we find a mixture of all these dialect features in Pali, especially from Girnar in the west and Gandhara in the northwest. In the middle of the third century BCE Asoka's son Mahinda brought the teachings and commentary to Sri Lanka and by the late first century BCE the canon was written down there and at least partially fixed. While the island was being converted to the Buddha's teachings, they continued to spread on the continent through central and southern India, monumentalized in art and votive inscriptions at such famous sites as Sanchi, Bharhut, and AmaravatT in the last three centuries BCE. The MI lineage as it manifested in China has been an area of continued interest to scholars. In 2018 I published a study on the transmission of the Buddhadhamma from India to China, studying the dharwzfs (sacred formulae for the retention of the Buddha's teachings) of the Lotus Sutra; examining the Chinese transliterations of the dhararifs showed that the earlier work was composed in a north-western Prakrit similar to GandharI. A north-western source is also probably true for the earliest translations of the Buddhasasana into China which date from the mid-second century CE and likely earlier; the teachings were no doubt transmitted to the country along the eastbound trade route to Chang'an well before the common era, at least in inchoate form. A new study of the Milindapanha ("Questions of King Milinda") examines the nature of what was transmitted before the first full-fledged translations of the Buddhist suttas into Chinese took place: a short summary of the basic tenets of Buddhist doctrine in a question and answer form-a Buddhist "catechism" that was used as a basis for improvisation and expansion by the Chinese translators, rather than wordfor-word translation. This study was originally planned to form the first chapter of section three of this monograph, but has now been published in the Journal Asiatique ("Revisiting Milindapanha," 2021b). Comparison of the Chinese version of the Pali Milindapanha shows that the former is one of the earliest of Chinese renditions, showing a lack of knowledge of basic Buddhist theory, and reflecting an early time before the Chinese standardization of a common Buddhist terminology. So the Chinese

12

Chapter One

translation, although nominally dating from the third century CE, is based on a work which is much earlier than this and may represent one of the first and earliest attempts at rendering the Buddhist doctrine into Chinese. That language changes over time is an incontrovertible fact. Usually this statement refers to the evolution of languages' phonologies, i.e. soundsystems, which evolved according to regular rules discovered by the Neogrammarians in Germany in the latter part of the nineteenth century. It is Darwin's law of descent with variation in the field of language; however, whereas biologic evolution changes due to mutation and adaptation to changing environmental and biotic conditions, language evolves based on other principles like lenition, assimilation, vowel loss and merger, borrowing etc., which we see in Middle Indic as it evolved from Old Indic. Not only does phonology change, but meaning as well. A very common phenomenon is the broadening of a word's meaning over time through metaphorical extension. So, for example, a word like "metaphor" originally only meant "to carry from one place to another, to transfer" (from the Greek w,:ra.rpipw, metaphero) but gradually developed an extended meaning in the field of rhetoric as a "transferring to one word the sense of another." So it is used in English today, and while it has lost the meaning of a physical transference, as can be seen, the core meaning of "canying over" is still there. The word sati in Pali has undergone a similar phenomenon except that it has kept its core meaning (< 01 smrti, "remembering, recollection"), while developing additional meanings in the Buddhist context ("present awareness, mindfulness, alertness, etc."). Some scholars have argued that sati no longer has the meaning of "memory" in Buddhism, but a careful study of the texts shows that its core meaning of "memory" is ever present, always in the sense of remembering the Buddha's teachings. Chapter Eight is about the varying usages of the word sati in the Buddhist scriptures as understood in the Burmese tradition. I choose the Burmese tradition for two reasons: firstly, because they have the largest and most comprehensive Pali dictionary in the world, and secondly because the Burmese school of mindfulness training is the lineage source for much ofthe present mindfulness movement in North America; that movement's understanding of the word sati or "mindfulness" is often quite narrow in relation to the Burmese understanding of the term. Pali is a phonetic language, so theoretically what you see is what you get. Generally that is true, but there are some aspects of Pali which are problematic in pronunciation as they are in Old Indic. I am referring to

Introduction

13

nasalization, called anusviira ("after sound") in OI and niggahzta ("checked") in Pali· 8 No one is quite sure how this element is pronounced in OI or MI (represented by -arrt). This is important for several reasons. Although Pali is no longer a spoken vernacular, it is still recited by monks every day, carrying the message of the Buddha's teachings; one would like to ensure that it is chanted the way the Teacher himself intoned it. In addition, Pali is used for official declarations and resolutions within the Buddhist Sangha (i.e. for kammaviiciis); these are supposed to be pronounced properly so as not to invalidate the proceedings, like for example, the ordination formula of a novice monk or layperson, Buddharrt saral}arrt gacchiimi, dhammarrt saral}arrt gacchiimi, sangharrt saral}arrt gacchiimi. There are several possibilities for pronouncing the nasal and various people do it in various ways. Is there a standard? This is also important because in the change from OI > MI, nasalization increased quite markedly as a form of lenition, that is, various inflections in OI ending in -am changed to a nasalized vowel ending (-arrt) in MI, so Buddham pasyiimi ("I see the Buddha") in OI became Buddharrt passiimi in MI with the -am changing to -arrt; that is the nasal consonant -am, pronounced as written in Ol-Buddham-changes to a nasalized vowel -arrt pronounced Buddha (as in French en/ant) in MI, or pronounced as a velar nasal Buddhaij ("Buddhang") depending on what consonant follows in the next word, or sometimes pronounced simply as a normal nasal consonant (as in OI, as Buddham). Hardly a sentence in Pali goes by without encountering this -arrt niggahzta, so one would like to ensure that it is pronounced correctly. Chapter Nine discusses the different possibilities and offers some suggestions as to the "correct" pronunciation, although the article makes the point that this is quite a sticky wicket, as we have no live recordings of the pronunciation from two thousand five hundred years ago and the grammarians do not describe the phenomena in enough detail to extrapolate a definite answer. Chapter Ten is a short summary of all these different themes. One inescapable conclusion is the importance of language, and especially Pali, in understanding the roots of Buddhism and how it evolves. This echoes Norman's observation in the 1994 Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai Lectures, that any work on Buddhism must take into account philology, and must be based on a full understanding of the linguistic sources (1997/2006: 229).

8

Because the articulatory organs are not completely closed as they are in a normal consonant, and air is forced through the nose by a partial lowering of the soft palate.

14

Chapter One

In Pali itself lie buried several hundred or perhaps thousand autochthonous words and technical terms, and in those one finds a rich tapestry of indigenous customs, culture and religion; this field, what one might call "linguistic archaeology," is still very much in its infancy and the account I have given of it here in Section A is merely a beginning. Comparing Pali to other Middle Indic dialects and Old Indic, while taking into account the effect of word borrowing and the different phonemic structures of native languages, provides insight into the nature of diachronic language change over time and the synchronic influence of the local population. The process allows us to make some meaningful statements about the pre-Pali idiom the Buddha taught in, or at least the earliest recoverable language of Buddhism, its evolution, Sanskritization and standardization. Finally the diachronic study of Pali and the Prakrits over time opens up a possible new paradigm on the origin of the early Chinese translations; clarifies the modem day interpretation of the word sati by examining its multi-valent usage by the Buddha and his followers; and helps one to understand the pronunciation of the nasalized phonemes in both ancient and modern times.

SECTION ONE THE LINEAGE

PARAMPARA

CHAPTER Two THE LINGUISTIC SCENE AT THE TIME OF THE BUDDHA

Abstract Chapter Two provides an overview of the linguistic scene at the time of the Buddha where, initially at least, the autochthonous peoples far outnumbered the newer Aryan immigrants. This resulted in significant structural influence on the Indo-Aryan languages and extensive word borrowing which is found in the names of local biota, toponyms, proper names and most importantly, in the names of certain cultural, technical and religious phenomena which were carried over from the local culture into Buddhism. The entire robe practice of the local sama,:ia (mendicant) culture, for example, was adopted by the Buddhists. The chapter discusses the implications of this borrowing and provides a comprehensive discussion on methodology, that is, how to determine whether a word is borrowed from the indigenous languages into IA or from IA into the indigenous languages; it gives an example of the complexities of the process with a discussion of the etymology of the word amba meaning "mango."

The early history of Buddhism is biased from the very start. Not just because its history was written centuries after the Buddha had passed, by a small group ofBrahman converts who had their own story to tell, but also because so much of the early history is missing. Linguistically we have only one of the many language groups that were current at the time the Buddha lived: Middle Indic and its various dialects, the most important of which is Pali, as it is the only dialect which preserves a relatively complete record of the Buddha's teachings. But we know that the languages spoken in fifth and fourth century BCE were much more varied than just MI and its various dialects; in fact MI speakers at that time were certainly the minority, with the indigenous languages forming the plurality. Two ofthe principle language families at that time were Dravidian

The Linguistic Scene at the Time of the Buddha

17

and Austro-Asiatic (AA); Dravidian still forms the dominant language family of south India to this day (Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, to name the four most populous ones), comprising over 200 million speakers, while Munda speakers (Santali, Mundari, Kharia, etc., part of the AustroAsiatic language family), although reduced to less than ten million speakers today, were at one time along with Dravidian a dominant linguistic group in north-eastern India. The Tibeto-Burrnan language family was also represented as was proto-Burushaski, a language isolate, plus an unknown substrate which Masica calls "Language X" (1979). Judging from the etymology of hundreds of key words-toponyms, personal names, names for local biota and cultural terminology-the Sakya tribe in which the Buddha was born was Dravidian and/or Munda speaking, or perhaps more accurately described as Dravidian with a Munda substrate, based on the relative etymological proportions of the native words that are preserved. The reader will have to forgive the vagueness of the terms "Dravidian and/or Munda" for a description of the language of the Sakyas (and other north-eastern tribes) which can often not be resolved at a finer scale; the only record we have of this language are those loan-words preserved in OI and MI which are indeed very mixed; some can be demonstrated to be AA in origin, others Dravidian, and others from language isolates like proto-Burushaski, and still others from unknown subor adstrate layers, sometimes called languages of the Indus Valley (Witzel §6; Southworth, Chapter Three). The language is extremely complex, layered and commingled as will be demonstrated in detail in the following chapters. Southworth' s pioneering study on linguistic archaeology hypothesizes that the eastern, sub-Himalayan India where the Buddha lived and taught was primarily Munda and Tibeto-Burrnan-speaking of the middle of the first millennium BCE (2005: 329, Figure 10.2). However, this study shows Dravidian to be the dominant language, based on words preserved in the Pali suttas and in the local place names. Munda words are also represented, but less so than Dravidian, and Tibeto-Burrnan influence is very limited. In addition, the tribes spoke a fmm of Middle Indic; in order to interact with the increasingly hegemonic culture of the IA immigrants, they had to learn their tongue, as they certainly did as a second language. But they were outside the Indo-Aryan fold, of "mixed" heritage" (saf[lkfnya-yonaya/:1), living well beyond the confluence of the Ganges and Y amuna rivers, which was the eastern limit of the Aryan influence at that time (Bronkhorst, 2007: 1-9). In fact there was a Middle Indic language of trade, commerce and government (a "Verkehrssprache" and/or "Kanzleisprache") which appears

18

Chapter Two

to have been common to all the varied linguistic groups; it has been variously termed a koine (inter-dialectic) or a linguafranc a (inter-linguistic) by scholars and it is from this idiom that Pali evolved (see this story in Chapters five and six). The Buddha likely spoke in this idiom and the dialect that developed out ofit, Pali, is the earliest record we have of his teachings. But he certainly also spoke to his own people, the Sakyas, who initially at least comprised a large number of his converts, in their own language, and none of that has survived. \Vhat has survived however are many of the words from the Sakyan language which were imported into Middle In.die. Part of the reason is just practicality. They provided names for biota and places that the Inda-Aryans were unfamiliar with; more important is what they represent in terms of borrowings from the culture of the lender: a rich religious and socio-political culture that was adopted directly into Buddhism. The source of these ideas have been completely obfuscated by later tradents, often Brahmans writing for other Brahmans who were out to show that the Buddha was the best of all Brahmans-and not a mlechha (01, "foreigner, barbarian"; P milakkha)-though the whole notion of the IA class system was foreign to his or the Sakyas' thinking. It is well known that there were many sama,:ta (ascetic) groups in north India at the time of the Buddha. Even when some of their practices, like jhcma meditation, were adopted, the Buddhist Sangha is represented as opposing the customs and beliefs of these groups, yet many of their customs and practices were adopted and adapted directly into Buddhism. The technical language used is not Middle Indic, but Dravidian or Munda, that is, indigenous. It is almost as if the Middle In.die exemplar, Pali, has been translated from a local language with all the technical terms kept intact in the original language as a common, shared cultural heritage. I will be giving hundreds of examples of cultural continuity in the next few chapters. Here I would like to provide a few examples of what I am saying with reference to the robe practice in Buddhism. This was one of the four requisites provided by the laity to the monks, i.e., food, lodging, robes and medicine. 9 The practice of donating cloth and making it into robes for the

9

One must think of these as categories of requisites as both the Samantapiisiidikii and the Sumangalaviliisin'iprovide for eight possessions which a monk was allowed: tic'ivarafica patto ca, viisi suci ca bandhanal'(l. parissiivanena affh-ete,yutta-yogassa bhikkhuno. (Sp I, 240; Sv 206)

The Linguistic Scene at the Time of the Buddha

19

monks was not invented by the Buddha; it was taken over from the local samwza culture. The key words kafhina (the structure on which the cloth was stretched prior to being cut and sewn), dussa (the cloth itself) and the name of the robe (clvara) are all of Dravidian origin (see page 62f). So are the instructions on how to make the robe; without divining the words' indigenous etymologies it is almost impossible to understand the instructions. Of course none of this takes away from the originality and brilliance of the Buddha's teachings about liberation; but understanding his roots opens up a whole new perspective on the Buddha's antecedents in the indigenous Indian culture, his noble lineages (ariya-vaJ?1sa), which are agganna rattanna VarflSanna pora,:za asarriki,:z,:za asaT[lki,:z,:za-pubba ("ancient, longstanding, traditional, primeval, pure and unadulterated now as then ... " Woodward 1933/2001, vol. 2: 31, AN 2, 27 16- 7).

An Example Once, when the Buddha was en route to Dakkhil).agiri ("Southern mountain") in Magadha he observed how the fields were laid out and that gave him an idea for how to make the monks' robes. He said to Ananda:

Three robes and a bowl, a knife, needle and a waistband With a water strainer, there are eight, which a monk who is properly equipped possesses. Of these eight, five and possibly six are indigenous terms. For the cfvara etymology see discussion below on page 62f; a small hatchet or viisi can be traced to a Dravidian source (cp Tamil vai, "sharp"; vaci, "to cut"; Kota vac, "skewer"; Kannada basi, "point, sharpen"; Telugu vasi, "nail, thorn"; Kui vast, "sharpen"; Burrow 1948: 393). M2 vol. 2: 548 wonders whether the word can be derived from late Avestan viisf, "pointed knife''; the needle or sucf, traditionally derived from the IA root siv, ''to sew" and related to suka ("awn of a grain; spike of an insect'' Ml vol. 3: 363), originates from a Finno-ugarian source of the word for both or and Dravidian (per Burrow 1946: 28-29); the Munda languages can also lay claim to the word (and also may have received it from the same source) as it is widespread there: in Santali sui, Mundari sui, Kharia cuci, Juang cujlci, Korkusuwi/suwa, all meaning "needle"; the patta or bowl is IA ( b- which is lacking in protoDravidian and the weakening of the intervocalic retroflex voiceless stop to a voiced stop, -!- > -rf-, which is also a common phenomenon in protoDravidian (Zvelebil 1990: §1.7.2) and in Middle Indic (Pischel §198; hereinafter Pischel). Since ba#alu did not mean anything in MI, it was changed to the closest meaningful word, baddha. What the Buddha was describing was an indigenous field, in indigenous language. This became the platen for the manufacture of the monks' robes.

11 Ml vol 1: 265 "wohl dravidisch" (probably Dravidian); Burrow 1948: 375, compare Kannada kesar_u, ''mud, mire"; Tamil kaitai, "paddy-field"; Tu)u ked!f, kesar!f, ''mud, mire" and others.

22

Chapter Two

The other four expressions are the same, they are Dravidian terms, descriptions of the fields that were cultivated at that time in Magadha.

piili-baddhalfl Pali is a Dravidian word meaning "row, line, margin, edge" (cp Malayalam pii/i; Kannada pii_ri, "row, line, regularity, regular order or way, method rule", Telugu pii(ji, •~ustice, propriety, nature, quality"). In this particular case it simply refers to the boundaries between the fields, laid out in rectangles and squares. In the sacred Buddhist texts, by metonymy the term is transferred to designate the language as a whole. Dozens of attempts have been made to derive the word from an IA source--since Pali is an Indo-Aryan languageand none are convincing. I have discussed all this in detail in Levman 2020a: 1-3. The latest attempt is to derive Pali from the verb path ("to recite," Gombrich 2019), but the two words are phonologically quite distant from each other and in any case, path is itself a Dravidian word (see page 76 below). The word piili in OI has several other meanings, in addition to "row, line, margin, etc.," that is, "tip or lobe of the ear; dam, dike." These are apparently adoptions and conflations of other similar sounding Dravidian words, viz., Tamil piilam, "bridge, jetty, dam"; Malayalam piilam, "bridge over rivers or to connect the walls of compounds; Kota palm "bridge"; Toda palm; Kannada piila, idem; Ko-a-in Kannada, which presumably also happened in the other south Dravidian languages. This was also a peculiarity of IA historical phonology (von Hinuber 2001: § 145). For syllable contraction in proto-Dravidian see Krishnamurti 2003: 96, §4.3.2.1. Is it possible that Pali was so-named because the teachings were translated from an original Dravidian tongue? No one has even asked the question or considered the possibility. Passages like these we are examining here (and we will be looking at dozens of others) give one pause to consider what their significance might be.

The Linguistic Scene at the Time of the Buddha

23

mariyada-baddl,a,ri The 01 word marycida (P mariycida, "frontier, limit, boundary" < maryci, idem) has no convincing IA etymology (Ml vol. 2: 597; M2 vol. 2: 331, "nicht zufriedenstellend erklart," not satisfactorily explained). Przyluski (1931: 613) derives the word from the Austro-Asiatic word for "ocean" (maru and *mari). It is closer to home in the proto-Dravidian (PD) word for "boundary, limit, shore," a descendant of which is found in modem Tamil, varai, ("small ridge as of paddy field, bank, shore, limit, boundary, measure, extent, place, time"); Malayalam varu, "boundary, border"; Kannada, vari, vare, "limit"; Telugu, var.a, "limit." The first definition fits perfectly with the present context. As is well known, in proto-Dravidian m and v interchange initially and intervocalically (Zvelebil 1990: §1. 7. 8) and (perhaps under Dravidian influence) this interchange is not uncommon in MI dialects (Pischel §251, 261 and Brough 1962: §36 for GandharI). The suffix -da seems to be null as to meaning.

silighafaka-baddl, a,ri The OI word srngcifa (P singhcifa, "Trapa bispinosa") is the name for a local plant, but somehow got the meaning "a place where three or four roads meet" especially in the -ka suffixed form which we have here. Presumably this was because of the triangular shape of the leaf which changed from "dreieckiger Platz" (triangular square or place) to "Wegkreuzung" (crossroads, junction; Ml vol. 3: 370-71, "unklar; wohl Fremdwort" unclear, probably a foreign word). This seems to be a Dravidian derivation, cp Tamil names for Trapa bispinosa: cimkhara, cinkara, cinkara-k-lwttai, cinkarak kottai, cinkaraklwttai, cinkari, inter alia. 12 These four compounds-acci (acchi)-baddhal'(I, pcili-baddhal'(I, mariycidabaddhal'(I and singhcifaka-baddhal'(l-all basically mean the same thing, that is, a field arranged in square or rectangular rows. The phrases follow the waxing-syllable principle of four-four-six-six for emphasis and mnemonic memorability, each looking at the field from a slightly different point-ofview-squares, boundaries, margins and crossroads-in keeping with the

12 Found at http://envis.frlht.orgfplantdetails/4960833 0a08 d3 0e9fl a0 I da7faf2ed79/Saad36299 e8ec84adl4a8eldcfceffd2 accessed June 10, 2020. These seem to correspond to DED 2063 cinka-vii;rai, cinka!J-vii;rai, called "a variety of plantain." Proto-Dravidian

had no s- consonant.

24

Chapter Two

Buddha's de-centered approach to language and use of near-synonymic repetition (Levman 2020a: 20). The Buddha uses this field-geometry as the model for robe-tailoring. Given his instructions by the Buddha, Ananda then makes up the robes for which he is praised for ''understanding the meaning in detail of that which the Buddha only spoke in an abridged fashion" (mayii sarrikhittena bhiisitassa vitthiirena attha]!1 iijiinissati, Vin 1, 28721- 2): kusimpi niima karissati, ar;lr;lha-kusimpi niima karissati, mm.u;lalampi niima karissati ar;lr;lha-ma'f_Zr;falampi niima karissati, vivaffampi niima karissati, anuvivaffampi niima karissati, gfveyyakampi niima karissati, jangheyyakampi niima karissati, biihantampi niima karissati Ananda will make what is called a kusim, also an ar;lr;lha-kusim, etc.

Once again, we are dealing with technical terms whose meaning is not immediately obvious. There are nine terms:

Pali, Vin, 1 28722-

Horner p.1833-34

26

Rhys Davids & Oldenberg, ibid p. 208-09 cross seams intermediate cross seams greater circles

kusim a#ha-kusim

cross-seam short cross-seam

ma,:u;falam

circular seam

w;lr;lha-ma,:u;lalam

short circular seam

lesser circles

vivaffam

central piece

turning in

anuvivaffam

side pieces

gfveyyakam jangheyyakam

neck piece knee piece

the lining of the turning in collar piece knee piece

biiha-antam

elbow piece

elbow piece

vonHinuber ibid: 7 seam half a seam (large square) piece half a (square) piece a piece m the middle a piece at the sides a neck-piece a calvespiece an outer end

The Linguistic Scene at the Time of the Buddha

25

The commentary, which is attributed to the Mahaaffhakatha (parts of which may go back to Mahinda's visit to Sri Lanka in the third century BCE), 13 is as follows (Sp 5, 112713- 28) kusf ti iiyamato ca vittharato ca anuvatadinarri dfgha-pafana metarri adhivacanal'[l

That (kusi) is a name for long pieces of cloth which are sown in length and width (along a seam)

w;l(jha-kusfti antara-antara rassapafanal'[l namal'[l.

The word a(j(jha-kusi is a name for short pieces of cloth at intervals.

maf}(jalan ti panca-khm:i(jikacfvarassa ekekasmil'[l khm:i(je maha-mm:i(jalal'fl.

A mari(jala is a big circle/square in each piece of the five-part robe.

a(j(jha-mm:i{jalan ti khuddakamaf}(}alal'[l

An a(j(jha-mm:i(jala is a small circle/square.

viva/fan ti ma,:i{jalanca a(jefhamaf}(}alanca ekato katva sibbital'fl majjhima-khm:i(}arri.

The word viva/fa means, having placed the mari(jala and the small mm:i(jala together, the middle section is sewn.

anuvivaffan ti tassa ubhosu passesu dve khari(jani atha vii anuvivaffan ti vivaffassa ekapassato dvinnal'[l eka-passato dvinnal'[l pi catunnam pi khm:i(janam etal'[l namal'[l

anuvivaffa means two pieces on both sides ofit (the middle piece), or anuvivaffa is the name for the four parts, two on one side of the viva/ta (middle section) and two on the other side.

13

The Pali Dictionary from the Vipassana Research Institute (dictionary.sutta.org) says that the Mahii-affhakathii "was the oldest and most important of the commentaries upon the Tipitaka: the tradition is that it was rehearsed at the first Council, and brought to Ceylon by Mahinda who translated it into Singhalese." However, Endo (2013: 19), quoting Mori, says that the Mahii-affhakathii (plural form) "contains many records of both Sri Lank:an and Indian origins" from perhaps the I st century BCE to the end of the Sihala-atthakatha period; it is the affhakathii (sg.) used in the singular in the commentaries, that refers to the Mahindan material brought in the third century BCE. In this particular case we are dealing with the singular form (Vin 5, 112729, Mahiiafthakathiiya111 vutto, "as said in the Great Commentary").

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Chapter Two

gfveyyakan ti gfva-vefhana-tfhane dafhi-kararia-ttharri annarri suttasarrisibbitarri agantu-kapa/arri

gfveyyaka means another piece of incidental cloth which is sewn with thread for the pmpose of strengthening the place where it covers the neck.

jangheyyakan tijanghapapuriana-tthane tatheva sarrisibbitarri pafarri. gfva-tthane ca jangha-tthane ca pafanamevetarri namantipi vadanti

jangheyyaka is a piece of cloth which is sewn in just this way that it reaches to the calf of the leg. They say, "This is the name for the pieces of cloth in the neck-place and calf-place."

baha-antanti anuvivattanarri bahi ekekarri khari(iarri. iti pancakhari(iika-cfvaren 'etarri vicaritan ti. bahantan ti su-ppamariacfvararri parupantena sarriharitva bahiiya upari thapita ubho anta bahi-mukha titthanti tesarri namarri.

bahanta means: outside of each side piece (anuvivafta) is (another) piece. It is considered thus due to the five-piece robe. (Or) baha-anta means, putting on a robe of the correct size, gathering it up with the arms, having raised (the ends) up, both ends remain outside the face-it is the name for each of these (ends).

Kusi Appendix One (page 140) has a diagram of the different parts of the robe which will help clarify their organization and fi.mction. 14 PED defines kusi as "one of the four cross seams of the robe of a bhikkhu" and a(j(jha-kusi as an "intermediate cross seam" which is how the translators have taken it above. Cone defines it as a "long piece of cloth (part of a bhikkhu' s robe)" which is based on the commentary in Sp above. It is a word with no OI counterpart; it appears to derive from the Dravidian root !rut- or kut!-, "to sew" (Kolami), cp Telugu kuftu, "to prick, pierce, bore, sting, stitch, sew"; and the root is widespread in all the Dravidian languages, incl. Parji kut!, "sew"; and Gadba kutlku!t; Gondi ku!, all "to sew." Kui has the verb kufa, ku/i, "to incite, instigate, urge, rouse, stir to action" which is a metaphorical 14

I am very grateful to Ven. Ariyadhammika of the Sasanarakkha Buddhist Sanctuary in Taiping, Malaysia for sending me drawings showing how the c'ivara is made.

The Linguistic Scene at the Time of the Buddha

27

extension of its basic meaning of "prick." There are also a parallel series of words with dental-!- or geminate -tt-whichmay be the source of kusi: Tamil kuttu or kutti, "to puncture, pierce, bore, perforate, stab, sew," etc; Kata, Toda, kut-, "to sew, pierce, prick" (DED 1719). Since proto-Dravidian weakened their cacurninal (retroflex) consonants to an -r- or -(jintervocalically and had no such thing as an -s- sound, and -t- weakened to a fricative (-6-) intervocalically, it is quite likely that kufa/i or kut- were heard as kusi, or something close allophonically (Zvelebil 1990: §1.7.2).

A{j{jl,a-kusi For a(j(jha-kusi, CPD gives the definition "an intermediate cross-seam (on the robe of a bhikkhu)," quoting the commentary above (with the variant reading pattiinal[l instead of pafiinal[l). But the commentary does not say that. The word a(j(jha is usually derived from 01 ardha, "side, part, half," Pali a#ha or addha ("half'), so it may simply mean "short" here, i.e. the long pieces of cloth cut in half. A(j(jha could also be a Prakrit form for a$fa ("eight") where it appears in the Asokan seventh Pillar Edict in Topra, (a$/a > affha > a(j(jha written a(jha) and it could also represent affa, as for example in the Keva(j(jhasutta, with var. Kevaffasutta. Here the most likely derivation is from the Dravidian affam, "cross direction" (Tamil), Malayalam affam, "what is across, transverse"; a(j, "at right angles, crosswise" (Kolami); Telugu a(j(ja, "horizontal, crosswise," etc. It is a very common term shared by all the Dravidian dialects (DED 73). So, whereas a kusi is a long strip of cloth, an a(j -a- (e.g. Tamil erukku ~ or arka "Calotropis gigantea"). Dravidian also has a retroflex voiced fricative ~r- (also written -1- and sometimes by Burrow as-.!-), which is lacking in or and tends to be represented by -1- (e.g. Tamil ka..r, "blackness"~ or kala, "black"). Other examples which Burrow cites to demonstrate or as the borrower include loss of consonants (Tamil pu.ruka ~ or punkha, "feathered part of an arrow"); assimilation (Tamil ku/ampu, "hoof of an animal"~ or kulpha, "ankle"); and the alternation of voiced and unvoiced consonants which is rare in or but common in Dravidian (which does not have a phonemic distinction between voiced and unvoiced stops). For example orjata, "matted locks" sata, idem and cha/a, "mass, lump" are all derivable from Tamil cafai, "matted locks, thick bunch" or Kannada jm;le, jet;le; Malayalam jafa, ca/a, idem (Burrow 1948: 135 notes that the alternation ofj-, s- and ch- in or is "an unusual feature in Sanskrit, but very familiar in Dravidian, and points strongly to the conclusion that the words are borrowed from that source"). Witzel (1999a: §0.4) makes the same point in a more systematic manner with a linguistic formula which shows what can or cannot belong to the IA language. So a RV word like kinasa ("cultivator of the soil"), which violates this formula, must be borrowed. 19 Berger simply says to look for suffixes not found in IA languages and "Nebenformen" (variant forms) that cannot be derived from Sanskrit sound-laws (1955: 25). Fifthly, compare the meanings. When a meaning has developed a metaphorical extension from a simpler definition, the latter is probably the source. So, for example, ma//av in Tamil means "strong, powerful, warrior" etc., while in or it means "wrestler"-the wider and simpler Tamil meaning suggests that the Dravidian word is primary. But Tamil mallav, "wrestler" with the identical or meaning is a loan-word into Tamil.

19 The formula is prefixes +/- {(s) (C) (R) (e) (R) (C/s)} +/- suffixes, wheres= the letters, C = consonant, R = semi-vowel and nasals, e = standard IE vowels.

The Linguistic Scene at the Time of the Buddha

35

The corollary of this meaning correspondence rule is that if the meanings have to be stretched to correspond (as for example Mayrhofer's complaint re: the IA word nanda, "joy" and the Dravidian nantu, "flourish"; see below), then the derivation is flawed. The same would apply to the ( invalid) derivation of 01 cimra, MI amba, "mango"< 01 amla, "sour, acid" (see page 36 below). A corollary of this corollary is Emeneau's point that "comparative simplicity and avoidance of the assumption of tortuous phonological and semantic developments should also be aimed at, following the general practice of all disciplines ('Occam's razor')" (1954: 288). Another point to consider, not mentioned by Burrow (because it is so obvious) is the provenance of the word. Fauna and flora not known to the immigrating Inda-Aryans are mostly loan-words. The same is true for toponyms, the names of local places and rivers which for the most part were retained by the Indo-Atyans, although often adapted to IA phonology/phonetics. Many words with cerebrals in Sanskrit are also imported from Dravidian, where the cerebrals are part ofthe proto phonology. They are borrowed from Dravidian and possibly Munda into IA, introduced by Dravidian speakers adapting IA to their native phonology (MISL speakers; Deshpande 1979: 297). A lot of variant forms (see, for example, kafhina below, or discussion on jafogi in Levman 2019a: 91-93) is another sure sign of a borrowed word.

Many indigenous languages did not recognize IA phonemic distinctions (like aspirated stops, or voiced vs. unvoiced stops, or sibilants, etc.), and vice versa. So Dravidian allophones could easily be notated as phonemes, and many variant forms would result. The overarching point that Burrow makes is that IA words can not be etymologized only from within IA, without considering the effects to the neighbouring languages. Although Dravidian has been pushed to the south of India in modem times, and Munda to a small area in the center-east (and Tibetan only exists natively in the Ladakhi dialect, in a tiny portion of the north-east in Ladakh), it is important to remember that from Vedic times the Dravidian and Munda groups were the dominant ones demographically and linguistically. Their influence on IA was therefore unavoidable. Similarly the Dravidian and Munda language families also influenced each other and it can often be the case that some Dravidian, Munda and 01 words are traceable to a fourth language, an early form of Austro-Asiatic which Witzel calls "ParaMunda," an unknown, western AA language centered in the

36

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Panj ab associated with the language of the Indus valley culture (1999a: 2526 for discussion of the word langala, "plough").

An Excursus on Amba ("Mango") The problems of establishing a clear-cut derivation are sometimes insurmountable. Take, for example, the case of the common word "mango" (OI amra, "mango tree, mango fruit" or makanda, "mango tree"; MI/P amba). The English word is derived from the Tamil mankay via the Portuguese manga (Yule and Burnell 1903/2000: 553; hereinafter HJ). Historically, it is a very old word in both Dravidian and Munda, pre-dating its IA appearance probably by several hundred years. We know this because of its occurrence in both Central and South Dravidian (per Southworth's groupings p. 50): Central Dravidian (PCD): 20 Kolami mamf[f, "mango"; mamri, mandi, "mango fruit" Nailqi mamri, "mango" South Dravidian (PSD2): Telugu mavi, mamif[i, mavir;h, "mango"; magayu, "mango fruit" South Dravidian (PSD 1): Tamil ma, manti, mati, "mango"; mankay, "unripe mango fruit" Malayalam ma, mavu, "mango tree"; manna, "mango fruit" Toda mofin bum, "mango fruit"; mofin men, "mango tree" Kannada ma, mam, mavu, "mango" Ko (2) + retroflex. However the Dravidian cognates are widespread amongst PSDl and PSD2 (which split from PSD around 1000 BCE, per Southworth 330) andjati!f is quite late in or, first found in Manu and MBh, the earliest parts of which date from approximately the second (Olivelle 2004: 23, Manu) or fourth century BCE (Brockington 1998: 26, MBh), so the appearance in the Pali SuttaNipiita (perhaps early fourth century BCE) probably predates its or appearance. The Dravidian appearance therefore is centuries older. The first Dravidian attestation is in the Paripiital (9,5), one of the Sangam texts (-100 BCE-250 CE), which date only confirms its antiquity, but is useless as a terminus post quem as discussed above. 33 As told in the Mahiivagga, Vin 1 24-34. For the non-IA derivation ofniiga, see page 100 below.

The Buddha's Autochthonous Heritage

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the "way to the other side"; although they are called brahrnans, many of their names are non-IA. The Udana's Jatilasutta (KN 3.9) describes the Jatilas' practices in more detail than just fire-worship: At one time the Bhagava was staying in Gaya on the Gayas1sa [a hill near the town]. At that time many Jatilas were emerging and jumping into a pond in the snowfall season, during the coldest eight nights of winter; they emerged, dived in, poured water on themselves and presented a fire-oblation, saying "With this, we are pure" (Ud 6). 34

Observing this, the Buddha points out that one can not be purified by water, but only through saccan ca dhammo ca ("both truth and Dhamma"). The commentary gives us more infmmation on their practices and points out that the Jatilas were not Brahmans, although some did follow this practice. 35 The reason that "emerging" is mentioned first before "submerging" is that somejafilas dived into the water and didn"t come out, that is, they ended their days right there, thinking, presumably that this form of suicide resulted in liberation (Ud-a 75: te tattha nimujjitva assase sannirumbhitva maru-ppapata-patita viya tatthevajfvita-kkhayarri piipu,:ianti, "They dived in there, blocked their inhalation and achieved the destruction of life right there, as if they had fallen down a mountain precipice"). However the majority emerged after diving in. The text also gives a list of their other practices: Tesu hi keci udaka-viisal!I vasanti, keci udak'-anjalil!I denti, keci tasmil!I udake thatvii candima-suriye anuparivattanti, keci aneka-sahassa-viiral!I siivitti-iidike japanti. Keci "Inda iigacchii" ti iidinii vijjii-japal!I avhiiyanti, keci mahant 'upatthiinal!I karonti. Evan ca karontii keci otaranti, keci uttaranti keci uttaritvii suddhik'iicamanal!I karonti, keci anto udake thitii tantf viidenti, vf~al!I viident'i ti evamiidikii niina-ppakiira-kiriyii dassenti, yasmii vii te evarupii vikiira-kiriyii karontii pi tasmil!I udake nimujjanaummujjana-pubbakam eva karonti. Tasma tal!I sabbal!I 34 Ud 6 12- 16 : ekal!I samayal!I bhagavii Gayiiyal!I viharati Gayiisfse. tena kho pana samayena sambahulii jafilii sftiisu hemantikiisu rattfsu antara-atthake himapiitasamaye Gayiiyal!I ummujjanti pi nimujjanti pi ummujja-nimujjal'{I pi karonti osincanti pi aggil!I pi juhanti, iminii suddhiti. 35 Ud-a 75: sambahulii Jatiliiti Jatiliinal!I yebhuyyatiiya vuttal!I, mu~c;la-sikha~r;linopi ca briihma~ii udaka-suddhikii tasmil!I kale tattha tathii karonti. "'A good many matted-hair ascetics' is said, although brahrnins, both bald-headed and those with tufts of hair, who held purity to come through water, also similarly performed (such acts) there at that time" (Masefield 1994/2001: vol. 1, 114-15).

Chapter Three

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nimujjan'ummujjan'anto-gadham eva katvii ummujjant'i ti pi iidi vuttaT(I (Ud-a 7522-764)_ 36 Some live on habitations on the water. Some make anjalis (reverential salutes) to/with the water. Some stand in the water, worshipping the moon and the sun. Some recite the Savitti hymn, etc., many thousand times. Some recite a spell, saying "Come Indra!" Some render a great service, descending into the water, and arising out of the water, and once they had come out, they washed with water to purify themselves. Some stood in the water and played the strings, playing the lutes, giving performances of many kinds, like these and others. Or, because those performing such transformations perform them only when they have previously dived into and emerged from the water, therefore all these [actions described] are included in the diving in and emerging out, when ''They're coming out!'' etc., is said (in the text).

The language that is used to describe them is distinctly non-Aryan. They are "confused" (akula < Munda), "disordered" (vyakula < idem) 37 and making a big "uproar" (kolahala < Munda). 38 In the later suttas, the Jatilas are universally portrayed as heretics, titthiyas, outside the Buddhist dispensation. Judging from the last quote about invoking Indra, some Brahmans had adopted their practices (or vice versa), but the Jatilas were not Indo-Aryans themselves. The word is Dravidian in origin, as are most of the other sects described above. One surmises then that they were the local indigenous recluses whom the Indo-Aryan immigrants encountered when they entered this part of India. History, as is well known, is written by the winners, and none of these groups, except for the fains, have survived to modem times; the history of Buddhism was largely written by the Brahman converts (like Assaghosa), who were often writing for other Brahmans. Their interest was to gain acceptance for Buddhism by showing it to the pinnacle achievement of Brahmanism. The 36

Although I quote the PTS line numbers and use PTS punctuation, several variants are from the Burmese recension. 37 Ml vol. I: 69, iikula "vielleicht aus dem Proto-Munda ... befriedigend Deutungen aus idg. Material existieren nicht" (Perhaps from proto-Munda, satisfactory explanations from indogermanic material do not exist). See Kuiper 16-18, who compares the word to Santali gul, gulau, 'to cause confusion," an echo word (see next footnote). 38 Ml vol. 1: 273, "das letzlich protomundiden Ursprung sein mag, was natiirlich unsicher bleibt" (that ultimately may have a proto-Munda source, which of course remains uncertain). See also Kuiper 18, who treats koliihala as an echo-word, a common Munda phenomenon where one word (cp Juang b[i, 'to quarrel") is repeated with a change of initial consonant to create an affective intensification (CR: 150).

The Buddha's Autochthonous Heritage

51

local, indigenous population was looked down upon and their customs rejected, or at least not acknowledged. The Buddha was "Brahmanized" through and through and any connection he had with the indigenous peoples was hidden or excised (CR: 152-54). Bronkhorst takes the position that much of the samm}a tradition was borrowed by Brahmanism from the eastern tribes-which he calls Greater Magadha, the area east of the confluence of the Ganges and the Jumna rivers up to the Himalayasincluding key belief systems like karma and reincarnation (2007: 79-93). But the origin of these seminal concepts is obscure and difficult to prove. Yet, obscure as they were, it can be demonstrated that many of the indigenous peoples' beliefs and customs were adopted directly into Buddhism: snake and tree worship, funereal rites and practices, marriage customs, even the social and political organization of the Himalayan tribes, like the Buddha's Sakyas. The local culture was an important part of the Buddha's heritage, adopted into his teachings and adapted to the new Buddhist world-view. Even though the Buddha is said to criticize the Jatilas, these ascetics were an integral part of his heritage. The Bodhisatta himself (the Buddha prior to his enlightenment) was a Jatila named Susima in a previous life, at the time ofthe Buddha Atthadassi (BuddhavaJ?1sa p. 43, v. 9). One wonders therefore whether the kind of rejection evident in the suttas quoted above and summarized for example in the Dhammapada 141, represents his own views or is an overprint by his later Brahman disciples: na nagga-cariyii na Jatii na pal'/lkii na-aniisakii thm:u;lila-siiyikii vii rajo va jallal'/1 ukkufika-ppadhiinal'/1 sodhenti maccal'/1 avitifp;za-kal'/lkhal'/1.

Not nakedness, nor matted hair, nor mud, nor fasting, nor laying on the ground, nor dust and dirt, nor exertion in a squatting position purify a mortal who has not passed beyond doubt (Norman 2004: 21).

For, looking at one of the earliest records we have of the Buddha's birthstory, the Nalakasutta in the Sutta-Nipata-parts of which are preserved in the later Mahavastu-a Jatila is present and makes the prediction that the young prince will reach the sambodhiyaggaJ?1, the "pinnacle of enlightenment." He is not just any seer but a seer called Asita ("black" < OI a-sita, "notwhite") or Kat).hasiri ("black splendour" < OI /cr$,:ia > P ka,:iha < ?) or Kal)hadevala ("black devil worshipper"), a puro-hita ("family priest") of both Suddhodana's father SThahanu ("Lion's jaw") and Suddhodana ("Pure

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rice" < OI odana < Munda) himself. 39 In Jataka 440 the Buddha himself is, like Asita, a great sage known as Kal)hapaJ:).'1ito ("Kal)ha the Wise") in a previous life. Asita is an Aryan name, but Kal)ha is non-IA (see Appendix Four, sub-section 14), and his nephew Nalaka (< 01 nar)a < Dravidian), 40 whom Asita enjoins to become a follower of the future Buddha, is also an autochthonous name. Asita/Kal)ha was the son of Disa, the slave-girl of legendary King Okkaka (< Munda),41 the progenitor of the Sakya tribe. The name Sakya is derived from the word siika, "teak tree" (< OI siika < Dravidian).42 In the Ambatfhasutta the Buddha tells the origin story of the Sakyas to Ambanha, one of the descendants of Asita/Kal)hasiri, and describes the Sakyas, who are banished to a teak forest and cohabit with their own sisters; King Okkaka says of his sons, "They are strong as teak

39 Kuiper, 1991: 14, odana = "rice-dish." Compare Kharia -u- following the u- in the prefix (the -d- > -V/- change is common, Fischel §244, 245). The meaning of ud + anka is ''up" + "hook" ( a good description of a ladle), but udanka in 01 means a "bucket or vessel (for oil but not for water)," so the derivation is flawed because of incongruent meanings. The answer to this conundrum is found earlier in the sentence where the monks, when pouring out the pot, were agitating 77 Sp

5, 112619- 21 : uttara-iifuvan ti vatta-iidhiirakarri. rajana-kumbhiyii majjhe thapetvii tarri iidhiirakarri parikkhipitvii rajanarri pakkhipiturri anujiiniimf 'ti attho. evarri hi kate rajanarri na uttarati. Translated by Homer 1830, note 5: "uttara-iifuva means a round basin. The meaning is, "I allow you to put in the dye, having placed it in the middle of the dye-pot, having enclosed that basin; having done this, the dye does not spill." 78 Ml, s.v. sthiilam vol. 3: 528. "Nicht befriedigend gedeutet" (not satisfactorily interpreted). M2, s.v. sthiilf. "Nicht sicher gedeutet" (not certainly interpreted). Although it seems to derive from OI root sthii, the word sthala with -ii- has a completely different meaning ("elevation, dry land, firm earth"). Cognate forms of the word are found in north, south and central Munda languages; these all seem to go back to a basic Munda root du! (Santali), "pour out (liquids); cast, found, mint" (Rodding vol. 2: 124). Compare Korku {hali, "metal water pot"; Santali {ukuc, "earthen pot"; Korwa theka:, "small earthen pot"; Korwa du:!, "to pour water from a pot"; Juray dttl-, "receive in cupped hands"; Sora ttdob-, "cup the hands"; Korku thara, "large, flat plate"; tha:qa, "metal plate; Santali thari, "plate"; Korku tupari, "clay bowl for eating"; Korwa tha:ri:, "big, metal plate"; Turi, therin, "eating plate"; Korku {apri, "burnt clay plate for baking."

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(avifijanti, with variants avaffanti, "moving back and forth," avinchanti, "whirling round" and avijjanti, "upsetting") the pot's liquid until the pot broke. So the Buddha allows them a small bowl with a handle (a ladle) to prevent the breaking of the pot through agitating the dye. In other words rajan(a)-u/wikarri is not in apposition to dm:u;laka-thalakarri as in the translation above ("a ladle for the dye, a scoop with a handle"), but the first compound qualifies the second as its cause, "a scoop with a handle for the (prevention of) the agitation of the die." The Dravidian word for "shaking" or "agitation" (Tamil almikulalunku, "to move, shake, be in motion; or Tutu alankuni, "agitate, move, be agitated"; see OED #203), 79 widespread in many different Dravidian languages, is then the word which became ulunka, the Dravidian short a- and the Pali short u-, being very close phonetically, approaching the schwa sound (,;1-) in rapid speech. For an example in the other direction (Dravidian u- = Pali a-) see footnote 73.

Here we have five clear examples of the translation process from Dravidian into MI. The first two involving the ambiguous desi words kmy;lusa and cimilika and their interpretation; the third revealing a misunderstanding of a native word for "dye" and its translation by MI maddana; the fourth a translation of the word "overflow" in P (uttara) plus a retention of the same word in Dravidian (aruvu; as is well known the -r- and -l- are often interchangeable in OI and MI; Bloomfield & Edgerton 1932/1979: §257; Pischel §256-257) but with a different, incorrect meaning; and the fifth a mis-translation of the Dravidian word for "agitation."

Other Technical Terminology Many of the other technical terms in this section on robe-dyeing also have an indigenous provenance, e.g. the two pots used for storing the dye, kolamba and gha/a, are both non-Aryan, 80 as, most likely, is the do~ika, 79

Some of the more striking correspondences are Tamil alalikulalwiku, "to move, shake, be in motion"; Malayalam alukkalalaliliuka, "to shake"; Kannada alaku, alagu, aluligu, "to shake, tremble"; Tuju alaguni, ''to shake";Telugu, allaliir;lu, ''to shake, tremble." 80 kolamba, "a large pot or vessel," has an or meaning, "body of the lute" (kolambaka), which is related to kafamba ("musical instrument") per Ml vol. 1: 141, 272. Kuiper (p. 26) gives it a Munda heritage, relating it to the Santali word for "swollen," r;lub (cp r;lub r;lubi, "impregnate, become enceinte") or r;lum, "having a swollen, protruding stomach"; for ghata ("pitcher, pot, water jar" or, idem), see Kuiper (p. 55) who derives it from the root gar;llgar, "receptacle into which rice to

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"trough" for dyeing the robes (note 163 and p. 115 below); czvara-vaT[lsa, "bamboo poles on which the robes were hung" (- or val'flsa, "bamboo"; cp Tamil vanci, Malayalam vanci, vanni, "rattan, bamboo, reed" < protoDravidian *vank, "to bend" Southworth 73); 81 kmp:ia, the comer of the robe (- or kan:ia, "ear"> proto-Dravidian *kerne, "upper cheek, temple, ear" per Burrow 1943: 125, note 1) 82 ; and beating a rough (pharusa) robe with one's hand (pa,:iina akotetuJ?1) to smooth it down< Dravidian, cp Tamil kuttu, "to hit," Kolami, kuf- "to pound," Kannada, kuftu, "beat, strike, pound."83 The be husked is placed." Ml, vol. 1: 355. "Unklar; vielleicht ein einheimisches Wort" (unclear; perhaps a native word). Burrow (1943: 138; 1948: 377) suggests a connection with Tamil kufam, Kannada kot;la, Tuju gur;lke, "small earthenware jar," which Mayrhofer says is more difficult to accept than the hypothesis of a Munda origin. Here, compare Bondo gagri, "earthen pitcher, water-jar"; gay-t;la, "large brass pot"; Korwa kii: AA, which is possible; however, the antiquity of the word is indicated by a nurn ber of Santali compounds which contain it, including sima daftdi, "boundary round about," simatbar, "limit boundary," and sima bonga, "boundary spirit," bonga being the name of the spirit(s) whom the Santals worship; it would be unlikely that the Santals would have included the name of their god with a word borrowed from outside the tribe. The word is also widespread across the Munda languages in the meaning "boundary, border",

says that "rough" is a developed meaning from "knotty," thus making Burrow's suggested etymology "entbehrlich" (dispensable). M2 vol. 2: 95 treats the word as !Ir or Indo-Germanic only. In the meaning "rough" the word is quite late (MBh); it occurs in the RV with the meaning "dirty-coloured" and in the AV with the meaning "knotty," so it does appear that the meanings of two or more words have converged here. In the meaning "rough" the Dravidian words are almost exact phonetic counterparts (e.g. Telugu barusu, "rough, coarse, rude, brutal"; parusapu, "hard, harsh"; berasu, "cruel, rough, not fine"). The word is well attested in PSD 1, PSD2 and PCD suggesting a lineage going back to the mid-second century BCE (Southworth p. 51).

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again suggesting antiquity (Santali sima; Turi siman; Ho sima; Sora szma; Korku siv; Kharia simana, si 'nil}; Sadri, siman). 84 The common compound pby}a-pata ("alms collection") is likely at least half a non-IA borrowing ( -!- (-1-), which is, however, common enough in or (Bloomfield and Edgerton §270-271) and the Prakrits (Fischel §240). 94

The Mahii.parinibbii.nasutta The Mahaparinibbanasutta opens a unique window on the period just three months before the Buddha's parinibbana, in the early fifth or fourth century BCE, depending on which chronology one follows (see footnote 419). It is one of the earliest and oldest of the Buddhist transmissions, with lots of later additions which help to highlight its antiquity by the incongruity of the interpolations. Von Hin-Uber suggests that parts of it may have been composed within thirty to sixty years of the events described therein (2006: 206). The sutta, which was the story of the Buddha's final passing, was evidently very popular, both in and outside of India. It is preserved in three Indic versions-Pali (Mahaparinibbanasutta, MPP, GandharI (fragments) and Sanskrit (Mahaparinirvar_iasutra, MPS)-one Tibetan version and five

the monastery, and the boundaries of the village, the town, the district, the kingdom and the ocean, making the extreme limit the world sphere or even beyond" (Nat)amoli 1975/1999: 149). 94 Ml vol. 2: 667, "Nicht eindeutig erklart ... unter diesen Umstanden ware wohl eine nicht-arische Deutung in Betracht zu ziehen." (Not unequivocally explained...under these circumstances a non-Aryan interpretation should be considered); M2 vol. 2: 369 "Schwierig" (difficult). It is an old OI word, which occurs in the late RV (10.87.10; around 1000 BCE), while the Dravidian occurrence is restricted to PSDl and PSD2 which Southworth places around 1500 BCE (p. 242), assuming no borrowing.

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Chinese. 95 Examination and comparison of these is illuminating on many different levels: l) on a textual, stylistic level, uncovering what was the core story and separating from it the later embellishments in order to establish a credible timeline of composition (Waldschmidt 1944--48; Bareau 1979); 2) on a phonological level, reconstructing parts of a common underlying source transmission, by comparing cognate words in parallel passages of the Indic versions (Levman 2019a: 89-90); and 3) studying what the actual language tells us about the Buddha's cultural legacy, by examining the etymological heritage of those words-especially the toponyms of the last locales the Buddha visited, the key, cultural symbols in the story and funerary rites-which are of non-Indo-Aryan origin-throwing light on the indigenous tradition to which the Buddha belonged and its influence on MI language and Buddhist culture. The discussion found in the MPP as to the opposition of the janapadas (monarchies or nations) and the ga,:ia-sanghas (tribal assemblies) is also reflected in the etymologies of the words. The former compound is IA in origin, the latter probably Dravidian and/or Munda. The wordga,:ia ("crowd, multitude") Kuiper derives from proto-Munda *gm;la (p. 54), "in clusters, numerous" 96 and from it may also be derived the word saYJ1gha (assembly" < saYJ1+gha/, "to assemble together") with which the word saYJ1ghiiff

95

For the Gand.harI version (from the Dharmaguptaka school) see Allon and Salomon, 2000. The Sanskrit version (from the Mulasaravastivadin school) is in Waldschmidt 1950-51. The Tibetan version (part of the Vinaya) is also in Waldschmidt, with a German translation of the Chinese translation of the Mu.lasarvastivadin K$udrakavastu, starting at T24n1451_p0382bff. Four other Chinese translations are available, listed in Waldschmidt 1944-1948. 96 The noun/verb gr;id (r;i = sound -u- in English "hut"; see page 75 above) means "multitude, crowd, heap; collect, heap up, gather" (Bedding vol. 2: 401). The root is widespread in Santali, with related words like gr;idqila ("satiated"), gr;idi, "crowded." However, Ml vol. 1: 316, says that the word "ganz unsicher bleibt" (remains quite uncertain), and "laBt sich auch nichtidg. Ursprung des schon rigvedischen Wortes nicht sicher aufzeigen" (the non-Indo Germanic origin of the word, which already appeared in the Rig Veda, cannot be shown with certainty). M2 vol. 1: 459 calls Kuiper's derivation "unglaubhaft" (not credible), but admits there is no agreement on an IA/IE etymology. There are several phonetically and semantically related words in Munda: Birhor, giidel, "crowd"; Bondo gaddi, "heap, multitude"; kupa, "heap"; Korku kando, "to heap up"; khec{e/khe{to, "to pile, to heap"; Korwa kudha:, "heap."

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("monk's outer robe," presumably from the causative verb, "to join or fasten together") is cognate. 97 Indeed, the difference between the two polities is very marked. The eastern ethnic groups had a different political system than the Aryan janapada kingdoms. In the local clans, or ga1}a-sanghas, the ruling group operated as a comm unity of equals who elected a primus-inter-pares leader to rule them. The Sakyas had no king (Oldenberg 1893, 416; Chattopadhyaya 1959: 469475; Thomas 1931: 20). The Buddha himself provides a full description of their polity at the beginning of the :tviPP, when King Ajatasattu sends his chief minister Vassakara ("rain-maker") to ask the Buddha if he will be successful in conquering the Vaijians, a confederacy of several eastern clans; the Buddha responds in the negative, praising the Vajjians for their liberal and egalitarian government process (Levman 2013: 157). He then applies their governance policies to the Sangha and notes that all will be well, if they are followed. This is very much a democratic process which contrasts markedly with the "I will destroy, I will ruin the Vaijis" (ucchecchami vajjf, vinasessami vajjf, DN 2, 73) autocracy of Ajatasattu: meeting regularly (abhi1}harri) and being in unity (samagga), not regulating what has not been regulated or rescinding what has been regulated, respecting one's elders, not 97

See Ml vol. 3: 416-17. In OI there are two verbs involved: sal'fl + han, which, in addition to meaning "to crush, to kill," also have the meaning of"to meet, encounter, put together, frame, fabricate" (p.p. sal'f/ghiita, "collection, cluster, heap"). There is also the verb sal'fl + ghat, with the same "meet, encounter" meaning, as well as "to join, to fasten together" (p.p. sal'f/ghiifa "joinery, carpentry," plus same meaning as sal'f/ghiita above), and the two, per Ml, are not to be separated. In M2, vol. 2: 801 , s. v. han, Mayrhofer asks whether the connection "durch Kontamination oder durch Einfliessen einer mit han nicht verwandten Wurzel entstanden?" (arose through contamination or through the flowing in of a root not related to han?). In addition to the Munda roots above, Dravidian has related words like Tamil calikiifam (as there is nos in proto-Dravidian or Old Tamil), "boat," referring to a boat made by joining two canoes together. Ml derives the Dravidian from IA. All a monk's robes were considered to be salighii{i (< salighiifa, "joined together"), because they were all joined together by sewing together pieces of cloth, and perhaps because it was a double robe with two layers. The salighii{i also had a special meaning as the monk's outer robe. See Vin-a-t ge 1, 271: Sanghafita-ffhena salighiifi. Vattha-kha1u;liini sibbana-kammena salighafetvii katattii "salighii{i" ti c'ivariinalfl siimafifia-niimal'fl. Jdha pana rufhiyii antara-viisaka-iidi-visesaniim-abyatiritte cfvara-visese vattati. "Sanghiitf, with the meaning of 'joined together,' because ofhavingjoined together with sewing the pieces of the cloth/garment, because of doing so, it is called salighiiti, the name given by general assent to robes. But here by tradition (rufhiyal'fl) it is used with the special sense of the robe left over after the (other robes), starting with the antara-viisaka."

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enslaving others' women and children, respecting the people's shrines and the safety and comfort of arahats. The same seven rules are adapted to the community of monks: meeting regularly, being in unity, following the precepts, respecting their leader, not succumbing to craving, being content with their forest lodgings, and maintaining mindfulness, each monastic for him/herself. The Buddha taught these principles to the Vajjis at the Sarandada shrine (sarandade cetiye, DN 2, 75 26). The fact that the monument was a shrine to a pre-Buddhist yakkha (an autochthonous, benevolent nature deity, see discussion below) is not without significance, for the organization of the Sangha is indeed modelled on the political structure of the tribes, prior to their assimilation by the immigrant Aryans; two of the most important characteristics of such structure being democratic rule and communal ownership (Chattopadyaya 1959: 483-494; Dutt 1962/2008: 87). The five variations to the spelling of the yakkha's name indicate that it is an autochthonous word, of Dravidian or Munda origin. The Cambodian recension has Sanandare, the B• Sv commentary has Saranare (2, 521, note 6), the Sanskrit version Salavrataip, 98 the Divyavadana has Salavanam (201.5) and the GandharI version has Saladhvayam. 99 The commentarial gloss acknowledges the pre-Buddhist provenance of the place: In the so-named abode, people say that before the Buddha arose, there was a shrine in this place which was the dwelling place of the yakkha Sarandada. Then they made a shrine here for the Buddha and because it was made in the place of the Sarandada shrine, it was just called the Sarandada shrine. 100

A cetiya is a funeral mound(< OI ci, "to pile up"). The Munda (Santali) word for funeral pyre is sara, from which word this place evidently took its name. 101 The Sanskrit variations appear to be attempts to adapt the indigenous phonetics to an IA meaning. J'vll>S has "vow (made at the) Sal trees (.sala-vrata)," Divyhas Sal-forest (sala-vana), and G has "a pair of Sal 98

Waldschmidt, MPS, vol. I, 19, footnote 14. Allon & Salomon, "Karo$thI fragments," 249-250 100 Sv 2, 521 28- 33 : Siirandade-cetiyeti eval/1-niimake vihiire; anuppanne kira Buddhe tattha Siirandadassa yakkhassa niviisana-ffhiinal/1 cetiyal/1 ahosi, ath 'ettha Bhagavato vihiiral/1 kiiriipesul/1, so Siirandade cetiye katattii Sarandada-cetiyan tv 'eva sankhyal/1 gato. 101 Bodding vol. 5, 196. The word dada in Santali means "elder brother," so one possible meaning would be "Elder brother's funeral pyre" (sara-n-dada); however I do not know enough Santali compound morphology to meaningfully suggest this. 99

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trees" (reading sala-dvayam for sala-dhvayam). This is also what we find in the Tibetan shin sa la gnyis po, "a pair of Sal trees." These last two names presumably refer to the place the Buddha attained parinibbiina, which was under a pair of Sal trees in a Sal grove in Upavattanatp. ( < upavatfati, "come near"), so-called because of its closeness to Kusinara (Dn 2, 1374). In any case, judging from the earlier Pali, these are just Sanskritizations and guesses.

Yakkhas The word yakkha (fem. yakkhf, OI yalcya/ya/cyl) is a broader term for an indigenous non-Aryan benevolent, local nature deity or deva conferring wealth and fertility to his/her offerants (Coomaraswamy 1971, 36; Misra 1979, 6-8). It was also a name used to designate some of the unassimilated eastern tribespeople encountered in the suttas. "We note that not only were the yakkhas non-Aryan as were the Sakyans and the other tribal peoples of the Gangetic region but that they too stemmed from the same cultural source" (Marasinghe 2007, vol. 8: 772). In the Sutta-Nipiita, the Buddha actually calls himself a yakkha, "to such an extent is the purity of a yakkha-he deserves the sacrificial cake" (Norman 2006, 55). 102 See CR 168-169 for more details). The word yakkha is clearly problematical as to etymology. MW derives it from OI yalcy, a desiderative of yah, "to be quick, speed" and Ml from Iranian "'ya!Js, "to appear" (vol. 3: l; M2 vol. 2: 391, "Weiteres ist nicht ermittelt" (anything further is not determined [than the putative IIr derivation]). But given its meaning as a nature deity who is worshipped in exchange for benefits (Regnier 1998: 54), Vimiinavatthu-affhakathii' s etymology connecting the yakkhas with the root ya}, probably from the subjunctive form ya/cyati ("one should worship, one should adore") is more appropriate. 103 Yet despite yakkha's putative IE etymology, many, even most of the yakkhas' names themselves are indigenous, suggesting that the word itself is a calque from an unknown indigenous source. Sarandada, as noted, is a Munda word. Some other indigenous yakkha names are Sakat(t)a

102

Verse 478d: ettiivatii yakkhassa suddhi-tathiigato arahati pura-fiisal'(I. Vv-a 207 B• (PTS 224) ad Vv 864b B• (PTS 859), yajanti tattha balil'(I upaharantfti yakkhii, "They make an offering (to them), they bring an oblation there = yakkhas." Here the red-eyed yakkhas are the messengers ofYama, bringing Revafi to hell. 103

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(wagon < Munda); 104 Kharadathika ("Rough tooth"); 105 Kharaloma ("Rough hair"); 106 A\avaka ("Forest-dweller"); 107 Ajakalapaka ("Goat bundle"); 108 Kakudha ("a kind of tree"); 109 Serisaka ("made of Sirisa

104

Kuiper 1955: 161. Cp Santali, Juang sagar; Birhor siigri; Bondo s:Jg:y, all with the meaning "cart." 105 For khara see Burrow 1945a: 97, who derives it from the Dravidian root kar, "hard, rough, uneven"; khara also has the meaning "donkey" (thus "donkey-tooth"), which Witzel suggests (1999: §5) is derived from an Hr substrate language from Central Asia. For diithika see Turner #6520, "possibility of further Dravidian or Munda influence can not be excluded." See Appenclix Four, subsection five, page 157. 106 The word -lama (-roma) is probably IA. Ml vol. 3: 79. 107 Cp OI iifavika, "forester," Ml vol. 1: 25, s.v. afavf, "forest": ''wohl aus dem Dravid., vgl. Tamil afavi, Telugu at;lavi (probably from the Draviclian, compare Tamil afavi, Telugu at;lavi, "forest"); from proto-south Dravidian *afar-vi, "thicket" < root *afar, "be close" per Southworth 75, a metaphorical extension of a simpler meaning (Burrow 1946: 17-8, page 34 above). This word afavi also appears in the Asokan eclicts (rock eclict 13, section M, per Hultzsch 1969: 69), referring to the forest tribes which Asoka "pacifies and converts." 108 Burrow 1948: 371 derives the word kaliipa from a Dravidian root; compare Malayalam kalappu, "the whole sum"; Kannada kalapu, "a joined or mixed state." Ml (vol. 1: 181, s.v. kalii) notes a deviation in meaning as the word in Draviclian also means "plough," while noting that the traditional derivation (kalii-apa, ''that which holds single parts together" MW) is "nicht ohne Schwierigkeit" (not without clifficulty; M2 vol. 1: 321, "Nicht geklart" not clarified). The word aja ("goat") is IA. Note also the Munda word karpa (Korku, NM), "rice bound into a bundle." 109 Kakuda (var.) is a mountain peak or summit in OI; in Pali it is also a tree, Tenninalia Arjuna, which grows in south and central India; its derivation is not clear.

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wood"); 110 Pm;9aka ("eunuch"); 111 Uppala ("Lotus"); 112 Gumbiya ("trooper"); 113 and the yakkhas' master Kuvera. 114 To be sure not all 110

OI sirz,a is the Acacia sirissa native to south India. Proto-Dravidian had no sibilant consonant so, per Burrow (1948: 395), the word is related to Tamil ucil[ai], uncil, uncil, u.rincil, Tamil tu_rinci and Kannada sirsala, sirasala, sirisa, all with the same meaning (Acacia sirissa). 111 Per Ml "wohl unarsich" (probably non-Aryan). See Burrow 1945a: 109, where he compares the word with a long list ofDravidian dialect parallels, the closest being Kannada pe1Jr/a, "woman"; also Southworth 74. Kuiper (195f) notes the connection of pa1Jr/a with the word ba1Jr/a ("defective"), which also has the meaning of "impotent.'' Wackemagel (1896: 184) calls ba1Jr/a a foreign word because of the letter b, which Witzel says is very rare in IA (p. 5), and Burrow (1946: 19) says that "it is extremely doubtful whether Indo-European possessed the letter b." Kuiper believes the word is Munda in origin. The pa1Jr;fa-ba1Jr/a alternation may simply be echo (rhyme) words. The only phonetically close word in Munda is Juang par;fu, "eunuch" (probably a loan-word) but Dravidian has a lot of related words which point to a derivation from that language. See Appendix Four, section six, page 158. 112 Most Sanskrit words for "lotus" were adopted from the local languages: aravinda, kamala, pu1Jr/anka, pu,kara, muliil'i, to name five which are discussed in Burrow 1948. The word uppala (Skt utpala, "blossom ofthe blue lotus") may be or derived, as Ml suggests a derivation from ut + pat ("to open"), or it may be derived from the Dravidian word uppala (fuju) or uppili (Tamil), "name of several plants." See CDIAL No. 627. Southworth (p. 75) discusses kamala which he derives from protoDravidian *kump/komp, ''to close (as a flower)." 113 or gulma, "troop or guard of soldiers," which Ml (vol. 1: 341) says is "wohl dravidisch" (probably Dravidian), comparing or1MI kula, ''race, family, multitude, herd" to Tamil ku_ru[vu], ku_ruu, "assembly, flock, herd, swarm" ( Burrow 1946: 23; Southworth, p. 72, who reconstructs proto-Dravidian *kU+-u). For discussion see Appendix Four, number seven, page 160. See also Burrow 1948: 377 for related words in Dravidian, Kannada gummu, "assembly"; Telugu gumi, "crowd" ; Tamil kumi, kumpu, "crowd." Although Mayrhofer relates gulma to Tamil ku_ru ("assembly, flock, herd"), OI gulma seems to be derived from a separate root represented by Tamil kumi, "to be heaped up, accumulate, crowd" and other cognates like Kannada gumi, gummi, gummu, gumme, gumpu, "heap, crowd, multitude." Interestingly, Kannada gumpu in this meaning is almost identical to Kannada gu1Jpu, "assemblage, crowd, heap," which is cognate with Tamil ku_ru (see list in Appendix Four, subsection seven); in other words, there appears to have been some cross-over between these two terms. 114 Ml vol. 1: 231 discusses both Munda and Dravidian sources. He connects it with the word kubja, "hump-backed," to which Kuiper provides a Munda derivation (p. 42) from the root kaba, "bent, crooked." Burrow (1948: 374) thinks it is derived from a proto-Dravidian word of which Kannada gubiiru, "swelling," kuppu, "abnormal swelling"; Telugu gubaka, "protuberance," are modern exemplars.

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yakkhas' names are indigenous, but most seem to be, suggesting that the yakkha culture was adopted from the indigenous peoples into IA culture.

The Afanafiyasutta (DN 32) in which the king of the Yakkhas VessavatJa (also known as Kuvera) recites verses to protect the Buddha's disciples, provides a long list ofyakkha names and places, most of which are non-IA The word Atanata is apparently the name of a place in northern Kuru (DN 3, 20024); it sounds like a Munda echo word iifii-nii/ii. While a study of the sutta would require a separate monograph, here is a (partial) list of names which are probably non-IA as they either violate the IA word structure (as outlined by Witzel in footnote 19) or they have a known, indigenous source: Tatola, Tattala, Tototala, Mucalinda, Candana, Kinnughal). Dravidian. See Appendix Four, section one, page 152. 124 Sv I, 4 !29--424 : TatthaAmbalaffhikii ti raniio uyyiinaf/1. Tassa kira dviira-samfpe tarw;a-amba-rukkho atthi, tal'/1 Ambalafthikii ti vadanti. Tassa avidure bhavattii uyyiinam pi Ambalafthikii t'eva sankhyaf/1 galaf/1. Chiiy-udaka-sampannaf/1 laf/1 piikiira-parikkhittal'/1 suyojita-dviiraf/1 maiijusii viya sugutlaf/1. Tattha raiiiio kifanaatthaf/1 patibhiina-citta-viciltaf/1 agiiraf/1 akaf/1SU. Tal'/1 Riija-agiiraka ti vuccati. "In that place, Ambalatthika was the park of the king. Near its gate was a young amba tree, which they called Ambalatthika. Because of not being far from that, the park was called Ambalatthika. It was endowed with water and shade, surrounded by a wall, furnished with a gate, and well protected like a chest. In this place they made a gaily decorated house for the amusement of the king. " The chest to which the park is likened (maiijusa) is likely cognate with Tamil maiicikam ("chest, box"; OED #4640).

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or idem (also na(la), and both were probably derived from proto-Dravidian, cp Kannada naffu, ni'inal ("reed"; Burrow 1946: 23) and/or proto-Munda *(la-(la, "bare, stalk, shaft of an arrow," with common change of (I- > n((la-(la > na-(la), although an Indo-Iranian derivation is not impossible_l25 Hsuan-tsang etymologized Na)anda as "alms without stopping" (presumably na-ala]!1-dii), but it is probably a mixed DravidiaruTA bahubbzhi, meaning "whose borders are reeds," that is, bordered by reeds (nafa-anta). 126 It is also in Na)anda in this same mango grove where the householder Kevatta ("fisherman" < non-IA) 127 asks the Bhagava to choose a monk who can perform miracles, to increase the devotion of laypeople (DN 11, Kevaffasutta).

Pataligama The Buddha and retinue next move to Pataligama. In the MPS the last two incidents (in Am balatthika and Na\anda) do not correspond. In the MPS (3. 2) the Buddha stops in a rest house hear VeQ.uya~tika ("bamboo staff," ve7:1u < Dravidian; ya#i < or "staff'; Pali yaffhi) 128 for a night and the Na)anda episode is missing entirely; he goes directly to Pataligramaka (P Pataligama). This is the village of the Patali trees (also known as the trumpet-flower tree), 125 Kuiper 81--82; Ml vol. 2: 127-29 suggests the Indo-Aryan word *nada which has been influenced by the local languages. See also Witzel §1.6, page 16. 126 DPPN, s.v. Najanda and quoted in Beal 1884: vol. 2: 167. Another possibility is the Dravidian word, Tamil natu, "to set up (as a pillar, pole, mast), plant", natal, "planting"; cognate with Tu!u niita, "pole used for a hedge, pole used for supporting a plantain tree" and Telugunii(iu, "penetrate as an arrow." 127 The word is derived from either Old Tamil or Munda, suggesting that the correct spelling (var. Kevaddha or KevaQ.9.ha) is with the retroflex -tt-. See Kuiper 1991: 27 and DED #1252 s.v.Tamil kayal, "fish" and DED #1227, Kannada kabbeya, "fisherman." The OJ equivalent kevarta ("fisherman") is ''unerklart" (unclarified) as to etymology per Ml vol. I: 267. The Santali word for fisherman is keota, kheo{ in Mundari. 128 The word ve~ ("bamboo" - Pali ve!u) is also probably non-Alyan. See Ml vol. 3: 253-54, "doch bleibt nichtarischer Ursprung moglich," (however, a non-Aryan source remains possible). H. Berger also argues for a non-IA provenance (in M I ; his article was not available to me, Wiener Zeitschrififiir die Kunde Sud- und Ostasiens und Archiv far indische Philosophie, 3, 46; see under III, 260). Southworth (220) reconstructs a proto-Dravidian root *vet-Vr-, which he suggests > 01 veta, "cane, reed" and ve(iulvenu "bamboo." The common Munda word for "bamboo" is mad, mat, mttd, ma:4_, ma:{, ma?d in the North Munda languages, which is related to Dravidian because of the commonm- >< v- interchange which happens in Dravidian (Zvelebil 1990 §1.7.8), and in OJ/MI (Bloomfield and Edgerton 1932: §223-240; Pischel §251 ). Proto-Munda had no v, so it would be heard as an allophone of m.

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another plant native to India; Pataligama became the capital of Magadha, also known as Pataliputra. The word piifali (or piifala) is of Dravidian ancestry, cognate with Tamil, Malayalam, piitiri, Tuju, Kannada piidari, Telugu piidiri ("trumpet flower tree").129 The second part of the compound -putra, per Mayrhofer, is probably derived from the or word-pufa ("pocket, fold"), referring to the seed pods of the tree, which is itself derived from the Dravidian root putai, "conceal, be concealed, cp Tamil putar, Kannada podar. ("bush, thicket"). -putra is therefore a hypersanskritism, or simply a folk etymology. So Patali-putta < Patali-puta, meaning either "thicket of Patali trees" ( 0, but c- > t- in or and MI. Southworth (p. 204) says "origin unknown." Munda has the wider distribution, but the or reference goes back to the A tharvaveda (circa 1000 BCE; cf til-pinja = tila-peja, "barren sesame"), so the source is not definitive. 201 Kuiper 1955: 167. Ml vol. 2: 80-81 treats it as an IA word, related to or diiru (''wood"); M2, vol. I, 761 (s.v. dro~za) says ''unnotig ist Annalime des Einwirkens eines nicht-idg. Wortes" (urmecessary is the assumption of the influence of a nonIndo-Germanic word). Lehmann (1998: 97) says it is a loan-word into Dravidian (1998: 97) as do Emeneau and Burrow (1962: #220). See footnote 163 for Munda derivation and Przyluski 1936: 341-44, who also links it to the Tamil word tori for a dug-out canoe and to the ancient Santali practice of placing the dead body in a canoe to ferry it to the land of the dead. 202 For sibikii, see Ml vol. 3: 339. The sauvarre ku1J2bhe is reconstructed per the Tibetan and the Divyiivadiina. For kumbha, see Ml vol. 1: 234.

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see page 148), incense (dhupair) and music (viidyaib). 203 Some of these words are vintage IA (e.g. chattra, dhupa, viidya), but most are not. The word patiikii ("banners"), for example, which might be derived from the verbal rootpat("to fly") is more likely to come from pafa, a Dravidian word for "cloth. "204 The derivation of the word stupa "bleibt unsicher" (remains uncertain) and dhvaja is also "unsicher." 205 miil(y)a is likely from the Dravidian, cp Telugu miila or Kannada male ("wreath"; Burrow 1948: 390) The language describing the funeral is mixed, most indigenous and some IA, which is exactly what you would expect for a populace that is of mixed genealogy, i.e., a native people that are in the midst of assimilation.

cela-vitiiniini & ma,;uJ.ala-miife After the Buddha's death, but prior to his cremation, the :tvrallas venerate his body for six days with" dance and song and music, with garlands and scents, making awnings and circular tents ... "206 Once again, the genealogy of the language points to some local non-IA rites, peculiar to the native, indigenous peoples. The compound cela-vitiiniini ("cloth awnings," OI caila-vitiinarri, :MPS 47.19) is derived from the Dravidian word cfla (cp Malayalam, "cloth"), 207 and the OI word vitiina, "awning" < vi + tan, 203 None ofthese instructions are in the MPP; however, the veneration with perfumes, etc. are actually carried out by the Mallas at the funeral, but before the cremation in DN 2, 159. 204 Ml vol. 2: 190 (patal:i) and 200 (patiikif). See Master 1944: 302, who derives pafa from the Dravidian, cp. paffa, pafa, par;la, "cloth" in Dravidian languages, derivatives of the words for "cotton plant," cp Kannadaparti,parti, patti, "cotton"; Tamilparutti, Tu1uparti, etc. (DED #3976). Edgerton (BHSD, 316) connects Pali pat(t)iikii, "banner," with pafa, "cloth." See footnote 60. For gandha's non-IA derivation see footnote 92, for puifpa/puppha, see page 148. 205 Ibid vol. 3: 516 for stupa; vol. 2, 118 for dhvaja!J. The word "flag" in Santali is jhanda, which may be a metathesis of dhaja. Dhaja also exists in Santali ("streamer, pennon, flag") but this may be a loan-word. 206 DN 2, 159 28-30: naccehi gftehi viiditehi miilehi gandhehi sak-karontii garukarontii miinentii pujentii cela-vitiiniini karontii mm:zr;lala-mii!iini pafiy iidentii. 207 Ml vol 1: 399, s.v. celam: "Besser aber wohl aus einem verwandtendravid. Wort, vgl. besonders mal. czla Tuch" (better though [derivation] from a related Dravidian word, especially Malayalam cf/a, "cloth"). M2, vol. 1, 545, no evident IE etymology. The word has a long history in Dravidian, going back to PSDl and PSD2 (perhaps 1500 BCE per Southworth p. 51 ), while its first appearance in MI (MPP) is around 400 BCE, and its first appearance in OI (MBh), no earlier than that and probably later. The Dravidian distribution is: Tamil, czrail czlai, "cloth, garment"; Malayalam,

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"stretch out"; mw:u;lale-miife ("a circular hall with a peaked roof, a pavilion," PED) is also non-IA in origin: mii/a < Dravidian, cp Tamil miitam, "house, hall," 208 and ma,:u;lala ("circular, round") are probably derived from Dravidian or Munda. 209 In the Sn commentary, this structure is explained as a "temporary pavilion made with a white canopy," which was also prepared by the matted hair ascetic (Jatila) KeQ.iya for the Buddha and the Sangha's invited meal in the Selasuttal'fl. 210 In the MPS (47.20), as the Mallas transport his body to Makutabandhana (see page 97 and note 144) for the final cremation, the gods rain down four types of flowers and three types of powder on the Buddha's palanquin. In MPP the only flower mentioned is the mandiirava ( I, which, although not common in Dravidian languages, is common intervocalically in MI where -/- and-!- are seldom differentiated (-t- > -1-/-f- Pischel §238, 240). In Jataka 536, which describes the fight between the Sakyas and Koliyans over the river Rohi1;ii, the Koliyans say "kola-rukkha-viisiinal'(l thiiman ca balan ca dassessiima, "We will show (the Sakyans) the strength and power of those who dwell in the Kola tree" Ja 5, 4139-rn The Tibetan word for the tree is ku-ba-la which may be borrowed from Sanskrit (- kuvala, 'jujube tree"); another word is chu '-dra-wa ("network of water"), which translates or karkandhu, "well, jujube tree." One would have assumed that the Koliyans (presumably the ancestors of the Kols) were a Munda-speaking group, but apparently their totem tree has a Dravidian provenance. The word appears to have undergone some pejoration over time, as per Bodding (vol. 3: 558) the Mlll)c;las object to the word "Kol" as a generic name for their tribes, as it recalls the Hindi word kol, "hog" (which may also be a result of pejoration of a non-IA tribal name). The Santali name for the jujube tree is r;let;lhaore, r;lir;lhguri, gt;fhg,jgnum,jgmjgnum. 229 Kuiper 1991: 14. The fruit is a bean (or, Ml, pippala), but the Munda wordpipg/, "long pepper" in Santali refers to the fruit of the piper longum tree, a long, thin catkin. According to Ml vol. 2: 285, this was probably due to a later transference and merger. M 1 says that pippala is "wohl nicht arischer Herkunft" (probably not of Aryan origin). M2, vol.2: 133, "nicht klar. Fremdwort?" (not clear, foreign word?).

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person from PippalavatI (51.20), 11PP pippalivaniya moriya refers to a particular locale, named after a scared fig forest where the Moriyan tribe (from which Asoka was descended) resided. Apparently both the peacock and the sacred fig tree (the pippala or ficus religiosus) were tribal totems. The word "Moriyan" is derived from the Pali word mora, "peacock" ( cp OI mayiira), and ultimately from Dravidian, cp Tamil mayil, Tutu mairu ("peacock") or < AA, cp Santali marak ', Mundari, mara, Kharia, mara?, Juang, marag; Korku, maral, mharal (idem).230 The priority of Dravidian or AA is impossible to determine.

Discussion What does all this prove? The toponyms certainly tell us that the villages of the Malla country had non-Aryan names, either of Munda, Dravidian or other non-IA language derivation. This is only to be expected as this part of India had not yet been fully assimilated to the Aryan hegemony, although the process was well underway. In the Sutta-Nipata, for example, the Buddha tells King Bimbisara that the Sakyas were vassals of King Pasenadi of Kosala and they clearly resented their lack of freedom. 231 But we must Kuiper 1955: 144 suggests that both fruits have the same name because of their "richr!ess in seeds or their swollen form" M 1 suggests a connection with Aramaic pilpel, Arabicfilfi/ and Latinpiper, "pepper." Per Southworth (216), the word is very ancient, going back to the Indus Valley civilization, where it is depicted frequently on seals; however, its origin is unknown. The Santali word for the ficus religiosus is hesak, the Tamil word kofi. 230 Ml vol. 2: 587; M2 vol. 2: 317, "problematisch ... unbeweisbaie Dberlegungen iiber das Verhliltnis von mayura zu der (genuine-dravid.) Sippe von Tamil mayil usw. sowie zu anklingenden 'Pfau' -Wortem in AA Sprachen" (problematic ... unprovable thoughts on the connection of mayura with the genuine Dravidian family of Tamil mayil, etc. as well as similai sounding peacock words in AA languages"; and Przyluski 1929: 131-32. Burrow 1945b: 609-10 and 1946: 19. Burrow sees no connection between the Dravidian and Munda etymons (e.g. marak' in Santali) ; nevertheless, there aie some cleai phonological similarities which Bloch has noted (in Levi et al., 1929: 53-4) as shown above. Southworth (92-3) aigues that the Dravidian derivation "satisfies both phonological and semantic criteria better than any other proposal" and reconstructs a Dravidian proto-forrn *iiam-V-1 (p. 257), which is a long way phonetically from mayura or mora. See Appendix Four, subsection twelve, page 171. For a discussion on the moriya clan, see DPPN s.v. moriya. 231 Sn verses 424-25 and even more explicitly in Mahiivastu 2, 199, "My native country, 0 King, endowed with wealth and energy on the flaJJks of the Himalayas,

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beware of reading too much significance into the toponyms in and of themselves; for how could it be otherwise? As we have stated above, India was not a linguistic vacuum when the Aryans entered the sub-continent~it had a rich indigenous culture and its own autochthonous languages and these languages certainly had a structural effect on OI and :MI through conflicting phonologies (Southworth 16); the numerous variations in the spelling of foreign words is the most visible manifestation, while the rich native, cultural tapestry woven through the Pali canon in borrowed words, though not as visible, is even more pervasive and persuasive. The vocabulary preserved in the place names tends to be conservative and long-lasting, often retaining their pedigrees long after their meaning has been forgotten. A more significant demonstration of the aboriginal cultures' influence may be found in the indigenous vocabulary and its resonance in the political, cultural and religious vectors of early Buddhism. Some of the principal points we have noted are: 1) The deep roots Buddhism has in the native sama,:ia culture of north-east India, especially with the Jatilas 2) The numerous contradictions in the early suttas between the acceptance of the local culture's religious practices and their later rejection. 3) The importation of the cfvara and kafhina robe practice into Buddhist praxis, together with all its technical practices and vocabulary. The design for the cfvara was modelled after the layout of the agricultural fields, as farmed by the native peoples. Many of the arcane words to do with robe customs can only be understood as direct importation of desi terminology into Pali, with a crude attempt to adjust the phonetics to a :MI norm. 4) The Buddha's sojourn at various yakkha shrines, autochthonous sacred places where tree devatiis were worshipped. The Buddha identifies himself with the yakkhas and calls himself one; he is himself called a cetiya by Ajatasattu's ministers (note 151). He is also associated with the aboriginal niiga cult, and is addressed as a niiga in the earliest Buddhist teachings that have survived (page 100). 5) The Buddha's association with sacred trees, starting with the Sal tree grove where he is born and dies. Every village had its own sacred grove has been caused to dwell (nivasito) among the Kosalas." nija-jana-pado rqja himavantasya piirsvatal:i dhana-vzrye,:za sampanno kosale!fu niviisito. See also the commentary to the Pali Pj 2, 385 translated in CR p. 158.

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where yakkhas and tree spirits received offerings from young maidens seeking marriage and children; and each of the clans had their own sacred tree (Regnier 1998: 54). Not only was the Sal tree venerated, so was the mandriiva (coral tree), the kapittha (Feronia elephantum tree or wood apple), the asvattha/assattha (Ficus religiosa, "holy fig tree") and the udumbara (Ficus glomerata), all of which trees appear miraculously at the Buddha's cremation (page 118). 6) The sandalwood (candana) incense was one of three powders that spontaneously fell from the heavens onto the Buddha' s funeral pyre. In the Chinese Dfrghiigama it may also have been an elixir given to the Buddha by Cunda, to prolong his life (cu,:i,:ia, "aromatic powder," above page 105). The com pound sukara-maddava ( = .§ukra-miirdava = sandalwood powder) is consistent with this interpretation and appears to be an ayurvedic, native panacea. 7) The Buddha identified with the ga,:ia-sangha political system of the eastern clans, which opposed the hegemonic designs of the western monarchies. As we have seen at the beginning of the l\1PS and l\1PP, the principles of social and political polity that he taught were adopted by the Licchavis and the Sangha itself. 8) The Buddha instructs that his funeral rites be carried out in conformity with those for a cakkavattin (OI cakravartin). Although traditionally the wheel-turning king is identified with the Aryan culture, in fact its roots cannot be located there and it is presumably both pre-Aryan and preBuddhist (and probably of indigenous origin).232 9) Other funereal customs, which are definitely non-Aryan and can be attributed to the aboriginal peoples, include wrapping the Buddha' s body in a native cotton kappiisa cloth five hundred times, placing the body in a local sesame-oil vat, holding a public festival honouring the Buddha's body with awnings and tents, song and dance, placement of the bones in a golden urn, their seven-day veneration, and their internment in a round stupa at a public crossroads, etc. The key vocabulary terms are all non-Aryan and indicate not just the source of the borrowing, but also the importance of the ritual in the pre-Buddhist, non-Aryan tribal culture from which they were taken. 10) Most of the Buddha's relics go to the eastern tribes~the Buddha's Sakyas, the Mallas of Pav a and Kusinara, Koliyans, the Bulis, the Licchavis 232 See discussion in Levman, CR 19-22. Przyluski (1927: 180--84) argues that the cakkavattin myth had a Babylonian source. See page 131.

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and the Moliyas. Of the kingdoms, only Magadha gets a share, with nothing to the kingdom of Kosala; the Brahm ans of Vethadipa get one share and the Brahman D01.).a gets the urn; the latter two are presumably converts to the Buddha's teachings. 11) As we have seen, most of the key words for trees and places, cultural symbols and customs associated with these religious and political ideologies are aboriginal in origin and have been adopted by the Buddha and Sangha as their own. Perhaps continued or renewed by the Buddha would be a more accurate rendition of the facts. The early thought of Buddhism is firmly rooted in a native cultural context, which is not to take away from the Buddha's brilliant innovation in the technology of liberative eschatology, but simply to acknowledge his roots and continuing lineage among the tribal Dravidian and Munda speaking peoples of ancient India.

Caution What objections might be raised against this scenario which foregrounds the Buddha's autochthonous roots? One might argue that our preoccupation with origins has led us to superimpose a narrative structure on the Buddha's life and death story, which has an inadequate factual basis; although there is only limited overt data to support the thesis of the Buddha as a member of the autochthonous peoples, the opposite position, that the Buddha was a khattiya prince and a natural by-product of the Brahman iisrama system, is clearly a later overprint, a historicization made up by later writers like Asvagho~a who, in his Buddhacarita, represented the Buddha as the "crowning and consummation of the Brahmanical religion" (Olivelle 2008 : xix). There are two objections here, one, that we don't know because of lack of data and two, that the stories we create are manufactured. Indeed, the hard data about the Buddha's life and death is very limited and it can be demonstrated that the ancient-and some modem-biographies of the Buddha have been overprinted with a strong Brahmanical bias. One Canadian scholar has argued that the Buddha is a wholly fictitious character, that is, that he never existed.233 The ancient biographies of the Buddha-the Buddhacarita, the Lalitavistara and the Nidiinakathii-all represent the Buddha as a leading light in the Brahmanical culture and one who is thoroughly entrenched in its traditions; yet in the earliest biographical data we possess on the Buddha' s life-in the Ariyapariyesaniisutta - none of this

233

See Drewes 2017 and a response in Levman 2019b and Wynne 2019.

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is evident. 234 Asvagho~a, as is well known, was a Brahman convert to Buddhism; writing for other Brahmans, his bias is obvious. Buddhaghosa was also a Brahman convert, and a similar prejudice may be postulated of the other ancient and modem authors for what Wedermeyer calls a "methodological solipsism," that is, reliance on past authorities which colours the true interpretation of a source document and superimposes material that is not there; these authors are all writing several centuries after the Buddha's passing in an increasingly dominant pan-Indic Brahmanical political and cultural milieu. 235 Is the MPP/MPS narrative of the Buddha's passing also a biased account, written by the Buddha's aboriginal disciples? Is it a Middle Indic translation of an originally Munda, Dravidian or TibetoBurman work? To be sure, one can identify an anti-Brahmanical bias in the narrative right from the beginning. As is well known, the story starts with the Brahman Vassakara's visit to the Buddha on behalf of King Ajatasattu, to ascertain whether the latter will be successful in his aggression against the Vajjis, a kingdom attacking a gw_1a-sangha republic. The Buddha says he will not prevail as long as the Vajjis practice the seven principles not causing loss or ruin (ime satta aparihaniye dhamme, DN 2, 7526- 27) that he has taught them. Although the Buddha never overtly takes sides in these territorial disputes between the kingdoms and the republics, it is clear where his sympathies lie; as we have indicated above, most of his relics go to the clans and it is not without significance that this is where he returns to die. Also of note is that the person who serves the Buddha his last meal (Cunda, a kumara-putto, "son of a smith") is of the lower caste; as is Pukkusa the

234 Translated in Nal)amoli & BocThi 1995: 256. Here the Buddha tells us in one sentence how he began his search for enlightenment: "Later, while still young, a black-haired young man endowed with the blessing of youth, in the prime of life, though my mother and father wished otherwise and wept with tearful faces, I shaved off my hair and beard, put on the yellow robe, and went forth from the home life into homelessness." MN 1, 16327- 31 : So kho aha/fl bhikkhave aparena samayena daharo va samiino susu kiifakeso bhadrena yobbanena samanniigato pathamena vayasii akiimakiinalfl miitii-pitunnalfl assu-mukhiinalfl rudantiinalfl kesa-massulfl ohiiretvii kiisiiyiini vatthiini acchiide Iva agiirasmii anagiiriyalfl pabba)ilfl. 235 For methodological solipsism with respect to tantric history, see Wedermeyer 2013: 5. For some modem examples of historicizing the Buddha's alleged Brabrnanical background, see footnotes 8, 9, and IO in CR, pages 9-10

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Malla, who was from the pukkusa caste of refuse cleaners;236 a former student of Ajara Kalama, he is converted by the Buddha due to the thunderstorm story, discussed above (page 108). None of these are Brahmans, nor arguably is Subhadda, the Buddha's last convert, despite Buddhaghosa's gloss that he "had renounced from a wealthy Brahman family in the north."237 In the :tvlPP he is called a paribbiijako ("wandering mendicant") who lived in Kusinara, and in the :MPS, a parivriijaka(b) vrddho mahallaka/:l ("wandering mendicant, old, an old man") living in KusinagarI; he is 120 years old and well-respected by the Mallas of the city, considered to be an arahat 238 In Tibetan he is called a kun tu rgyu ("wanderer"), and it is only in the two Chinese translations where he is identified as a "Brahman" (J;t;t; (fanzhi), or "student of non-Buddhist teachings"(~¥, yi xue), as well as a "non-Buddhist" (:Jr@, waidao) who could "recite the Vedas" (tffi [9 ~Ut~, song si pi tu6 jfng). 239 Yet his doubt about which he questioned the Buddha does not relate to the Brahmanical teachings, which one would have expected, but to the doctrines of six local teachers, PG.rana Kassapa, who taught the doctrine of akirya-viida (no karma); Makkhali Gosala, who taught the control of fate or destiny and denied free will; Ajita Kesakambalo, a nihilist; Pakudha Kaccayana, who also denied the validity of moral choice; Sanjaya Belatthiputta, the sceptic and former teacher of Sariputra and Mahamaudgalyayana, and Nigm.J.tho Nataputto, the Jain leader. His questions and the fact that he was venerated by the Mallas (who rejected the AI caste system) as an arahat, suggest that Subhadda was not a Brahman, but an indigenous holy man. The Brahmanical four va111a system is only alluded to in the :tv1PP/1v!PS (:MPS 32.29-32 and :tvlPP DN 2, 145 17) , and the order of the first two classes 236

See footnote 180. See AN 1, 16217 where the pukkusas are put at the bottom of the caste structure: Khattiye briihmm.ze vesse sudde cm:u;liila-pukkuse, translated by Woodward 1932/2000, vol. 1: 145 "Noble or brahmin, merchant, serf, or casteless, - just a mean scavenger," with a footnote on ca1_u;liila-pukkusa where he calls the latter two "enslaved aborigines to whom the meanest tasks were given," with a reference to Rhys-Davids 1903: 55, who describes these two as the most despised of the low tribes. 237 Sv 2, 5883-4: udicca-briihmm:za-mahiisiila-k:ulii pabbajito channa-paribbiijako. The final compound means that he was not an Ajwaka, that is, he did not go naked but was "covered." 238 MPS 40.2, reconstructed after the Tibetan: sa vi(msati-sata-vyaskal:z kausiniigarii~af!l malliiniif!l sat-krto gurn-krto miinitafz pujito 'rhan saf!imatafz. 239 See the D"irghiigama (f 0 1n000 I __p0025a02) for the first; the version by an unknown translator (f0ln0006__p0187b06) for ~,f,, and Fa xian' s translation for

the second (f0ln0007__p0203b25). Waldschmidt 1944-48: 225-26.

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are inverted (khattiya-briihma,:ia), with the lower two classes grouped as gaha-pati ("householders") and a fifth group added, the sama,:ias. Although the Buddha did not identify as a khattiya, he is often so-called by others (as in the episode with the division of the relics), and in other parts of the suttas, when he does mention the var,:ias, he always places the khattiyas first.240 In the ga,:ia-sangha republics, the talk is only of high and low castes (ucciiand nicca-kula), not of the var,:ias. The Buddha did not subscribe to the Brahmanical caste system (CR, 158-62). In the Sundarikabhiiradviijasutta of the Sutta-Nipiita, one of the earliest Buddhist works, the Buddha denies belonging to any social class: Na briihmal'Jo no 'mhi na riijaputto, na vessiiyano uda koci no 'mhi, gottar{l parinniiya puthujjaniinar{l akincano manta cariimi toke. Sn 455.

I am certainly not a Brahman, nor a prince, nor a vessa nor am I anyone [else]. Knowing [and renouncing] the clan of the common people, I wander in the world, possessing nothing, [being a] thinker (Norman 2006: 54). The commentary glosses the phrase "nor a prince" with khattiyo n 'amhi ("I am not a khattiya"; Pj II 2, 40213) , although in the context it is obvious that the Buddha is denying being of that class. The khattiya designation was applied to the Buddha and the tribes by the Brahmans; it was another attempt to assimilate the eastern clans into the Brahmanical establishment (see CR 158-159 for further on this and references). Skilling (2020: 133-34, note 12) points out one reference in the Pali suttas (Mahiipadiinasutta, DN 2, 39 11) where the Buddha declares himself born a khattiya (along with all the other Buddhas of the past), but this does not invalidate the statement that the Buddha did not identify himself as part of the Brahmanical va,:i,:ia system, even ifhe speaks these words (or the words are put into this mouth) on this one occasion. The sutta is a late one (Pande 1974: 94; Norman 1983: 36), and the Brahmanical aspects of it (including the "Brahmanical" Great Man legend, and VipassI's Brahmanical ancestry) point to an overprint, that is, a later interpolation. The Sutta-Nipiita is recognized by scholars as one of the earliest of Buddhist suttas. One might then argue for an anti-Brahmanical, pro-tribal bias in the text, and further adduce the large number of linguistically aboriginal toponyms and cultural terms as additional evidence for this position; with the significant caveat that the linguistic evidence can not have the same 24

°For example DN 3, 826-

7

,

theAgannasutta and MN 2, 1285-, the Ka1J1Jakatthalasutta.

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intentional validity as the narrative material, being a kind of subtle and stable substratum preserved in the collective linguistic sub-conscious, and not therefore deliberate or manipulated. Equally puzzling in trying to determine the question of bias is the personage of the cakkavattin ("wheelroller" or world ruler), with whom the Buddha identifies himself, and in whose funereal instructions are found, according to Bareau, one of the oldest kernels of the original text (1979 64). Although the Buddhists themselves identify the cakkavattin as a primordial Brahmanical king, in fact his pedigree cannot be accounted for outside the Buddhist suttas,241 that is, its source in the Vedic tradition cannot be located. In fact no one seems to know where the myth comes from, and even a Babylonian source has been posited by Przyluski, who notes the similarity of the cakka-vattin Mahasudassana's capital KusavatI (in the Mahasudasssana sutta, DN 17) to ancient Babylonian cities (1927: 180-84). When all the facts are considered, one concludes that the mahapurisa Great Man motif was a preAryan indigenous cultural tradition co-opted by the Buddhists and given a Brahman source in order to gain acceptance for their new religion among the dominant cultural group (CR, p. 162-65). This is a later stratum in the suttas; the earliest suttas, like the Sutta-Nipata and the 11:PP are distinctly anti-Brahmanical. This study has identified several different chronological strata, ranging from an anti-Brahmanical bias apparent in the early suttas; a pro-indigenous slant, as in the story of the Jatila KmJha' s attendance at the Buddha's birth in the Sutta-Nipata or the adoption of sama,:ia practices in the Vinaya; the redefinition of key Brahmanical terms (like what constitutes a "Brahman") in early works like the Dhammapada; a later rejection of the local indigenous culture as heterodox; and in the later suttas, a more explicit adoption of the culture and religious values of Brahmanism, e.g. the Mahapurisa "Vedic" myth. Indeed, one could do a whole study of the chronological strata of the Buddhistsuttas, based on just this one factor, its changing engagement with Brahmanism over time.

241

See for example, the Brahmiiyusutta, MN 2, 13415- 29, trans. in NaJ;lamoli & Bodhi, 1995: 744, for the standard trope. In this sutta the Brahman Brahmayu sends his student Uttara to find out if the Buddha has the 32 marks of a Great Man, and says that "the thirty-two marks of a Great Man have been handed down in our hymns (mantesu), and the Great Man who is endowed with them has only two possible destinies, no other - a wheel turning monarch or a Fully Enlightened One." iigatiini kho, tiita Uttara, amhiikarµ mantesu dva-ttirµsa mahii-purisa-lakkhmJiini, yehi samanniigatassa mahii-purisassa dveyva gatiyo bhavanti anaimii. - sace agiirarµ ajjhiivasati, riijii hoti cakka-vattf ... sace kho pana agiirasmii anagiiriyarµ p abbajati, araharµ hoti sammii-sambuddho.

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To some extent the interpretation we choose of the Buddha's life and death has to do with our own presuppositions, theoretical frameworks and normative postures, that is, to the story we wish to tell. The lvlPP/tv!PS is a narrative that can be interpreted either way, with the Buddha seen as a leading light of Brahmanism, whom India's most powerful kings consult, and for whose relics one (Ajatasattu) is prepared to go to war; or he can be portrayed as the epitome of the eastern clans, showing a strong spirit of independence of mind and culture; or somewhere in between, a leader at the crossroads between two cultures with a foot in each. It is the first position that most scholars of the nineteenth and twentieth century have adopted; as I have argued, the :MPP/tv!PS have a significant amount of evidence to the contrary. That this position is not just an arbitrary set of prejudices superimposed on the data is proved by the underlying linguistic data; it permeates the narrative in the place names and sacred mythology, as an unconscious imprint of another culture which is neither fabricated nor susceptible to the narrator's bias. It has long been assumed that the roots of Buddhism lay in the Indo-Aryan

culture. Now that scholars are beginning to see the extensive influence of the local culture on the founding ideas of the religion, and understand the significant lexemic, specialist content in the teachings which reflect preBuddhist, native belief systems, perhaps it is time to re-evaluate an old paradigm and shift it to a more inclusive model-a model which includes the rich, local cultural tradition reflected in a rich linguistic tradition, which, though lost, has been preserved so widely in :tvlI borrowings that its influence is pervasive and undeniable. Although we still know very little about the complete picture, at least we are beginning to understand that it is incomplete and where to look, which is perhaps more than we knew before; and this awareness of our own ignorance might motivate us to explore heretofore inconceivable propositions, like an autochthonous origin of Buddhism, appropriated by the Indo-Aryan immigrants and translated into :tvll, some of the residue of which we see in this chapter. Not that I am asserting such; but I believe the groundwork has been laid for such a proposition to be further investigated and considered by historians of Buddhism's roots in India.

Linguistic vs Cultural Influence Although few dispute the influence of the Dravidian language on IndoAryan, there are still objections that can be raised to the principal thesis of this section: that the linguistic influence represents a cultural influence. One

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reviewer commented that English has imported many words from Latin, but that does not mean that the language has also imported the customs associated with the word. This also brings up the question oftimeline: these words may have been imported hundreds of years before the Buddha' s ministry (fifth-fourth centuries BCE) and been part of established usage in IA when the Buddha used them; therefore the inference that usage means an adoption of customs may be unproven and perhaps unprovable. Southworth has tried to deal with some of these issues in his Chapter on "The Social Context of Linguistic Convergence" (Chapter Four, pp. 98125). There he attempts to define the intensity, range and dynamics of contact and the relationship among the different groups involved. Some of his conclusions salient to this discussion are: 1) structural convergence reflects symbiotic relationships between ethnolinguistic groups, in which the borrowing group identifies itself as part of the same society as the other group. 2) such a convergence represents at least a partial loss of separate ethnolinguistic identity on the part of the borrowing group. 3) intermarriage and intrafamilial bilingualism are important social mechanisms promoting linguistic convergence but do not tell the whole story; economic interdependence is a more potent force. 4) words borrowed which have a religious significance are often avoided as they carry notions of cultural or linguistic purity; where they are borrowed, it indicates that other parts of the "convergence continuum" (lexical content, grammatical structure, prefixes, function words, phonology, etc.,) show a higher level of borrowed elements (p. 122-23). As I have already noted above, borrowing of place names and names for biota is what would be expected when an immigrating people encounters places, plants and animals that they are unfamiliar with; by itself it does not necessarily indicate any high degree of linguistic convergence. But in the case of the Dravidian/Inda-Aryan contact the relationship goes far beyond that. For in Pali we find a lot of word-borrowing which has religious implications. Without attempting to be comprehensive (as that should be the subject of a separate monograph), I list only a few of the kinds of words adopted into Pali:

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1) technical terms connected with the making of robes, like kafhina, which practice is a religious term for a robe-making ceremony as well as the instrument by which robes are made. 2) the particular technical terminology for the design and manufacture of the robes, whereby they are a metaphor for the local agricultural design and practice. 3) the names of the robes and materials themselves (like cfvara, dussa, pafa, cfra, siifikii, etc.) which are borrowed from the Dravidian language, while IA terms are not used. 4) words designating the means of exchange in a robe fund (cfvaracetiipanarri), which are mostly of Dravidian extraction.

5) words for the colours used to dye the robes like kasiiya, etc., and the pots used for storing the dyes. 6) words for the materials from which a robe could or could not be made, like viifa-kambala-cfra (see page 143 below). 7) words from native religious belief systems, like the Jatila sama,yas who were, right from the Buddha's birth, an integral part of his heritage. 8) words for the meal-ticket practice (saliikii-bhattarri) used by the monks to allot and distribute food. 242 9) a large number of technical "Dhamma" words in Pali which have no IA provenance, like sfmii, pi,:u;la, phalarri, piili, bija, kasi,:Ja, etc. All of this only scratches the proverbial surface. But it does show significant borrowing of important religious terminology, which, taking everything else 242 The word sali.iki.i (01 sali.iki.i) was a wood chip or splinter from a tree, or (when called a pa/tika), made from a reed or leaf, on which a meal was written. They were placed in a basket, mixed up, and the monks would pick in the order of seniority, receiving that meal which the sali.iki.i or pa/tiki.i referred to. See the Sali.ikabhattakathi.i in the Vin commentary for more details (starting at Sv 6, 1261 ). P a/tiki.i, also spelled pa/ika, comes from the word pa/a ("cloth," page 61 above); sali.iki.i is likely an Munda word (Gonda 1932: 332-34). See Ml vol. 2: 314, who connects it to the word saral:z ("reed, arrow," p. 306) and is unsure of whether the derivation is IA or Munda, but says that it is "Wahrscheinlicher aber arisch" (but more likely Aryan). Kuiper takes it as Munda-derived (I 955: 167). Turner (CDIAL 12353, referring to the word salyaka, "porcupine") considers it ''possibly connected with a word or words of non-Aryan origin."

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into consideration-the anti-Brahrnanical bias and the extensive influence of the autochthonous socio-politico-cultural beliefs outlined above-may be interpreted as the adoption of cultural values. As Southworth opined, word borrowing in the religious sphere does indeed point to a "higher level of borrowed elements," that is, structural convergence, which has been outlined by Emeneau (see his collection of earlier essays on this subject, compiled in 1980) and is the subject of the next chapter; function-word convergence, like the quotative marker, discussed in detail by Kuiper (1967 91-95); and phonological convergence (voiced and unvoiced consonant interchange, retroflex consonant borrowing, echo words), which I have discussed in my 2014 monograph (Chapters Ten and Eleven) and summarized in CR (149-52). There is another issue which is significant which Deshpande pointed out to me (personal communication): changing percentage of loans over time indicates greater and greater influence of the borrowed group on the borrower. Witzel (1999: 14-20) maintains that most, if not all Dravidian words entered the Rig Veda only in the middle and later period-starting with the second book of the RV around 1500-1350 BCE-and continued in post Rig Vedic texts; he notes an increasing amount of Dravidian words in post-Vedic texts (quoting Burrow 1955/1973 385-86)243 and an increasing amount of non-IA designations for agriculture and other occupations (Witzel 36). This observation is consistent with the results of this study, where many of the borrowed words are post-Vedic and their first occurrence is in Pali, or-since absolute dating is impossible-they occur in Pali apparently at the same time as in later Sanskrit works like ]\![anu and J\iIBh. They also occur in the earliest Prakrit inscriptions, the Asokan rock edicts, often at the same time as their appearance in Pali and before or simultaneous with their appearance in Skt. While no comprehensive list of Dravidian words in the Asoka edicts has been drawn up that I am aware of, I cite a few

243

Burrow notes that "the majority are post-Vedic ... there is a small nucleus already found in the Rgveda ... the large majority first appear in the classical language, but in its early stage, being first recorded in Pat)ini, Patafijali,Mahabharata, Srautasutra, etc. The majority appear also in Pali, which is important for dating since these canonical texts take us back to a period from 500-300 B.C ... the main influence of Dravidian on Indo-Aryan was concentrated at a particular historical period, namely between the late Vedic period and the formation of the classical language." (385386)

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in the notes to show that Dravidian influence appears to have been fairly widespread by this time. 244 The issue of timelines is nevertheless a sticky wicket. Those borrowed words which go back to Rig Vedic time may indeed have been part of the Buddha's cultural heritage as a member of the Sakya tribe. :tvrany, however, make their first advent quite late in OI and are preceded or occur at the same time in Pali, so one might argue that their appearance here confirms the adoption of the words and such customs they represent by the Buddha and his followers. Take the first word on the list above (kathina). It first appears in OI literature in the l\1Bh (with the meaning "earthen vessel"). Pfu).ini refers to it (4.4. 72) as having the meaning "thicket." Its etymon kaffu appears in the earliest Dravidian work, the Tolki.ippiyam (3.2.1618), with the meaning "tie, bind, fix," which appears to be the root meaning of the word (see Appendix 4, #15 for a full discussion (page 177). It first appears in Pali in the Khandhaka, that collection of rules and stories (Mahiivagga and Cullavagga) that Frauwallner argues goes back to the second council, 100 years after the Buddha's death (1956: 67). So the word may well have been imported for the first time into :tv1I at the time of the Buddha. But even if it entered :tvlI hundreds of years before the Buddha, one can still not escape the fact that a native word for a religious ceremony was used by the Buddha for a similar custom. The Buddha could have used a word from the Aryan culture, but he chose an indigenous one. There are several other factors which tend to confirm that the importation of at least a significant amount of non-Aryan words was coeval with the com position of the Buddhist suttas: 244 For example, taking five references at random from Woolner 1924 1) akhakhase (''not harsh" in Dhauli Separate Edict 1, 22) - Skt karkasa ("hard, harsh") - Pali kakkasa, kakkhafa, kakkhata ("rough, hard, harsh"). BUITow (1945: 97) traces the word to the Dravidian root kar- ("hard, rough, uneven"). The first occUITence in Skt is in the Susruta, portions of which are perhaps mid-first millennium BCE. 2) afavi, ("forest, forest tribes," Sh 8 and M 13), see footnote 107. The first 01 appearance dates to Manu and MBh (iifavika, "forester"). 3) acarru;/af'!l ("not passionate, patient" inJaugada Sep. Ed. I, 11) - Nepalija~f{a ("hot-tempered, fierce) per Kuiper (1948a: 136; 1950: 6), both the Prakrit and Nepali words are derived from proto-Munda. First appearance in OI is in the MBh. 4) capalaf'!l ("sinner; waverer, fickle-minded" in Kausarnbi Pillar Edict I, 4 and others). See page 96 for discussion on the indigenous shrine Capala < Munda capar, "possessed by a spirit." First OI appearance (capala, "shaking") is in the MBh. 5) kapote (''pigeon" in Topra Pillar Edict V, 6). Per Witzel (54-55) this word originates from Central Asia, the so-called Bactria-Margiana region (2100-1900 BCE), with an original meaning of "blue" (*kapauta). Its first appearance in 01 is in the Rig Veda (kapota). It appears in Pali in the Jatakas.

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1) a large number of non-IA hapax legomena present in some Buddhist poems suggest that a unique Dravidian > Pali "translation event" was taking place (Levman 2021d: 22). 2) the practice of using non-IA technical terminology instead of Sanskrit words in certain technical situations. 3) the practice of "double translation" ( discussed above, as for example in the compound uttara-ii/upa, page 69), where obscure words and compounds describing the kathina ceremony can only be understood by explicating the Pali word as an adoption and adaptation of a Dravidian original. 4) the presence of terms in the poems which are not MI but appear to be direct lifts from Dravidian (Levman 202le: 24; Levman 202le: 38). 5) the large spike in non-IA derived terms proportionate to IA derived terminology in certain technical descriptions of the Brahmajiilasutta (Levm an 2021 a: 36). 6) The names of many monks in the early poems of the Theragatha which are of Dravidian ancestry or of mixed Dravidian and IA background (Levman 2021 d: 24). 7) Extensive evidence of bilingualism em bedded in the composition of certain early poems like the Brahmajiilasutta, miila text and commentary (Levman 2021a). The most important question is the extent of the influence of indigenous customs (as reflected in the language borrowings) on Indo-Aryan language and religion. Ideally we could say that such-and-such words were introduced into Pali from the Dravidian or Munda languages by the Buddha and such-and-such customs were inherited, but that is clearly impossible. Since language transmission is such a complicated issue, the only certainty we can have is with a hapax legomenon (since it only entered the language once), but exactly when that was we can only estimate within a century or two. The inheritance of cultural features is even more complex; hopefully some of the determining factors have been demonstrated in this section. Another conundrum: if the Buddha taught in Dravidian and/or Munda languages why do we have no record of such? The answer can only be that it was lost. While Munda-speaking groups had no literary records until modem times, Dravidian has works going back to around the mid first millennium BCE (the Tolkiippiyam grammar) which presupposes a literary history much earlier than the grammar itself. Judging by the history of the Pali transmission, it appears that writing down of religious works was not a common phenomenon in India until around the first century BCE. They were only preserved orally, as the written language-which at that time (pre-first century BCE) was mainly used for government and trade-was apparently not considered a suitable language for sacred teachings, where the sound itself was often considered to be as important as the meaning. The Asokan inscriptions provide good evidence of writing for administrative

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purposes and can be dated with confidence to the mid third century BCE. The Sanchi and Bharhut inscriptions ( early second century), dated shortly after the Asokan ones, are the first :tv1I inscriptions we have of a religious nature (although Asoka does touch on religion in a few places). At around the same time or shortly before, we have the Jaina dedicatory cave inscriptions written in Old Tamil, (Solomon 1998 35; :tviahadevan 1995 178; Mahadevan 2020: 120-22 for dates; 357-551 for transcriptions and translations); these are the earliest writings of a religious nature found in the Dravidian part of southern India. Based on the inscriptional evidence it is reasonable to infer the existence of an oral transmission of Jaina and Buddhist works, and their eventual commitment to writing. Nevertheless, since nothing survives today, any written form was probably lost. I say "probably" because there is a large group of gathas preserved in the commentaries and in works like Milindapaiiha where the provenance of the poems has never been discovered in any other Pali work (Rhys Davids 1890: xxxi-xxxvi marks 88 as untraced; Homer 1963: xii notes 60 untraced). So it is certainly possible that some of these were translations from lost works in an indigenous language like Old Tamil, or even Munda, in an oral form. There are also a number of untraced gatha quotes in the Pali commentaries that come up now and then; but I am unfamiliar with any central repository or list of these. Recently, for example, Gamage has written about some extra-canonical stanzas attributed to KajudayI (Theragatha vv. 527-536) which only appear in the Buddhava]!lsa and Apadana commentaries (2020), and not in the canon itself. KajudayI was a Sakyan who was born on the same day as the Buddha and grew up as his playfellow (DPPN). The first part of his name, ka/a ("black"), which refers to his dark complexion, is a Dravidian word. 245 The second word, udiiyin, is fancifully related in the commentary to the whole town's heart being happy on the day he was born, a folk etymology. 246 More likely the second word in the compound is an IA adaptation of the Dravidian ufal, ufar, "body, birth," and his name means "black body." 247 Perhaps these extra-canonical stanzas were originally composed in Dravidian and later translated into Pali, and that is the reason 245

See footnote 38 and Appendix Four, number 14, page 174; Th-a 221 17- 18 : Thokal"(I kiifa-dhcitukattii pana Kiifudiiyf ti pafmayittha, "because of his body being a little black he was kno-wn as ' Kajudayi."' 246 Th-a 2, 221 16-17: sakala-nagarassa udagga-citta-divasejiitattii Udiiy"i tveva niimal"(I akal"(lsu, "they named him Udayi because of his birth on a day when the whole to-wn's heart was happy." 247 DED # 586: Tamil utallutar, "body, birth"; Malayalam utal, "body, trunk, life"; Kannada ot;lal, "body, belly, stomach"; Tu!u ut;lalu, ut;liilu, ot;liilu, "belly, stomach"; Telugu ot;lalu, o!!u, "body." Dravidian intervocalic stops are voiced.

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why they were not considered canonical? But that is the subject of a separate article (now under publication as Levman 2021d). Chapter Four is a continuation of the discussion on the influence of the indigenous languages on Inda-Aryan, specifically in terms of certain structural and syntactical peculiarities in Pali which may be traced to their usage in the Dravidian languages. Chapter Five is an article written in 2011 about the meaning of the word "mw:u;la" in OI and Pali. It is a non-Aryan word, most likely Austro-Asiatic,

with many meanings, including some very pejorative ones which were used to describe the Buddha, and his followers by identifying them with the nonIA, non-Brahmanical Munda-speaking tribes. In this section, the word "Munda" has three principal usages: as an ancient and modem name for the AA language groups of northeast and eastern India; as a disparaging insult to the Buddha and his followers (mw:u;la or mw_u;laka); and as a tribal name for Munda-speaking non-IA indigenous peoples ("MUI).gas" or the near homonym "PUI).gras"), which rejected the Brahmanical way of life. There are other meanings as well, and they will all be discussed in that chapter.

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Appendix One from Chao 1973: 17.

The pattern of a Five-khal}.4a Civara from the inside.

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6. maI?,qala anuvivatta 7. atthakusi 8. kusi 9. anuvata 10. loops 11. tags

According to Vajirafia1_1avarorasa, the five-kha,:icja (five-piece) crvara was the minimum number of pieces necessary to manufacture a robe (1973: 15): The cfvara should be cut in the pattern of the paddy-fields ofMagadha, that is to say, it is composed of panels divided by strips. The large panels are called mandala and the smaller panels, affhamandala. There are dividing strips like the banks across the fields, these being called affhakusi. The mai:u,iala, affhama,:u;lala and the affhakusi, are together called a kha,:u;la ( or section). Between each kha,:u;la there are dividing strips like the long banks of a field which are called kusi. A cfvara must have, not less than five kha,:u;la, but more than this can be used provided that the numbers of them are irregular - seven, nine, eleven. Many khaiJi;/a may be used when a bhikkhu cannot find large pieces of cloth. The cloth around the edges of the cfvara is called the anuviita or border. These khai;i;la have yet other, names: the middle kha1_1da is called vivaffa, and the two kha1_1da to either side of it are the anuvivaffa. Again, when the c fvara has five khanda, the middle one is named gfveyyaka because when a bhikkhu wears the cfvara, the affhama1_1dala of that kha1_1da is to the neck. The kha1_1da on both sides next

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to this are called theja!Jgheyyaka because the atthamawJala of those two are at the shin when a bhikkhu wears the robe. And the last two kha!J,Ja on the outside are called the biihanta because their a//hama!J,Jala are at the arm when the robe is worn.

Appendix Two Some additional indigenous terms in the Cfvara-kkhandhaka

Atireka-c'ivara-kathii ("Talk on extra robes"), Patches Here the Buddha praises a certain monk for repairing his robe with patches (aggala, see footnote 73, which argues for a Dravidian derivation), telling the monks to find these patches at a shopkeeper's (papa,:zike ussaho, kara,:zfyo, "effort should be made (to find these scraps for patches) at a shopkeeper's Vin 1, 290 15). The word may be derived from 01 pa,:zi, "bargainer, miser"< Munda per Kuiper 1955: 168). 248

Different cloths the monks are allowed In the Nisidana-adi-anujanana section ("Allowance for a sitting cloth, etc.") the Bhagava allows an "itch-cloth covering" (kaw;lu-paficchadi) to monks who are suffering from a cutaneous illness. The Bhagava lists five conditions: anujanami bhikkhave yassa ka,:z(ju va pi/aka va assavo va thullakacchu va abadho ka,:z(ju-pa/icchadiT[l ("Monks, 1 allow an itch-cloth covering for whoever has an itch, or a boil or a suppuration or a large scab or an illness"; Vin 1, 2964- 5) , of which three are Dravidian technical terms. For the word ka,:z(ju ("itch") see page 68. pi/aka ("boil," 01 pi(jaka, "small boil, pimple, pustule") is "nicht sicher gedeutet" (not interpreted with certainty, Ml vol. 2: 273); Kuiper argues for a Munda derivation (p. 142£); Burrow 1944: 354; 1948: 384 takes it from the Dravidian, cp Tutu pufla, pofla, "blister, pustule"). In the compound thulla-kacchu ("large scab"), kacchu derives from the Dravidian (Burrow 1943: 133), cp Kannadakaccu, karcu, "to bite, sting, smart" and several other examples; while thulla (var. !hula)< 01 "big, thick, dense" < stha, "stand firmly, remain." The other two words are of IA vintage, assava ("outflow, discharge, suppuration," 01 248

Burrow, however, suggests a Dravidian ancestry (1945a: 108, cp Tamil pu!Jai, "pledge, bargain"); however the meaning is not quite right and Ml, s.v. pa!Jate, ("barter, purchase") says the derivation is "unbefriedigend" (unsatisfactory; vol. 2: 195). Here he gives a rather tortuous derivation ofpa!Jate as a MI form ofa nasal verb *pr-!Zii-ti, related to Indo-Germanic *pel- "to achieve, earn."

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iisrava < ii + sru, "to flow from") and iibiidho, "an illness, distress" < ii + biidh, "to oppress, pain, torment."

The mukha-punchana-co/am which Migaramata gives the Buddha is a cloth for wiping one's face. Mukha is a word of Dravidian provenance (see footnote 46) and co/a/co/aka (P "cloth," or co(ja/co(jaka, "jacket") derives from the proto-Dravidian word for "rind, bark", cp Tamil coli, Malayalam tali (Burrow 1948: 379); see also Ml vol. 1: 400, "Wohl unarsich; vielleicht aus dravidischen Wortem fur Rinde," probably non-Aryan; perhaps from the Dravidian words for rind; co/a/co/aka presumably originally referred to the bark-cloth ascetics' garments (diiru-cfriya < cfra, "fibre, strip, bark"< cfvara, see above 62). The word punchana is IA, < P punchati, "wipe off' ~ Olpra + unch, "to efface." The khoma-pilotikii was a linen cloth given by Rojo the Malian to his friend Ananda. P pilotikii is "a small piece of cloth, a rag"~ 01 ploti, "thread" (< pra + uta, p.p. of ve, "to weave") ; P khoma, "linen"~ OI lcyauma, "linen, made of linen"< k.rumii, "linen" is perhaps, along with umii, "flax," from a foreign source, the Indo-Germanic connections are very questionable (Ml vol. 1: 292, 108). Levi (1923: 33; also Levi et al. 1929: 98) suggests its origin from Chinese hu-ma, "flax." The thavikii = "knapsack, purse, bag" ~ or sthavikii < sthivi "sack, bushel, ear" is also probably of foreign origin ("unklar," unclear, Ml vol. 3: 530). It was another item the monks needed for their requisites.

Different robe materials In the Kusa-cfriidi-pafikkhepa-kathii ("Story of the objection to k.usa grass robes, etc.") the Buddha gives a list of robe materials which are prohibited to the monks for the manufacture of their robes. tena kho pana samayena afifiataro bhikkhu kusa-c°iraf/1 niviisetvii-la-viikacfraJ?1 niviisetvii, phalaka-cfraJ?1 niviisetvii, kesa-kambalaf/1 niviisetvii, viifakambalaf/1 niviisetvii, uluka-pakkhaf/1 niviisetvii-la-ajina-kkhipaf/1 niviisetvii yena bhagavii tenupasalikami, ... (Vin I , 3 05 31H 5)

The word cfrarri is a short form for cfvara111 (see page 62 above). Most of the other words are non-IA terms. Kusa grass (cp 01 k.usa) is the sacred grass used at various religious ceremonies by Brahmans, so it is understandable why the Buddha would not want monks to use it as a robe material (for Munda derivation see footnote 194). Viika-cfra111 is the bark garment which we have encountered before with Bahiya Daruciriya the

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bark-cloth ascetic (page 59). The word vaka is a local desi word for "bark," cognate with OI valka, "bast, bast fiber" and both may be AA loan-words (Ml vol. 3: 164, Kuiper 1948b: 400). Cp Santali bakla, bak'lak, bak 'la:(7); Kharia, Mundari bakla; Korku bu?; Korwa bakala; all with the meaning "bark."249 The phalaka-cfra was another "bark-cloth ascetic's robe," but made from phalaka, which was also a piece of bark or bast (Cone, definition 4); presumably then, this word has the same derivation as P phala, "fruit," with an IA -ka suffix added on to adjectivize it. It comes from the Dravidian (see Appendix Four, number sixteen, page 179). A kesa-kambala-cfra is a robe made from a blanket of human hair, per Sv 2, 35627 (manussa-kesehi kata-kambalaf!l) The word kambala is a common Munda word (see footnote 52). The origin of kesa (OI kesa, "hair") is unclear. 250 A va/a-kambala-cfra is a snakeskin robe or a robe made from a beast of prey (P vii/a, 01 vya(ja, "snake, beast of prey"). Note that vii/a and vala ("horse-hair tail" - OI vala) are different words. The derivation of both are not clear (Ml vol. 3: 192, s.v. vara; vol. 3: 276, s.v. vyala) and a mixing appears to have taken place. One tfka, for example, defines it as a robe made by sewing together hair from yak tails (vala-kambalanti camarf-valehi viiyitva kata-kambalaf!l, Vin-a-tB< 2, 377); per Sv 2, 3574- 5 it is a robe made from horses' tails (assa-valehi kata-kambalaf!l), while the meaning of vii/a (with vocalic-!-) suggests a robe made from snakeskins or from the hides of beasts of prey. The word vala may be derived from Dravidian, cp Tamil val, "tail"; valam, "tail, hair of head"; Malayalam val, "tail"; Kannada bala, "tail, long hair"; Ko ajina. Two other robe materials are mentioned in this section, which the Buddha prohibits: a robe made from akka-nafa and one made from potthaka. The word akka (01 arka) refers to the Calotropis Gigantea plant, which yields a durable fibre that can be used for anything from ropes or robes to carpets. It is Dravidian in provenance, cp Tamil erukku, Malayalam erikku, Kannada erke, ekke,yakka, etc. (Burrow 1946: 16; Ml vol. 1: 50; M2 vol. 1: 113-14; Southworth 81); the word nafa ("stalk, tube") also has a Dravidian source (see above page 90). The usual meaning of potthaka is "book" (01 pustaka, idem) but it appears quite late in the canon in that sense; here it refers to a robe material made of makaci (a species of hemp) bark fibres (Cone, 537). Since one of the first writing materials was bark, potthakalpustaka in the meaning of "robe material'' may well go back to the Iranian word for bark, post (Ml vol. 2: 319), giving it an old IIr pedigree. Other robe types, which the naked ascetic (acelo) Kassapa asks the Buddha about in the Mahas"ihanadasutta (DN 1, 16627- 29), include robes made of coarse hemp (sariani or masariani), robes made from the clothes of corpses (chava-dussani), robes taken from a dust heap (par[lsu-kiilani, see footnote 62 above) and robes made from the bark of the Symplocos racemosa tree (tir"i/ani). The word saria (01 saria) is the representative of a culture-word family ("Kulturwort-Sippe") per Mayrhofer, which has its origins in the Ural mountain range (Ml vol. 3: 292), often occurring with a velar consonant in the anlaut. This has suggested a foreign origin to some linguists, like Burrow, who compares it to Tamil carial, cariappu, Kannadasariabu, Telugujanumu, "hemp." The word masaria is a "coarse cloth of interwoven hemp and other materials" (PED; no or parallel) which the commentary calls "mixed cloth" (missaka-cofani, var. -cel(!)ani, Sv 2, 35619- 20). Its etymology is unknown,

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probably a dialect word per PTS, but the word used to define it, cela, has a Dravidian provenance (page 46 above). The word for cloth, dussa ("cloth"), has a foreign origin (page 65) and the word chava ("corpse" - or sava) may also be non-IA. Mayrhofer derives it from svi ("to swell") because of what happens to a corpse upon death, and does not like the closer Dravidian meaning (Ml vol. 3: 315-16), cp Tamil cii, "to die," ciivu, "death"; Kui siiva, "to die, death"; Kannada say, "to die" siivu, "death, a corpse"; Ko *man > may(-il) (p. 92). The postulated earlier form also has a series of cognates in Dravidian languages with the same meaning of "peacock," e.g., Tamil namali, naviram; Kannada naval, etc.; Tuju neyilu, navilu; Telugu nammi, nemilli, nemmi; Kolami namlf, lamni; Nailqi manli, lamli; these also have a wide distribution in PSDl, PSD2, and PCD. The Tamil form namali also appears to be related to the verb root, *nem-ir, "to raise, straighten, extend, unfold," which may be the core meaning of the term, referring to the expanding of the peacock's tail to its full arc. Of the two forms (namali and mayil) only the latter appears in the Tolkiippiyam (3.9.45, v. 1536, mayil, "peacock"). Per M 1 vol. 2: 5 86-87 there are two roots may0 , mar' which may themselves be both borrowed from a foreign source. For the may0 root we get Tamil mayil, etc., as above. From the mar0 root, we get words such as 01 maruka ("peacock") and the various AA words which seem to be the source of the 01. Santali Mundari Korku Juray (Sora SM) Juang (CM) Kharia Bodo-Gadaba (SM)

mara, marak, "peacock" mara mara, mara}, mhara}, mara, -mar marag mara}, miizur, miijur

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The Munda languages show more consistency than the Dravidian and a proto-fonn is easily reconstructed as *mara. But it is not clear how *mara evolved to the various Dravidian forms. Witzel (pp. 16; 31-2) postulates a northern Indus form *mayur, which gave rise the Vedic mayiira and a southern fonn *mayillr, which gave rise to the Dravidian forms first listed, and suggests the earlier form ParaMunda "'mara gave rise to both of these (p. 13), presumably by (2) > -ayii-l-ayi-, which is unusual to say the least. Presumably then, the alternate Dravidian form (*nam-V-l), is from a separate root, or, as Southworth suggests, was itself the earlier source of both of these (as he suggests may(-il) < *man- < *nam-). There is also the possibility that the roots originally referred to a colour, or the sound of the peacock's cry (cp 01 miiyu, "bleating, bellowing, lowing, roaring"), which Witzel suggests comes from the ParaMunda root *ra'k, "to cry" (page 15). Amongst all this uncertainty, what is certain is that mayiira is a non-IA root.

13) OI tumba, "gourd, Lagenaria vulgaris; milk-pail"; P tumba, "gourd, Lagenaria vulgaris, a kind of vessel"; see page 102. Osada (2009: 138-139) uses the case of tumba as an example of a word which some scholars have claimed to have an AA heritage (Przyluski (1926: 155-57; Mayrhofer, MI vol. 1: 513, "wohl mundid" probably from Munda), which (Osada asserts) it probably lacks. He gives both Dravidian and Munda phonetically similar words and suggests that it means that they are loan-words from Indo-Aryan (citing a personal communication from G. Anderson, p. 139).

Dravidian Tamil Malayalam Kannada Telugu Gondi

tumpi, "calabash, Lagenaria vulgaris" tumbam, "a long gourd" tumbi, tumba, "gourd, Lagenaria vulgaris" tumbamu, tumbi, tummi "gourd vine" tumma, "gourd, gourd vessel"

Munda Santali Mundari Ho Korku

tumba, "a gourd bottle" tumba, "a gourd bottle" tumba, "a big gourd" thumba*, "water bottle made of a hollowed gourd"

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tii:bi:*, "gourd" tumba, "round gourd" tumbci-n "calabash, shell of a gourd" tttw;*, "bottle gourd" tttw;*, tt1011*, "bottle gourd" tumba, "gourd, gourd vessel"

The first appearance of Dravidian tumpi is in the Tolkcippiyam (3.9.31, v. 1522), albeit in the meaning "beetle" (which presumably has a body shaped like a gourd). While the Dravidian word occurrences are restricted to PSDl languages, the Munda words show a much wider distribution; Munda has four words in NM (Santali, Mundari/Ho, Korku and Korwa), one in CM (Kharia) and three in SM (Sora, Juray and Bondo). 262 One major problem of attributing these words to an or source is the timing. Based on their wide distribution, the Munda exemplars have a lineage extending back to approx. mid-second millennium BCE, unless there is significant language diffusion between the different sub-groups (see Southworth 2009: 105-108 on the problem of semantic diffusion). Southworth places the lineage of PSDl also around this time, that is, between 1500 BCE and 1000 BCE (2005: 195). The first appearance ofor tumba is quite late in or, most occurrences being medieval; the earliest r can find is tumbf in the MBh, where a lute body is described as a gourd (PW). For tumba to have an IE lineage, there would have to be an Ur source from which the word was derived, which was earlier than the Munda or Dravidian ones. However such a source is lacking. Of course it is possible that both Dravidian tumpi, etc., and Munda tumba are derived from a common source which predates both, that is, one of the languages of the Indus Valley civilization as the ultimate source. But the proximate source for both Dravidian and OVMI seems to be Munda, on the basis of the facts we possess. Although Osada criticizes Kuiper, principally for his use of expressives as phonological variants (p. 140), this is certainly not the case in this derivation.

14) or lq-.r,:ia, "black; black antelope"; MI km:zha, "black"; or kcila, black; MI kcila, idem. See page 51 and footnote 39.

262

The words marked with an asterisk(*) were not in Osada 2009: 139; they were added in from MED.

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According to Pokorny, there are three phonetically similar IE roots for the word "black": kel-, ker- and kers-. The first kel- is the source of the Gk K£2azv6r;-, kelain6s, "black" and possibly 01 kala (see below), "black," via kalanka, "spot, stain," or kardama, idem. See Ml vol. 1: 203; Pokorny 1959-69: 547-48. The second ker- is the source of 01 kara/a, "dark-red" and also possibly kardama, as above. It is also the source of k:ulunga, "antelope". Pokorny p. 573-574. The third IE radical is kers-, the source of 01 kr$1JG, "black" which presumably is cognate with the root kr$, "to draw oneself along, drag," although the meaning is incongruent. Ml, vol. 1: 264 gives a number of cognates in Old Church Slavonic, Lithuania and Swedish, and M2, vol. 2: 398 some possible cognates in late Avestan and Old Iranian, which are not convincing because of the lack of an 01 root (Pokorny p. 583). On the other hand there are a lot of phonetically similar Dravidian words. For kala Mayrhofer cites Kittel 1894: XXVIII, Bloch 1930: 738; Burrow 1946: 16, who all derive the word from Dravidian cognates: Tamil Kannada

Toda Tu)u Telugu Man9a (PSD2) Kuwi

ka_r (kaD, "blackness; blemish, fault, defect" ka_rakam, "blackness" ka.r, ka(iu, "blackness, black" ka.rgu, kargu, "to turn black" ka.r, "black, dark" ka.rpu, "blackness, black spot" kay ma(i, kaye ma(i, "the black-headed one" kari, kaJi, "blackish" kale, "dark-skinned buffalow" ka.r, "black" karindi, "black" karia, kadia, karia, "black kar-(-it-) "to become black kiirlya, "black"

Mayrhofer concludes '\vohl ein Lehnwort aus dem Dravidischen" (probably a loan-word from Dravidian). M2, vol. 1: 343 says "nicht sicher erklart" (not certainly explained), while acknowledging (with Bloch) that the primary fmm of the word is with the retroflex, that is P kaJa, with P kala, and 01 kala being later forms. The earliest appearance of kala in 01 is in the

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Ramayana, which is probably no earlier than the early-mid first millennium (seventh-fifth century?) BCE, where it appears in its non-retroflexed form.

In addition to this root which had a long -ii- preceding a voiced retroflex fricative ~r- (*kiir- or *kiil), proto-Dravidian had another root meaning "black," with a short -a- and normal -r- (*kar-). A few examples are listed here: Tamil karu, "black"; kari, "to become black"; Malayalam, Tu\u kari, karu, "black, charcoal"; Kota kar, "black"; with a very wide distribution (OED #1278) including PSDl, PSD2, and central Dravidian Parji ker, kerv, "to burn"; Gadba karv, "to bum"; and a third root with a short -a- and an alveolar stop -r.- (*kar.-; also written *ka{-) which per Zvelebil (1990 § 1.7.2) is weakened intervocalically to a tap or trill. A few examples include: Tamil, kar_u, "to grow black, darken, become impure"; Malayalam, kar_a, "blackness, spot, stain"; kar_u, "black"; kiiru, "darkness, black, cloud"; Kota, karp, "blackness, a demon"; kar, "black"; also with a very wide distribution (OED #1395), and central Dravidian Parji and Gadba kari, "rust." In addition to these three roots Dravidian has another phonetically similar root whose basic meaning seems to be "black antelope" and from there has taken on the more general meaning of"black":

Kolami Parji Gadba Gondi Kui Kuwi Malayalam

kori, "antelope" kuri, "antelope" kuruy, "deer" kurs (pl. kursk), "deer, antelope" kruhu, krusu (pl. kruska), "barking deer, jungle sheep" kluhu, kruhu (pl. kruska), kurhu "antelope" kilran, "hog -deer"

The PD root appears to be *kurs- or *krus-. Cognate with this term is OI kuranga, "a species of antelope; antelope or deer in general" and kr,gia, whose first appearance in OI is in the RV, with meaning "antelope" in RV 10.94.5; in the meaning "black" it occurs at RV 8.85.14. Both these books are in Witzel's "Level III or late books" (p. 14), believed to date from around 1000 BCE. It is impossible to know which is earlier. Kittel felt that krsra was derived from the same source as kiil(!)a (1894: XXVlII), but the situation seems more subtle than that. There are four different roots in proto-Dravidian, the first three denoting "black" (*kiir-or *kiil; *kar-; *kar.-) and the last connoting the colour by association with the

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black antelope (*kurs-). The branching of PD into PSDl, PSD2, and PCD (perhaps around 1500-2000 BCE per Southworth p. 51) probably preceded the appearance of the RV by a few centuries. The RV in its present form dates to around 1400 BCE for its oldest parts (Witzel's "level I") and 1000 BCE for its youngest. Dravidian words do not even begin to appear in the RV until level II, which is towards the middle of this period. Witzel notes that in the older RV one finds very few cases of non-IA (i e not intemallyconditioned) retroflexes (and none of them from Dravidian); later he notes a "remarkable" increase in books one and ten, two of the latest books, undoubtedly because of the importation of so many Dravidian words. One must assume that because of their unfamiliarity with retroflex, and alveolar consonants and fricatives that the two unfamiliar PD sounds *ku_r- and *kar.were combined with the one familiar sound *kar, to produce a composite sound *kiil-, where the retroflexes and alveolars were eliminated and -r- > -l-, a common enough O1/MI change usually associated with the eastern Prakrits (Pischel §256, 257); however, as Bloomfield and Edgerton note, the numerous rll variants are purely phonetic as "the same word is spelled with r or l," with a tendency towards l in the younger Vedic texts, which is indeed the case here (1932/1979: §257). Similarly the word kr,p:w seems to have resulted from the opposite process: the -ur- in the PD word *kurs-, influenced by its retroflex and alveolar near homonyms *ku_r- and *kar.-, was retroflexed > -r- and it entrained the -s- and subsequent suffix -na in the retroflex place of articulation, viz., kurs > krs > krs + na > krs + ,:ia > krsria. Or alternately, the OI retroflexion rule was operant at the time this word was adopted, which required the retroflexion of -s- > -s- after k(u)rand -n- > -ri- after -s-, with the -r- > -r- regressively retroflexed after -s,:ia. Of course this is all hypothetical. But the four different Dravidian roots, three of which are very widespread, make a very good argument for an OI < Dravidian borrowing.

15) OI kathina, "hard, firm, stiff; difficult; harsh, cruel; strap or pole for carrying burdens"; Pali idem, "hard, firm, stiff; harsh, cruel; cotton cloth supplied by the laity for robes; stiff wooden frame to which the cloth is fastened when it is stitched to avoid stretching the fabric at the comers." See page 64 and footnote 66. AMg kw;lhina. In the technical sense of an apparatus for stretching cloth and making robes, the oldest appearance is in the Vinaya, which may be dated to the oral tradition at the time of the Buddha, approx. fifth-early fourth century BCE, the manufacture of robes being an integral part of the monkhood and a

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practice carried over from the indigenous peoples. Although a verb has been manufactured to explain its derivation (kath "to live in distress") it is not attested anywhere and its first occunence in OI with the meaning "difficult" is quite late, in the Pancatantra (late first millennium BCE at the earliest) and Meghadilta, around fourth to fifth centmy CE. It occurs in the MBh in a different meaning "earthen vessel for cooking" and in PaQ.ini with the meaning of "thicket" ("Dickicht," PW). On the other hand its occunence in Dravidian is quite old and extensive, assuming that OVP kathina does go back to this root, i.e. "to tie, fasten, build, wear, put on" etc. (DED #1147). This meaning fits very well with the Pali meaning of the term kathina, as a structure to which cloth is bound to facilitate the manufacture of monks' robes. Its meaning in the sense of "difficult, firm, harsh" etc. would therefore be a metaphorical extension in the sense of our English metaphor "in a bind" and suchlike others. However there is an identical word in OT kattu, with a related meaning ("to harden") from which Bunow (1948: 368) and Southworth (p. 75), derive the word, with the postulated PD root *katt "harden" (DED #1148). The words are clearly related, although DED gives them separate entries. The meaning "to tie, fasten, etc." seems to fit the meaning of kathina better than the meaning "to harden." Incongruous OI meanings like "vessel for cooking, pole for carrying burdens, species of betel," seem to be the result of contamination from other words. Here is a sampling of some of the Dravidian cognates to show distribution. Tamil Malayalam Kata Toda

Ko nilaiyila, "those which do not sustain." variya = appellative noun ( var;itu) in third person plural neuter ending. e!]a, complementizer nokku, class 5 verb "look at, see, consider, reflect" nokka, infinitive

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denominative + denominative + infinitive. 31. ulaiya vfftirku uruti aki having the strength of salvation which cannot be ruined, aki = absolutive, "having been." ulai, class 4 verb "to perish, be ruined, be agitated, wander about" ulaiya, negative adjectival participle with last syllable> 0. (ulaiyata > ulaiya). neg. peyareccam + absolutive.

32. nalvakai viiymaikkuc carpu ifa!J aki, having the four kinds of sublime truths and the twelve links of dependent origination carpiu, < class 4 verb car, "to depend on," carpu, verbal noun aki, absolutive. verbal noun + absolutive. 33. aintu vakaik kantattu amaiti aki having the union of the five kinds of aggregates aki, absolutive.

34.mey vakai aru valakku mukam eyti, having acquired the six kinds of truth and the nature of the ancient practice, eytu, class 5 verb, "to obtain, attain, acquire"> eyti, absolutive, "having acquired." absolutive. 35. nayankaJ na!Jkal paya!JkaJ eyti having attained the benefit with the four kinds of causal relations eyti, absolutive, "having attained." 36. iya!)_ra nalvakaiyal vi!Ja vifai ufaittiiy, possessing the four kinds of questions and answers associated with (these truths) iyal, class 3 verb, perf. stem iya!Jru > adj. part. iya!Jra, "associated with, constituted of, made of." ufaittiiy, ufai, denominative verb, "having, possessing" (as above). adj. part. (peyareccam) + denominative.

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37. ni[lmati itJ!i ujpii,tu i!).[ip

No formation, no cessation i!Jri ''without", an appellative (denominative) absolutive < appellative root il ("non-existence"), known as a kurippu-vi[lai-y-eccam ("verbal participle of an appellative verb"). tit. "having been non-existent." pafu verbal noun< pafu, class 6 verb, "to come into existence" appellative (denominative) absolutive x two+ verbal noun. 38. pi!Jpiikku allatu po!)rak kefii.tay

nothing but succession, no complete annihilation pi!Jpokku, noun "succession" < class 11 verb po, "to go" in non-past stem pokk-, verbal noun (pi[l-, noun "that which is subsequent in time") po!Jra < po!Jru, class 5 verb, infinitive used adverbially ketatiiy < ketu, class 6 verb, "to perish, be destroyed, annihilated" ketatiiy, neg. part. noun kefiitu + adverbial suffix iiy, > kefatay "not being destroyed, not perishing." verbal noun + infinitive + negative participial noun. 39. pa1;11;1unar if:irip pa1;11;1ap pafiitay, without doers/makers, and possessing the quality that it cannot be made pm:r,:iu class 5 verb, "to make, produce, accomplish" > pm:11:iunar, participial noun 3rd pers. plural hon. pa,:i,:ia, infinitive. i!Jri, ''without"; appellative absolutive (see above). pafiitu, neg. participial noun, ending in -atu (neuter sing.) preceded by negativizer -a- + adverbial suffl.X -iiy, i.e. pafu + neg. marker -a-+ neuter sing. -atu + adv. suffix -iiy > pafatiiy, class 6 passivizing verb + class 5 verb pa,:iriu in infinitive form pariria > "that which cannot be made." part. noun + appellative absolutive + neg. participial noun in passive with infinitive pariria. 40. yii[lum i!).[i e!J[latum i!)ri no I, no mine appellative (denominative) absolutive (twice). 41. piJ!)atum i!)ri vantatum i!)ri

no gomg, no commg po, class 4/5 verb > po[latu participial noun 3rd pers. neuter va, class 13 verb, to come vantatu, participial noun, 3rd person neuter.

participial noun + appellative absolutive + participial noun + appellative absolutive.

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42. mutittalum iori mufivum iori which cannot be terminated, and which does not have an end mufittal, class 11 verb, mufi, "to finish, end, terminate, to destroy ( caus)" verbal noun. mufivu, verbal noun from muti, class 4 verb, "to end" (intransitive) verbal noun+ appellative absolutive (twice) + verbal noun. 43. vi!]aiyum paya!]um pirappum vffum liberation from the bondage of karma, fruit of one's action and birth pi}:"appu, verbal noun < pira, class 4 verb, "to be born." 44. i[_1aiyaoa elliim tii!]e iikiya the nidiinas of dependent origination ("things of this kind") being the all itself iikiya, adj. part. (peyareccam). i!]ai, '\mion, conjunction, resemblance"+ a!] (phonetic augment)+ a> i!]aiya!Ja appellative, "they who are in conjunction, things of this kind," noun/denominative verb in neuter plural. denominative verb (appellative verb)+ adj. participle. 45. petaimai ceykai w:iarve aruvuru The list of 12 nidiinas: ignorance (petaimai); actionfdeed (ceykai); consciousness (w:iarvu); formless-form (aruvuru)

Mm petaimai, ignorance ceykai, action, deed w:iarve, consciousness aruvuru, formless, form vavil, five organs of sense iiru, body nukarvu, sensation vefkai, desire varru grasping pavam, becoming torram, birth vinaivvavan, fruit of past actions

Traditional Buddhism avi;;a, ignorance sankhiira, mental intention (also action, deed) vinnii,:iarri, consciousness niima-riipa, name and form (mind and body) sa/iivatana1J1, six sense bases vhasso, contact vedanii, sensation ta,:ihii, craving uviidiina grasping bhava1J1, becoming ;ati, birth iariimara,:ia, old age and death

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ceykai, verbal noun from class l verb cey w1arve, verbal noun from class 4 verb Uflar, "to be conscious" two verbal nouns. 46. viiyil ure nukarve vetkai five organs of sense (viiyil); body (iiru); sensation (nukarvu); desire (vetkai) nukarve, verbal noun from class 4 verb nukar, "to enjoy, to experience" vgfkai, verbal noun from class 9 verb veJ, "to desire" two verbal nouns. 4 7. parre pavame torram vivaippaya!] grasping (parru); becoming (pavam); birth (torram); fruit of past karma (vi!]aippayav) parre verbal noun from class 5 verb parru, "to grasp" torram verbal noun< class 5 verb to!Jru (allomorph torru) "to appear, to be born", verbal noun two verbal nouns.

48. i_rru e!)a vakutta iyalpu fr arum They are of such a nature; thus (e!Ja) having classified the nature of the twelve (links), i.rru, finite verb, "it is of such a nature." eva, quotative marker vaku, class 11 verb, "to separate, divide, apportion, classify," vakutt- perf. stem, vakutta, adjectival participle. iyalpu, verbal noun< class verb 3/5 verb iyal, "to be possible, to happen" finite verb+ quotative marker+ adj. part. (peyareccam) + verbal noun 49. pirantiJr ariyi!) perumperu arikuvar If those who were born come to know they will realize great merit. ari "to know" + -i!J, conditional marker, "if it is known" pira, class 4 verb, "to be born; to be produced, to be expressed, to be derived from" pirantu, past stem, p[rantor, 3rd pl. honorific, finite verb or participial noun, "those who were born." arikuvar, class 4 verb (ari), non-past stem arikuv- (-ku- is euphonic) "they know" finite verb. participial noun + conditional participle+ finite verb.

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50. ariyar ayin al naraku arikuvar if they do not know they will come to know of deep hell. ariyar, non-past participial noun in neg. 3rd pers. plural ar_i + -a- (neg. marker) + -ar (3rd pl. ending) > ariyar. iiyin, conditional adverbial participle, "if it becomes." al= class 4 verb, "to sink, plunge, dive," used as an adjective modifying naraku. arikuvar, class 4 verb, non-past stem arikuv- (-ku- indicates only a finite verb is possible), "they know"; finite verb. neg. participial noun + conditional participle +root+ finite verb. The following is a list of the verb forms in the above: 2 finite verb forms sentence final (ar_ikuvar in lines 49 and 50, "they will realize" or "they will come to know"), and one finite verb embedded (irru in line 48, "they are of such a nature") 38 absolutive forms (including 2 conditional forms) 25 verbal nouns 14 peyareccams or adnominal adjectival participles. 13 denominative verbs, formed from nouns with personal endings (also called appellative nouns in traditional OT grammar) 9 participial nouns 8 infinitives 5 verbal roots For a total of 115 verb forms, comparing with "only" 36 verb forms in the Buddhaghosa poem; adjusting this for length (since the Mm is 50 lines compared to 40 lines for the former poem, that is, 20 verses x 2 lines per verse), the verb ratio would 45: 115 (Sv: Mm) or .9 verbal forms per line in the Pali poem vs. 2.3 verbal forms in the Old Tamil poem. This disproportion is partly an artifact of counting, as in Mm all nominal forms which derive from a verbal base have been counted, while in Sv only those that have a primary verbal meaning are included; secondly, Mm contains 13 denominative forms which are rare in Pali. which would tend to use an adjectival or nominal form. The reader will notice that Mm uses absolutives much more often than Sv, which tends to use past participles in their place. The form corresponding to the past participle in OVMI is the peyareccam in OT ("that which requires a noun to complete it") or adnominal adj. participle which can be both past and non-past and is usually active, not passive, and, unlike the OVMI past

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participle, is indeclinable. It is primarily verbal in meaning, usually modifying a noun and/or governing a sub-clause. Tue participial noun form in OT is more or less equivalent to a present or past active participle in OI/MI, except that in OT they can also have the same form as a finite verb (although they do not act as such in this case); the verbal nouns in OT are similar to what I have called a "gerund" in MI, e.g. vandana, "praising," a noun formed from a verb with and -ing ending or vaha, "bringing, instilling." Roots and infinitives have quite a different usage in OT from MI; whereas in OI/MI verbal roots are very seldomly used by themselves, in OT they may "substitute for any non-verbal form in any type of subordination" (Wilden 2018: 106). Here they are the first word in a compound noun (lines 7, 8, 20, 50) in all cases,267 except for line 21. The primary function of the infinitive itself seems to be to introduce a subordinate resultative clause (lines 9, 18, 19, 20, 24; Wilden 2018: 92) or to act as an adverb (lines 12, 38). In lines 23 and 48 the infinitive e!J:.a, "to say" introduces the direct teachings of the Buddha as a quote, like (i)ti in OI/MI. Although it comes from the verb e!b "to say", traditional grammarians view this word as a particle, introducing a quotative subordinate clause, or a complementizer ("thus," as in lines 3, 30) not as a verb form (and it has not been counted here as a verb). Although composed in two completely different language groups-IndoAryan and Dravidian-the similarities between these passages are quite remarkable. They are both introductions to longer Buddhist works consisting of one long sentence with (an) embedded direct quote(s), the narrative propelled by a series of non-finite absolutives, participles, and other non-finite forms. The relative/correlative structure, so common in Pali is used rarely by Buddhaghosa (twice) and not at all by the author of Mm. The coordinating particle ca occurs only three times in the Pali text while the conjunctive/coordinating particle -um occurs several times in OT in coordinating non-finite clauses. Both display very similar parallel "linking" syntactical structures where the action moves inexorably forward through non-finite continuant verbs, building to the same climactic conclusion, the promise of future explanation of the material that has been introduced and the great merit of understanding the Buddha's teachings.

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Called a vi!}ai-t-tokai, "a compound in which the verbal root forms the first component," per the Tamil Lexicon, p. 3738.

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Tamilization Other scholars have also noted what they call the "Tamilization" of Pali, that is the structural alteration of the language due to the influence of Dravidian languages. De Vreese (1980) argues that the loss of the relative/correlative structure in the Pali of the commentaries and their replacement by participial constructions is a direct result of the influence (via Sinahlese) of Tamil, which favours participial constructions (pryareccam or adjectival participle and vif]aiyeccam, adverbial participle or absolutive) for subordinate clauses. De Vreese felt that this was a late phenomenon which he attributed to the fifth and sixth centuries CE; however, it appears to have occurred much earlier. The construction which de Vreese identified (1980: 183-84)-past participle with an agent in the genitive, replacing a relative/correlative clause-also features prominently in the Tipifaka, e.g. in the Vinaya Kathinakkhandhako of the Mahiivagga: bhikkhu atthata-kafhino kata-cfvaralfl iidiiya pakkamati ("A bhikkhu, for whom the kafhina is spread, after receiving the robe which was made, goes away... "), Vin l 25523 . Here there are two subordinate clauses, formed with past participles, equivalent to the pryareccam in OT (atthata-kafhino, a bahubbfhi of appurtenance in the dative or genitive, yassa kafhino atthato, so bhikkhu atthata-kafhino, "for whom the kafhina has been spread" and kata-cfvaralfl, "a robe which was made"), and an adverbial subordinate clause, equivalent to the vif}aiyeccam in OT ("after receiving the robe ... "). In total the compound occurs 26 times in the Mahiivagga. Presumably de Vreese would argue that this indicates the lateness of the text; however the Mahavagga is considered by most scholars to be quite an ancient transmission (as for example, Frauwallner 1956: 23, 67 who dates it to the third or fourth century BCE). This anomaly may be explained if the Pali is a calque on the Dravidian structure which mirrors this form (Vreese, p. 195), 268 so may go back much earlier than de Vreese had anticipated. This construction also appears in the early suttas, with a participle taking on the role of a relative clause, subject in the genitive, mirroring the Dravidian usage:

268

In the the phrase atthata-kathino kata-cfvaral?l, two of the words are of Dravidian extraction (kafhino and cfvaral?l, see page 62, 65 below), so the calque would translate the Dravidian word for "spread" and "made" into Pali while keeping the technical terms for kafhina and cfvaral?l relatively intact. De Vreese gives several examples of corresponding Tamil phrases, where a participle is used instead of a relative clause, e.g. kur_avar unriya kurampai, ''The hut which the kur_avar built" ("kuravar-built-hut"; page 195) from theAinku_runu.ru (1 st to 3rd centuries CE).

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Chapter Four So sul,liiti Tathiigatassa vii Tathiigata-siivakassa vii sabbesa,ri diffhiffhiinaadhitthiina-pariyutthiina-abhinivesa-anusayiina,ri samugghiitiiya sabbasankhiira-samathiiya sabb 'upadhi-pafinissaggiiya tal,lha-kkhayiiya viriigiiya nirodhiiya nibbiiniiya dhamma,ri desentassa (Alagaddupamasutta, MN 1, 13633-7).

He hears the Dhamma which is taught by the Tathagata or a disciple of the Tathagata for the abandoning of all speculative views, decisions, prejudices, inclinations and proclivities, for the quieting of all mental formations, for the rejection of attachments, for the destruction of craving, for dispassion, for cessation, for nibbana.

This is a close mirroring of the Dravidian peyareccam (relative participle) which in OT would be structured as: ava!J tatakata!] [purpose clause] karpikkum aram ketkum ("The Tathagata [purpose clause] teaching Dhamma hears"); the only difference is that tatakata!] (Tathagata) is in the nominative in OT, whereas in Pali it's a subjective genitive case. De Vreese also points to a structural anomaly in Pali whereby auxiliaries fhapeti, deti, ga1Jhati, adaya, gacchati and titthati) are used to modify the main verb in absolutive form and the two verbs must be taken as a single unit; this he also traces to its Tamil usage, via Sinhalese. Masica calls this phenomenon an "explicator compound verb" (1976: 141-44), and notes its presence in all Indian languages, IA, Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman and Munda. Again de Vreese considers this to be a medieval feature of Pali, that is, quite late. However, this is not necessarily the case, as the phenomenon occurs in the canon. Geiger calls this a periphrastic construction (§ 174.3) and gives an example from the Vin 1, 3 18 : mahantarri karitva atthasi, "he fonned an enonnous hood" and one from Sutta-Nipata, v. 968b millarri pi tesarri palikkhanna titthe "attempt should be made to pull out even their roots." This latter passage Norman (2006: 119) translates "Having dug out their root too he should stand [firm]. " 269 Geiger(§ 174.5) also gives this example from DN 1, 373: pathamajjhanarri upasarripajja viharati, "he has attained the first stage of the trance (and is continuing to be in that stage)," a phrase which occurs hundreds of times in the canon. Hendriksen 1944 (§46-47) gives several other examples in older Pali as well as later Pali. So the structure is not restricted to just later Pali.

269

The Sutta-Nipiita is one of the oldest of Buddhist transmissions (Norman 1983: 63, von Hiniiber 1996b: §98); see also v. 918d, niitumiina,ri vikappaya,ri tiffhe (Norman 2006: 114: "he would not stay forming mental images about himself'), although the main verb here ( vikappaya,ri) is a present participle, not an absolutive.

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In a similar observation, Hartmut Scharfe attributes the OI/MI use of participles in compounds as "hinges" (introducing a subordinate clause within the compound; 2006: 242) to the very common use of the peyareccam and vi!Jaiyeccam ( absolutive) in Dravidian. Examples of these structures may be found in the Sv (e.g. line 1) and Mm poems discussed above, where virtually every line is a subordinate clause introduced by an absolutive or adjectival participle. Although he says, citing Caldwell's classic 1875 work, that "Dravidian has neither relative clauses, nor temporal, conditional or concessive dependent clauses," more recent research (Steever 1998: 35) argues that the correlative construction is a proto-Dravidian feature. 270 Nevertheless, the participial constructions were used much more commonly for subordinate clauses than the relative/correlative structure. Scharfe also argues that the use of long compounds of nouns without case endings, common in Sanskrit and Prakrit, was a feature of Proto-Dravidian and of the oldest Tamil texts and ultimately the source of the IA practice (pp. 242--45).

Dative-like genitive Another non-standard MI usage, found in the P scriptures may also be attributable to Dravidian influence, the so-called "remote object" or "semiabsolute" construction(Speijer 1886/1998: §370; Wijesekera 1936: §154c). This kind of sentence structure is not uncommon in Pali: Lokasamudayarµ kho Kacciiyana yathiibhutarµ sammappanniiya passato yii lake natthitii sii na hoti (SN 2 1712 - 13).

This may be translated: But for one who sees the arising of the world as it really is, [Kaccana], with correct wisdom, there is no notion of nonexistence in regard to the world (Bodhi 2000: 544). The first clause (lokasamudayar[l ...passato) is subordinated to the main clause (ya loke natthita na hoti), connected via the participle passato and the relative pronoun ya; the word passato appears to be the dative case, and Speijer calls it a "dative-like genitive" (1886/1998: §129; see also Wijesekera 1936: §152b), but in Pali these cases take the same fmm. It is not a genitive absolute because these kind of structures always carry the notion of an 270

One can actually find two examples of a relative/correlative structure in Tolk, vv 518 and 967. I thank Mohanraj Thiruvengadam for pointing out these references to me. The adnominal relative clause is of course much more common.

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action involving disregard, notwithstanding or in spite of (anadara; Pal).ini 2.3.38; Kacc 307; Sadd §633). The locus classicus for this form is a passage in the Ariyapariyesanasutta depicting the bodhisatta leaving his parents "in spite of their wishing otherwise and their weeping with a tearful face" (akamakanaf!1 mata-pitunnaf!1 assu-mukhanaf!1 rudantanaf!1, MN 1, 1632930). In the above SN translation the word "for" indicates a datival benefit for the person so seeing, and/or an ablative of cause (Whitney §291a), which results in the insight "that there is no notion of nonexistence" in the world. It is also similar to the ablative absolute in Latin, expressing the time, occasion, or circumstance of a fact stated, i.e. "when one accurately sees the arising of the world, then there is no notion of non-existence." It does not seem to have any connection with a genitive absolute, even though Hendriksen thinks the genitive absolute definition involving disregard or disrespect is too narrow (1944: 44), but he was unfamiliar with Dravidian usages (below) which may be the source of this form. Dravidian has a construction called "experiencer subject constructions" (Sjoberg 2009: 11; Steever 2008: 648) where a nominal subject experiencing subjective states (like seeing or knowing) appears in the dative case and the predicate is a finite verb or predicate nominal. Lehmann (1989: 89) quotes an example from the Sangam literature (Narrinai 44.5): ni!]-akk-o ari.y-un-al you-dat-int know-npst-3sf271 Do you know her (lit.: is she one known to you)?"

Although the structure is quite uncommon in Sangam, Lehmann projects the structure to the proto language because of its widespread occurrence in many Dravidian languages. The Pali quote above follows the same pattern as the Dravidian example: the logical subject is "for the one who sees" rendered in the dative or genitive case, followed by the predicate, specifying what it is that he/she sees. If it were rendered in Dravidian one would probably use the participial noun form in the dative, i. e. parpparlru, from the verb Tamil par, "to see." Although it is not a normal IA construction, 272 it is quite natural in the Dravidian languages. It might also have been influenced by the Dravidian 271

Abbreviations: dat = dative; int = interrogative; npst = non-past; 3sf = third person sing. feminine 272 Of course both Pali and OI use a genitive/dative structure as equivalent to the verb "to have." Very common in Pali is the expression atha kho bhagavato etad

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predilection for non-finite verb forms prior to the main predicate. For here the participle passato seems to have more of a conjunctive, equative, or causative role, that is, the sense of the sentence would not be significantly altered were one to translate "One sees the arising of the world... and there is no notion ... " (conjunctive, translating an absolutive followed by a main clause), "Because one sees the arising of the world as it really is, there is no notion... " (causative)," or "When one sees ... " (equative). This recalls the very common usage in Proto-Dravidian and Old Tamil where no coordination of two finite clauses is allowed; instead, subordinate clauses are joined to the main sentence as an adverbial or conjunctive complement clause, as an adnominal complement, or as a nominalized clause (Lehmann 1998: 92; called the "conjunctive participle" by Masica 1976: Chapter Four; Steever 1998: 31-37). This joining can take the form ofa conjunctive verbal form ( an absolutive, "one sees and ... " or "having seen ... ") of which many examples are found in the Mm poem above; or an absolutive with an additional -ena ending with a causal meaning ("because one sees, or as soon as one sees ... , there is no notion of nonexistence ... "; Tolk 713 and commentary); or the same conjunctive with an additional -anku ending with an equative meaning ("seeing the arising of the world= there is no notion of nonexistence ... " or ''when one sees ... there is no ... "); or can appear as a tensed or tenseless verbal noun (with a -tal, ending; "seeing the arising ... "), with a further case ending like an ablative -in to express cause ("because of seeing the arising ... ") as in line 18 of Mm. The Dravidian usage is very flexible and very common. Here is a conjunctive causative example from the Kuruntokai 42.2: [mii ma;ai vf+-nt-e1_1a] aruvi iyamp-um

Because a great rain fell, the waterfall is roaring. The conjunctive form here is vf+ (verb to "fall") with a past tense marker-nt and causal marker -ena (Lehmann 1998: 92, example 34). In Mm there are eight instances of a conjunctive with -e!Ja suffix denoting cause (Suseela 2001: 173), but it does not occur in the above excerpt. The absolutive in line 37f i!Jri ("because it was non-existent") is an absolutive with a causal meaning, without the -e!]a suffix. Another example with a verbal noun:

ahosi, "then the Blessed one thought this ... " (lit.: "of the Blessed One, this occurred"); but the "semi-absolute, remote object" genitive, although it is similar to the basic "have" configuration, is nevertheless quite different in extension and complexity.

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Chapter Four [koffi aram a-tal-in] am pukai tava;-um Because the firewood was sandalwood, a beautiful smoke spread.

Here the joining is through the verbal root aku (or a, "to become, be"; lit. "the firewood being sandalwood") in its form as a tenseless verbal noun atal- and the ablative suffix-in, denoting cause (Lehmann 1998: 95, example 48 from the Purananiiru 108.2-3). Compare tofar-tal-i!J in line 18 of Mm. The Pali use ofthe present participle as a subject-experiencer in genitive/dative inflection is fairly common in the earliest suttas. 273 Syntactically the overall structure is a non-standard usage in Indo-Aryan, being neither a genitive absolute nor a locative absolute and is quite possibly influenced by the Dravidian dative construction for subjective experiences-a common 273

A search on the words passato andjanato will tum up a lot ofthe instances where this structure occurs. For another example see Itivuttaka 103 17-1046 : Jiinato-hal'{I bhikkhave passato iisaviinal'{I khayal'{I vadami, no ajiinato apassato. Kiiica bhikkhavejanato kil'{I passato iisavanal'{I khayo hoti? Jdal'{I dukkhan-ti bhikkhave janato passato iisavanal'{I khayo hoti, ayal'{I dukkhasamudayo ti bhikkhave janato passato iisavanal'{I khayo hoti, ayal'{I dukkhanirodho ti bhikkhave janato passato iisaviinal'{I khayo hoti, ayal'{I dukkhanirodhagaminf patipada ti bhikkhave janato passato iisaviinal'{I khayo hoti.

Monks, for one who knows, for one who sees, I say there is a destruction of the outflows, not for one who doesn't know, who doesn't see. How is there a destruction of the outflows for one who knows and sees? Monks, there is a destruction of the outflows for one who knows and sees, ''This is suffering." ''This is the arising of suffering." ''This is the cessation of suffering." ''This is the path leading to the cessation of suffering" (with the clause, "Monks, there is a destruction of the outflows ... '' repeated in between each of the four noble truths). Or DN I, 7321)-23 (Samaflnaphalasutta): tass 'ime panca n1vara11e pahfne attani samanupassato pamojjal'{I jiiyati, pamuditassa pfti jayati, pfti-manassa kayo passambhati, passaddha-kayo sukhal'{I vedeti, sukhino cittal'{I samadhiyati. "For the one who sees the five hindrances abandoned in himself, delight arises, for the one who is delighted, joy arises, for the one whose mind is joyful, his body is calmed, for the one whose body is calmed, he experiences well-being, for the one experiencing well-being, his mind is composed." The Pali usage differs slightly from the Dravidian in that it uses a present or past participle as a conjunctive, rather than a verbal participle (absolutive) as in the Dravidian; however the function is identical.

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feature of the India Linguistic area (Massica 1976: 159-69)-and/or the usage of non-finite verb forms in complex sentences.

Postpositions There are other unusual coincidences in postpositional morphology which point to mutual influence between IA and OT. Both Old Tamil and Pali share several absolutives which are used as postpositions; the following are four examples: 1. Tamil ko,:ifulkofu, "with" (< class 2 verb koJ, "to grasp, to take," absolutive form, "having taken") ~ Pali gahetva, "having taken" (< ga,:ihciti, "to take"), both meaning ''with" and used as a postposition.

2. Tamil parri, "Of, about, concerning, respecting, adverting to, refening to" (< class 5 verb parru,"to grasp, apprehend, accept, comprehend," absolutive form parri) ~ Pali cirabbha "beginning with, referring to, concerning, about" (absolutive < cirabhati, "to undertake, attempt, begin"). Another similar Pali word to parri is agamma "thanks to, with reference to, owing to, relating to" < absolutive of cigacchati. Sandhiiya, "with reference to, concerning" (abs.< sandhahati, "to put together, connect, arrange"), and paficca, "concerning, on account of, because" ( abs. < pacceti, "come on to, come back to") also have a similar meaning, both also absolutives and usually postpositions. 3. ni?JIU, "from" ( < class 3 verb nil, "to stand, stay, discontinue, stop," > absolutive form, "after staying" ~ Pali paffhiiya, "from, beginning from, after" < patitfhati, "to stand"; both postpositions. 4. vilatti, "except"(< vilattu, class 5 verb, "to except, to exclude, put out of the way, prohibit, check"), absolutive form vilatti, ~ Pali thapetva, "having set aside, excluded" < fhapeti, "to place, set aside, exclude," the absolutive also used as a preposition and postposition. These postpositions are all absolutives and come from verbs with similar meanings in each language. While it may be impossible to determine which language is the source of the grammatical form, it certainly looks like one is a calque of the other, a literal translation. If linguists are correct in their inference that OVMI bonowed the absolutive form from PD, then directionality is most likely PD> OI/MI. Postpositional use is so widespread that "their reconstruction to the proto-language is all but a certainty" (Steever 1998: 20). Be that as it may, it is hard to conceive that these almost

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identical m01phological, syntactic and semantic forms originated independently of each other.

Conclusion Although Pali is not restricted in its syntax to only one finite verb per sentence, it is noteworthy how often this structure occurs. One reason is that the "chaining" structure very precisely mirrors the essence of the Buddha's teaching of dependent origination and the climactic sequence oflinked nonfinite verbs is rhetorically effective in communicating those specific Buddhist truths (Levman 2020a: 169-93); but an equally important factor seems to be the influence of the Dravidian language group where simple coordination of finite clauses was not grammatically possible, and the syntax was always one of linked subordination of sub-clauses building to a single finite verb ending. This climactic syntactic structure was a perfect vehicle for the Buddhist teaching of liberation, which was itself a series of subordinate steps leading to final liberation. This is one of the ironies of linguistic history. Modem Tamil has been heavily influenced by the In.do-Aryan language and a significant part of its vocabulary in the last millenniwn may be traced to Sanskrit and the MI Prakrits; yet historically, in the second and first millenniwn BCE, the influence was the other way around. A great deal of word borrowing came from PD into OI and MI, and structural borrowing too was an important influence, as this chapter has attempted to show. Overall linked syntax, the specific absolutive form, the replacement of relative/correlative clauses with a single non-finite verbal form, the use of two verbs with one meaning, the dative-like genitive structure and absolutives as postpositions-all these forms have been influenced by and possibly originate in the Dravidian languages. For more on the structural influence of Dravidian on Pali, see a new study (Levman 2021c, "Dravidian Influence on Pali Syntax") on dependent adnominal clauses in the Sutta-Nipiita, which argues that the replacement of the normal IA relative/correlative syntax structure by nonfinite verbal forms preceding the head noun are homologous with and derived from the Dravidian practice. Chapter Five is an article written in 2011 about the meaning of the word "mwyja" in OI and Pali. It is a non-Aryan word, most likely Austro-Asiatic, with many meanings, including some very pejorative ones which were used to describe the Buddha, and his followers by identifying them with the nonIA, non-Brahmanical Munda speaking tribes. In this section, the word "Munda" has three principal usages: as an ancient and modern name for the

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AA language groups of northeast and eastern India (Munda); as a disparaging insult to the Buddha and his followers (mw:u;la or mw:u;laka); and as a tribal name for Munda speaking non-IA indigenous peoples ("Mut)_(;las" or the near homonym "Put.i-9-l Pkt atpa in Asoka's Rock Edict 12), 329 it almost never occurs in the anlaut (word-beginning) and in any case is the result of diachronic development; as an Austro-Asiatic language groups trait, onset variation appears to be a synchronic, productive form of derivation. In his 1959 monograph, Pinnow provides a very useful introduction to word formation in these groups: a) through the use of prefixes, infixes and suffixes; b) through root-shortening (the so-called "rapu 'd' words, where for example, Mundari rapu 'd, "to break" becomes po. t in PalalllJ, prt in Mon and ra 'b in Korku; c) through reduplication; and d) through inner transformation and variation with onomatopoeic words, rhyme words and articulatory phrases (Lautbild). 330 Although all the 325

Mayrhofer defines PU!_19Ial:i as "Name eines Volkes ... Vielleicht als ein austroasiatischer Name sowohl mit Or;frii'fz (Ur;lra-, U,,u;lii- usw.) wie andererseits rnit dem Namen der Mw;u;lii'fz zusammengehorig. [name of a people ... perhaps as an AA name along with Or;lriih/Ur;lra-lU1;u;lii- etc., and at the same time related to the name of the MU!_lc_ia people]. Ml vol. 2: 302. 326 Kuiper 1948a: 3-5. 327 The Munda language group is divided into North Munda and South Munda. Most Munda speakers live in the Chota Nagpur plateau of north-eastern India, in the state of Tharkhand. For an introduction to the Munda language family and distribution maps, see Anderson 2008: 1-10. 328 Kuiper 1948b: 386-87. Other m- >< p- alterations at the beginning ofa word are shown in Heinz-Jurgen Pinnow 1959: 370-71. 329 Bloch 19 50: 124, line 29. 330 Pinnow 1959: 10-22. PalaWJ and Mon belong to the Mon-Khmer (or eastern) branch of Austro-Asiatic and are thus only distantly related to Munda.

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mechanisms which govern change are not clear, individual word variation is extensive: "The variation is contained within certain bounds that, roughly speaking, requires the preservation of the place of articulation, velar, retroflex/dental and labial. The palatal row can interchange with the velar and retroflex/dentals. Stops change easily to semi-vowels (b-w), orals to nasals (b-m), voiceless to voiced (p-b), unaspirated to aspirated (p-ph), stops to laterals or vibrants (d-l-r). Very often the change is from oral+ nasal to nasal + oral, e.g. bm-mb, the so-called nasalization and pre-nasalization, a phenomenon which is not seldom encountered in other languages, whereas the function of it is always different." 331 From the individual words, secondary forms are created through "inner transformation" (innere Umbildung), resulting in dual forms which bring about a "nuancing of meaning" (Bedeutungsnuancierung). Murray Emeneau called these formations "echo-words"-a trait of the South Asia linguistic area which he believed was inherited from Dravidian or Munda speakers-which had the meaning "and the like"; in Munda grammar books today, they are called "expressives." 332 Although purid(r)a-mu,:ida never occurs together as a dual f01m, their phonological relation, especially in te1ms of Munda phonology, is very close. This initial labial consonant variation also manifests in P (mu,:ida "" bha,:idu, "shaven," page 233 below), probably as a borrowing from Munda, and in Dravidian, where the word occurs in Tamil as moffai, "bald, head," as well as po/u, "baldness, shaven condition;" in Kannada as mo,:ida "blunt, maimed, deficient" as well as bolu, "bald, the state of being shaved, a bare, leafless, treeless state;" and in Telugu as mo,:idi, "maimed, amputated, lopped, imperfect, blunt," as well as boda, bodi "bald, bare, hornless, cropt, tuskless." 333

331 Ibid, 20; translated by the author. Kuiper also mentions pre-nasalization as a mechanism of word variation in 1948b: 381. Ifhe is right, then the pre-nasalization ofpwxlra by the addition of a nasal before p (n+p) would result in m: n+p > *np > *mp> m (the homorganic nasal). n+ pur.1/(r)a > mw:u;la. 332 See Anderson 2008, where they are called expressives in the following language groups: Gorum (p. 413), Gta? (p. 741-743), Gutob (p. 665), Ho (p.227), Juang (537), Kera? Mundari (I 84), Kharia (482-483), Kherwarian (230-23 I), Korku (288), Mundari (I 39-45), Remo/Bondo (607-08), Santali (73-74), and Sora (360-62). 333 Them- words and definitions may be found in DED #4199 and 4200 [also DED #4387 and 4600]; the p- and b- words and definitions in Kuiper p. 104. Kuiper believes that the Dravidian words are borrowings from Munda. [Emeneau and Burrow (1962: #299) suggest the Dravidian words are borrowings from IA, but might also be from Munda. Munda itself has a number of cognate words with meanings related to "bald, hornless, shaved" and with many different initial syllables

The Mw:uJalmw.ujaka Crux: What Does the Word Mean?

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Jn trying to explicate the meaning of various P usages of mw:u;lalmw:u;laka, we should keep in mind the possibility that the words may

also refer to the tribal/clan group, with their (putative) baldness, like the Malia's legendary strength, being merely a synecdochical definition, with the prominence of the part-baldness-standing for the whole-the tribe or clan-for such a long period of time that the true etymology of the term was forgotten. The use of the word mw:u;la as a toponym (KaI)I).amUI).(.ia, one of the seven great lakes in the Himalayas; MUI).(.ia-nigama, a market town) 334 and as a proper name (King MUI).(.ia, grandson of Ajatasattu; NagamUI).(.ia, a slave woman, mother ofVasabhakkhattiya, who married Pasenadi, King of Kosala; MahamUI).(.ia, a Buddhist lay disciple) 335 suggests a long-even primordial-connection with the geography, history and culture of ancient India. With this in mind, let us return to some other mw:u;lalmw:u;laka problematica in the P writings.

Pali usages of mu,;uJ.a/mm:u/.aka The words occur about 213 times in the P canon and commentary (at/hakatha). Although there are a few instances where the words simply mean "shaven" (as, for example, in the Dhammapada v. 264-a, na mw:u;lakena sama,:io ... "Not by tonsure, [does one become] a mendicant," or in the Theragatha and Therfgatha, where monks and nuns describe

starting with m-, c- and d-: Santali mwu;lra, as noted above, "close-clipped (hair), branchless, cut short, bare"; and with that root, mw.u;lur, mw.u;lguc ', mwu;lga and fern. mw,u;lri, "hornless"; Bodo-Gadaba miitf.ra, "bald"; Mundari cadra, carra, care, cqc:J, "bald, bald-headed"; catf.ra, "bald"; Santali catf.ra, "bald, bare"; Korwa ca{lalJ, ''to become bald"; Juang, {al]gra, "bald-headed"; proto-Kherwarian, Santali, preMundari *tf.;xtztf.:J, "bull with bent horns"; Bondo munt;lri-bai, "doe with no horns"; and a group of words starting with d- which seems to be a pejorative prefix suggesting an absence of(horns) or deformity, viz. proto-Kherwarian *t/.:JIJ,t/.:J, *dirijl, "bull with bent horns, fool"; however, they also occur with the meaning "horn" in most ofthe Munda languages derem, derelJ, dere.Jl, diring, diril]g, dinlJ, di 'rilJ, dc:relJ, ckrilJ, (!irilJ, all meaning "horn"; see MED]. 334 Kar.11.1amw.u;la as the name of a Himalayan great lake occurs throughout the commentary, for example, the Sumangalaviliisinf, l, 1644-5: Kai;ii;iamlll) BHS antasas, "so much as") and manifests in Pali with a change of the aspirated stop to the labiodental fricative -v- (e.g. dhfro > vfro, Norman 2006b: 157). Historically the lenition of intervocalics might be expected to follow the pattern voiceless > voiced > spirantization > glide > 0, but the development is not so clear-cut, as we find examples of all the changes in G and first examples of disappearance of intervocalic consonants or semi-

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consonants occur as early as the Vedas (late second millennium BCE)379 As Kenneth Roy Norman has noted (1993a 91), "we must recognise that there is not necessarily any correlation between the stages of linguistic development of kindred languages, so that two related and contemporary dialects can show vastly different stages of development, with one showing a far later stage of development than the other."

6.2 Aspirated stops We also know, because of later ambiguities in their translation, that aspirated stops were transmitted as aspirates only in the earlier language. So a translator, confronted with a word like paha (Kevaddhasutta, DN 1, 223 12) did not know whether it referred to S prabhii or patha, or prthak, etc. He or she had to guess and the guess was not always right, as we can see from the confusion in the commentary on that particular word (Levman 2014: 378387) OI and :MI are unique in having ten aspirated stops (kha, gha, cha,jha, tha, r;lha, tha, dha, pha, bha), a feature which was not shared by most of the other languages that made up the south Asian linguistic scene. Lubotsky (1995: 140-141) makes a case that the change of dh > h in the Vedic texts was rule based, while admitting that bh > h was the result of dialect borrowing. The communis opinio, however, seems to follow Fischel (1981 [1900]: § 188) that the change of aspirated stops to aspirate only in the Prakrits (except for the palatal and retroflex ones) is a dialect phenomenon, although they are usually (but not always) restored in the P translation (von Hiniiber 2001 : §184).

6.3 Assimilation of consonant clusters OI has a rich assortment of consonant clusters, the vast majority of which were assimilated in :tvriddle Indic or resolved with the addition of an 379

One of the earliest examples of stop lenition/disappearance being the S word maireya ("intoxicating drink"; reflexes in P meraya, Ardhamagadhi [AMg] meraga, Prakrit [Pkt], mairea), with cognate Vedic madirii (same meaning) pointing to a derivation from *madireya, with -d- > 0 (von Hiniiber 2001: § 170). Another example is pra-uga ("forepait of the shafts of a chariot"), derived from pra-yuga (Wackernagel 2005 [1896]: vol. 1, §37b). The earliest datable examples we have are from the Asokanedicts (Levman 2010: 65), e.g. Skiidamba > kiial!lhain Pillar Edict 5; mama > maa in Rock Edict 5 (Shabazgarru and Mansehra); deviiniil!lpriaysya > devanapiasa in Rock Edict 1 (Shabazgarru); S iha > ia in RE 13 (Shabazgarhi). The phenomena is also common in G, e.g. S pratyaya > G prace 'a in GDhp 88; S bhoga > G bho 'a in GDhp 261; S mak$ikii > G mak$i 'a, GDhp 285, etc.

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epenthetic consonant (especially in eastern dialects). Assimilation and/or resolution is also a common feature of other non-IA languages.

6.4 Levelling of Sibilants GandharI is the only :rvrr Buddhist transmission dialect that we know of which maintained a distinction between dental, palatal and retroflex sibilants; the other dialects-and the koine-levelled them to one dental (s) or palatal (s') sibilant (in the case of :tv:ragadhI).

6.5 Interchange of glides with glides, glides with nasals, glides with palatals and liquids In :tv!I -y- and -v- were often interchangeable, as were -y- and -j-, -v- and m- in nasalized contexts; some of this interchange was due to :tv!I dialect idiosyncrasy (or inherited from OI, cf. Bloomfield & Edgerton 1932: §223240), while it may also be in part attributable to the lack of a -v- sound in some non-IA languages like Munda, Tibetan (Tib) and Chinese. The phonemes land r were also interchangeable, usually thought to be because of dialect differences with l predominating in the east of India and r in the west.

7.0 The Greek and Aramaic Koines These are the principal simplifications in the underlying common language or koine. In what follows (section 8) we will look at some of the phonological constraints in other Indic languages that may have contributed to this structure. But first we will look at the theory of how a koine develops and then examine the two other lingue franche which were prevalent at the time of the Buddha-Aramaic and Greek koines-to increase our understanding of the structure of inter-languages. and also to examme possible reciprocal influences between these and the :tv!I koine.

7.1 How a koine develops A koine results from dialect levelling and simplification, primarily due to 1) the elimination of inter-dialect phonological differences which impede understanding, and 2) the structure and influence of the surrounding native languages, whose speakers had to learn a foreign language and communicate with the foreign speakers. Modern studies have shown that in face-to-face interaction between speakers of different dialects, speakers

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accommodate to each other linguistically by reducing the dissimilarities between their speech patterns and adopting features from each other's speech (Trudgill 1986: 39). Accommodation is the reduction of pronunciation dissimilarities through (a) alternating one's own variant of a form with that of the other speakers; (b) using the other speakers' variant in some words but not others (transfer/mixed dialects); and (c) using pronunciations or forms intermediate between those two in contact. Of course, all three may occur in conjunction with each other. (Trudgill 1986: 62). By reducing differences between speech forms a koine or common language results, which is a common denominator language where all dialect idiocyncracies have been removed. So, for example, a word like dfrgha in S (discussed above), with an aspirated stop and conjunct becomes dfha in the common language as already discussed, with the loss of the consonant cluster -rgh- and the change of the aspirated stop to an aspirate only). Thus the distinctive feature of G, which preserves the -r- and metathesizes it (drfgha) is omitted, as is any dialect where the voiced vs. voiceless consonant distinction is important (as the stop has disappeared). So one often finds in the underlying common language that all stops are sometimes eliminated intervocalically and replaced by a glide, which allows the hearer to insert the correct stop according to the phonology of his/her dialect and his/her understanding of the context. This accounts for how we get different interpretations of parallel cognate passages in the Dhp, like paceti ("bring to an end"), pajeti ("drive forward") and priipayati (= priipeti, with -aya- > -e-, "to lead") with payedi underlying (the GDhp form being in this case the same as or similar to the koine); sahavya ("friendship") or svabhava ("nature, condition"), with *sahava, *sahiiya or *sahiia underlying; or virajo ("stainless") and virato ("ceased") with *virayo underlying, to name a few examples.380 This is what is called the loss of marked forms. There are also other morphological simplifications which take place in a common language, like an increase in morphophonemic regularity, increase in invariable word forms, symmetrical paradigms for declensions and conjugations, etc. Contact with different dialects is one major influence of koine formation; the other is contact with different languages, especially languages which may have a different phonological structure than :MI; this is only a difference in degree, not in kind, for both forces (differences in dialects and languages) act to shape the common language through interference. In his classic study, Languages in Contact (first published 1953), Uriel Weinreich

380

For discussion see Levman 2014: 401-403; 79-81; and 245-247.

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lists four phenomena of interference between two phonemic systems which come into contact (18-19)

1) Under-differentiation, that is, not distinguishing phonemes in the new (immigrant) language which are lacking in the primary language. For speakers of native Indic languages (like Dravidian and Munda) learning MI, they would not hear aspirated stops phonemically, for example, which are not present in their native language. 2) Over-differentiation of phonemes, involves the opposite, that is, imposing phonemes from the primary system on the new language. A good exam pie of this phenomenon is the introduction of the retroflex system into IA, which is believed to have been introduced by native Dravidian and/or Munda speakers learning IA as a second language; they recognized allophones in OI which were close to the Dravidian/Munda retroflex system and assigned them to these retroflex phonemes which were eventually assimilated into IA (Emeneau 1974: 93; Deshpande 1979: 297; for discussion see Levman 2014: 504-505; for opposing view Hock 1996). Particularly noticeable in this respect are loan-words from Dravidian and Munda where no attempt was made to conform to IA phonology (e.g. most IA words in -,:u;l-, like ca,:u;lala, mu,:u;la, etc. See Woolner 1926-1928; Mayrhofer 1963: vol. 1, 370, vol. 2, 651). 381 3) Reinterpretation of distinctions occurs when the bilingual speaker interprets redundant, incidental features in the new language as significant because of their relevance in his/her own phonological system. This is a form of over-differentiation which could work in either direction. A native Dravidian speaker, hearing an alveolar stop (/r/) as an allophone of a dental stop, may interpret it phonemically; a native MI speaker, hearing an allophonic intervocalic stop pronounced by a Dravidian speaker might also consider it semantically meaningful, although it is not in Dravidian. 4) Phone substitution applies to phonemes which, though identically defined in both languages, are pronounced differently. This is especially relevant with vowel sounds; for example, both Dravidian and MI have short and long

381 Southworth 2005: §3.31 suggests that Munda (which only preserves the retroflex ,;/ (see Table C) and Dravidian may themselves have obtained the distinction from an earlier substrate language, i.e. the language of the Indus Valley civilization. See also Witzel 1999: 14: "In short, the people of the (northern) Indus civilization must have spoken with retroflexes".

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vowels, but a small, idiosyncratic difference in pronunciation could easily cause confusion. In addition to the above, there is also the "complicating possibility" of hypercorrection that may take place both in listening and in speech (19), where overcorrection takes place because of misunderstanding on the part of the interlocutor. We will see that most of the factors influencing the form of the common language relate to item #1 above, under-differentiation, which leads to simplification by eliminating the ambiguous sound from the speechform. Also important to understand is the fact that it is the immigrant, rather than the indigenous language which is most subject to interference. Weinberg gives the following three reasons for this phenomenon (91): 1) The immigrant language must adopt indigenous vocabulary for new flora, fauna and other unfamiliar phenomena they encounter. In fact, we can identify dozens of toponyms and names of biota and cultural practices which were adopted by the IA migrants (Levman 2013: 148-149). 2) Borrowing from the new language provides the socially and culturally disoriented newcomers with some familiarity and stability, thus weakening their natural resistance to compromising the "purity" of their own language. 3) The necessity of intermarriage, because of lower proportion of women amongst the immigrant population. Recent genetic studies, for example, suggest that ancestral South Indians spoke a Dravidian language and Y chromosome and m tDNA (mitochondrial) analysis shows a significant male gene flow from groups with more ancestral North Indian relatedness into ones with less; that is, male Indo-Aryans taking Dravidian wives (Reich et al. 2009: 493). 382

7.2 Aramaic Aramaic is a Semitic language, closely related to Hebrew, both members of the Northwest Semitic group. The language was widely spoken in the late second millennium and throughout the first millennium BCE in the Near East (from present day Turkey to Iraq), and was adopted around 600 BCE as the official language for the eastern Persian empire, for communication between peoples of different language backgrounds -i.e. as a linguafranca. As is well known, the Persian emperor Darius took control of the Indian 382

Thanks to Prof Alexei Kochetov for this reference.

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sub-continent north of the Indus River in the late sixth century BCE, and governed it until he was defeated by Alexander. Generally termed "Imperial" or "Official" Aramaic, it was still used in this form until about 200 BCE, despite the demise of the Persian empire in the 4th century. Aramaic was written in a Phoenician based script (right to left) similar to the Kharo~thi of the GDhp and other texts (Salomon 1998: 25). Jesus was a native speaker of Aramaic and various dialects of Aramaic remained the regional lingua franca of the Near East until displaced by Arabic in the seventh century CE.

7.2.l Phonology See Table 1 for a list of Aramaic consonants. What distinguished the Imperial Aramaic linguafranca from Early or Old Aramaic (950-600 BCE) are the following simplifications (from Segert 1997: 118-125): 1) All the interdental spirants merge with the dentals; the spirants cease to be phonemic and become allophones of the dentals (cf. G dental> sibilant change noted above). 2) The uvular consonants disappear and merge with the pharyngeals (g or IPA [1s] >' or IPA [q; lJ or IPA [x] > b or IPA [h]). In modem Hebrew the pharyngeals merged with the velars as most Ashkenazi Jews could not pronounce them (Kerswill and Williams 2000 71). 3) the glottal stop (7) was elided at the end of words and syllables. 4) regressive total assimilation of the nasal /n/ to the immediately following consonant is very frequent (e.g. -nd- > -dd- or -nt- > -tt-). 5) semivowel y can be elided between two long vowels (qiiyem > qii'em, "standing up"). 6) short vowels in open syllables were reduced or elided (e.g. malkatii > malk'tii, "the queen"). t= IPA [0]. 7) new vowels are inserted to avoid clusters of consonants: malk > ma!lcek > * "king" (epenthesis or anaptyxis). k = IPA [x]. 8) compensatory vowel lengthening for loss of weak consonants or simplification of a doubled consonant. 9) monophthongization of /aw/ and /ai/ into lo/ and /e/ respectively.

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Note that we see a lot of similarities between Imperial Aramaic and the l\AI dialects described above (assimilation or resolution of consonant clusters, dropping of final consonants at the end of a word, monophthongization of diphthongs). Although l\AI has no interdental spirants (0 or o), in G at least, they were an allophone of the dentals in certain contexts (e.g. P madhura = G masuru, 'sweet' GDhp 54; P vanathajii = G va,:za§e'a, 'born of craving', GDhp 89); the intervocalic consonant -th- or -dh- was a fricative, which 383 sounded close enough to [z] to be written as -s- or Was this also a feature in the l\AI koine? We certainly do find confusion between dental stops and sibilants in the received texts, suggesting pronunciation variation in the underlying oral tradition. Sometimes this can lead to semantic ambiguities in the transmission as in the case of parallel cognate versions of the P Sutta-Nipiita v. 64-a, where the P has ohiirayitvii ("having discarded" < S ava/apa + hr, causative, "to take down, put down, cause to throw away" ), the BHS Mahiivastu (1.3585) has otiirayitvii ("having thrown off' < S ava +tf, caus. "take down, take off, turn away from"); and the G version (Salomon 2000: 146, verse 19-a) has osat;laita ("having cast off'< S from ava + sat, caus. "cast off' or < S apa + §ad in caus., "to cause to fall off or away").

-s-.

Although the meanings are all similar, the verbs are all different. The underlying koine transmission was therefore either *o'iirayitva (which is attested in AMg, o'iira = avatiira) 384 , where the intervocalic has been dropped and each tradent interpreted it differently, or *oSiirayitva (S = sibilant): taken as given in the G version (with a substitute of -(j- for -r- and loss of the intervocalic glide);385 or in the BHS Mvu, the sibilant taken as an allophone for a dental stop; or in P interpreted as a deliberate "Magadhism", where a sibilant often morphs into an aspirate (for example gen. sing. -asya > -*iisa > -aha; Fischel §264; von Hinuber 2001: §221). 386 However one explains the differences, there does seem to be some confusion over the sibilant/stop/aspirate relationship. A similar ambiguity is found in parallel versions of the P Sattajafilasutta (Sarriyutta Nikiiya 1, 7910, and Uda.na 667) where the variant forms osiipayissiimi/ oyiiyissiimi/ ohayissiimi/ osiirissiimi/

383 Brough 1962: §43 and §43a. He also hypothesizes that "the situation in the Dharmapada strongly suggests that the development of the earlier unaspirated dental stops to fricatives followed that of the aspirates, so to speak, one stage in arrears." 384 Pischel (1981 [1900]: §154), hereinafter "Pischel," and Mylius (2003: 186). 385 Pischel §241, 258. 386 There are other possible derivations as well, but I have only given the two most obvious.

~

'fJ

N

V,

0\

Table 1: Aramaic Consonant Inventory (from Segert 1997: 119). Early Aramaic

Laryngeals Pharyngeals Uvulars Velars Palatovelars Sibilants lnterdentals Dentals Labials Bilabials Linguals Nasals Semivowels

lmperi al Aramaic

Emphatic

Voiced

Unvoiced



lgl



ltJI





I~ (!)I

lgl

l!f

Emphatic

Biblical Aramaic allophones Voiced

Unvoiced

Emphatic

Voiced

Unvoiced

[g]

[~]

[sJ [c:J]

r> M> W>

dag-a or dak'-a before /a/, ('it rains/will rain'). In this kind of situation -k- and -g- are allophones ( Ghosh 2008: 31 ), which would lead to under-differentiation of intervocalic voicedness on the part of a Munda speaker learning MI. This lack of voicedness contrast is also reflected in the phenomenon called "rhymewords" by Kuiper where there is free variation between voiced and voiceless stops word-initially and medially (Kuiper 1965: 59-66). Table 4: Proto Munda consonant inventory (after Zide 1969: 414). p

m

t b

(c)

(n)

J1

q_ I

k j

b'

g mn

I

q_'

j'

J1

1J

391

g'

Like Dravidian, in Munda languages, two stops almost never occur together (except at morpheme boundaries) and consonant clusters are always N + stop or stop + L(liquid) (Ghosh 2008: 31; Osada 2008: 103). This feature is confirmed for the earlieststratum of the language (UrAustroasiatisch) which had a syllable structure 0V0 [(C)V(C], where 0= any consonant which could also be null and V = any vowel (Pinnow 1959 457-458). 8.3 Tibetan

No one has yet succeeded in producing a definitive reconstruction of the proto-Tibetan language, a very daunting task considering the dozens of dialects that exist and the paucity of data available on many of them. A useful classificatory scheme-which may well be diachronically accurate 391

See also Pinnow (1959: 426-427) who reconstructs an "Uraustroasiatisch Wld Urmllilda-Archiphoneme" which has no retroflexes but a voiceless and voiced (t & d) dental stop and a younger stage which he terms "Urmllilda" which has both the dental stop contrast and the retroflex (t & q). The former has no sibilant and the latter has a voiceless postalveolar fricative,Jand also adds a uvular stop phoneme (q and G, where G=h). In what Pinnow calls the "yollilgest protolanguage stage ('Jiingstes voreinzelsprachliches Stadium"), all variants are added which include the aspirates, checked consonants, and the interchange of velar and uvular stops and dental and retroflex stops.

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(Sprigg 1972: 556)-identifies dialects as either cluster or non-cluster at word beginning; the former appear to be more archaic with a simple vowel system and with no distinction of length, nasality or tone. Non-cluster dialects (like Lhasa) have no word-initial consonant clusters but more complex vowel systems and tonal distinctions (Denwood 1999: 26). The simplification of word-initial clusters is consistent with the Lhasa dialect's position as a linguafranca inter-language or koine in Tibet, where many of the dialects are mutually unintelligible. Although we are fairly confident that the Tibeto-Bunn an language group was one of the prehistoric languages of India, very little is known about their early history, except for their general location in the foothills of the Himalayas, where the Buddha was born (Southworth 2005: 65). Witzel suggests that the names of various Nepalese places (like Kosala, the kingdom which the Sakyas were vassals of), and various rivers and Himalayan tribes mentioned in the Vedas (Kasi, Kira.ta) came from a Tibeto-Bunnan substrate (1999: §2.5) and others have suggested that the Tibeto-Himalayan language family was influenced by an Austro-Asiatic Munda substrate (Shanna 2003). Tib is a member of the Tibeto-Burman language family and an inventory of simple consonants is given in Table 5. Notice that in the proto language the contrast between voiceless vs. voiced stops is phonemic and there is no aspiration. We have no records of Tibetan written or spoken until writing was introduced in 650 CE, which recorded the pronunciation of what has come to be known as "Old Tibetan" (7th-11th centuries). Old Tib also has several peculiarities vis a vis IA There is no distinction of vowel length (Hill 2010 116). Aspiration is non-phonemic and all final stops are voiceless, even though written as voiced (119, 122). Old Tib ceased to exist with the collapse of the Tib empires and was replaced by Classical or Written Tib, the language of most Buddhist texts. Here aspiration is apparently phonemic (ka 'pillar', kha 'mouth') in word-initial position. Although there is apparently a phonemic contrast between voiceless and voiced stops in Classical Tib (Delancey 2003a: 256), for an IE trained ear, it is very hard to hear: the difference between voiceless -k- and voiced -gsounds much more like a high tone, low tone contrast than a voicing contrast, which by some is regarded as an allophone, at least in the dialect of Lhasa, where the difference is not phonemic (DeLancey 2003b: 270). 392

392 See DeLancey (2003b: 270) where the difference is not phonemic as Lhasa lacks a voiced stop. Hahn (2002: 4-6), gives only three sets of stops, none voiced,p ph, t, th and k, kh. The "voiced series" b, d, and g, are pronounced the same as the aspirate voiceless at lower tone.

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Table 5: Simple consonants in Proto Tibeto-Burman (from Matisoff2003: 15). Labial

Alveolar Palatalized alveolar Palatal

Voiceless stop p Voiced stop Nasal Fricative Affricate

b m

Approximant

Glottal

k g

d n s, z

ts dz

Lateral Tap or trill

Velar

1)

S, Z

ij

h

di

r, r w

Note: reconstructed Old Tibetan from Hill (2010: 121): k, g, 1), t, d, n, s, z, p, b, m, ts, dz, y, r,r, l, I, l:;l, h,w, i (palatalised front vowel).

Hahn (2002: 12) lists five sets of stops (p, ph, t, th, {, th, c, ch, k, kh) and the glottal stop (7), none of which are voiced; voicing only occurs when there is a nasally prefigured medial consonant (e.g. mb, d, etc.), that is, in a specific phonetic context, therefore not phonemic. In the Tibeto-Burman languages of the Himalayan Region (including Ladakhi, a principal dialect of northeastern India), the phonemic contrast between voiced and voiceless stops seems to be neutralized in some dialects, for example, Tib bumo, 'daughter' = Kagate, po mo, Sharpa, pu mu and Bhatia (Sikkim) pum; classical Tib -d= dialect-tin some dialects: bdun, 'seven'> Kagate, tiin/tin; or dos, 'load' > Bhatia > foi; classical Tib -g > dialect -kin Tib brgyad, 'eight' > Kagate ke. 393 Tib is a monosyllabic language with a complicated phonotactic structure, but there are no consonant clusters within a word if the palatalized velars /k.Y/ and /khY/ and the prenasalized stops (in those dialects where they occur) are analysed as unitary segments (Delancey 2003b: 272); between words, since the only permitted finals that are allowed are -b, (sounds as -p) -l, -rand the nasals (final -g > 7 and final -sand -d modify the preceding vowel), consonant clusters with two dissimilar stops like IA never occur. Like the absence of most conjuncts in Dravidian and Munda, the Tib phonotactic structure may also have been a factor in precipitating the assmiliation ofIA conjuncts to geminates, so that bilingual speakers could both understand and speak the language more easily. Of course we have no idea if this kind of Tib koine characteristic of Lhasa was 0

393

Bonnerjea 1936: §1, §3, leaving out the numerous cases like Tib mig > Ladakhi mik, which are presumably orthographic ( as these both end in glottal stop).

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in use in the Buddha's day, over a millennium earlier. That there was an ancestor language to Tib at the time of the Buddha, we can be certain, and it is reasonable to hypothesize that that language would have had some of these phonological features, though which ones ancestral and which derived is impossible to tell. So though we may not be able to pinpoint the diffusionary effects of ancestral Tib on :tv1I, it is logical to assume that it had some influence. Since medieval times the Lhasa dialect has acted as a koine, an inter-language levelling the many inter-dialect differences, and similar to some of the phonological simplifications in Aramaic, Greek and :tv1IA; its inclusion here is relevant for that reason alone.

8.4 T och ari an The Tocharians were inhabitants of the medieval city-states on the north perimeter of the Tarim Basin, right on the silk route of north-west China. Tocharian A is generally associated with the city of Agni (and therefore also called Agnean or East Tocharian) and Tocharian B with Kucha or West Tocharian). The documents that have survived are fairly late - from the 6th to 8th century CE and are almost all translations of Buddhist texts, but their language heritage certainly goes back several millennia to prehistoric times, although no one is quite sure who their ancestors are~perhaps to the Afanasievo culture to the north (3500-2500 BCE; Mallory & Mair 2000, 294-296), the Bactria-Margiana region to the west (2100-1900 BCE; Witzel 1999 54) or the Qawrighul culture of the second millennium BC in Chinese Turkestan (van Driem 2001: 1064). Indeed there are several words with an apparent Tocharian pedigree which are found in Vedic or Avestan, which may be explained on the basis of a Central Asian substrate assimilated into the Vedic writings. 394 Tocharian is an Indo-European centum language, retaining the velar stop /kl of Proto IE where this sound was changed to an alveolar fricative [s] in Avestan, OI, :tv1I and other surrounding languages; it is therefore an anomalous IE language surrounded by satem languages. The Tocharian consonant inventory is given in Table 6. For our purposes the most significant aspect phonemically is that there are no voiced stops or 394 See Witzel 1999: 54-56: kha-ralxara, "donkey", cf Toch. B. ker-ca-po; i~!i, i~fikalistiia, "brick", cf Toch. iscem, "clay''? *medhlmelit, "sweet, honey", IE *medhu, Vedic madhu, Avestanmaou, cf Toch. B mit, "honey", mot, ''intoxicating drink". This latter word may well be a joint inheritance from a common IE source. "In short, western and central Iran must have been inhabited by (archaeologically well attested) peoples of non Indo-Iranian speech."

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aspirated stops, meaning that speakers of Tocharian (or of proto-Tocharian, for which this was also true) would not have heard these as meaningful phonemic differences~k, g, kh and gh would all sound ask, for example. There is also no distinction between long and short vowels. Although we do not know how widespread Tocharian was as a language during the time of the transmission of the Buddha's teachings, its presence along the silk route suggests its potential importance and influence. Some of the confusion on voiced vs. voiceless stops in WA may be attributable to Tocharian orprotoTocharian speakers who had to learn MIA without the benefit of the voicing/voiceless distinction in their aural inventory, thus making random mistakes in the audition and notation. As in Dravidian, intervocalic consonants would be allophonically voiced (as were stops before a nasal), thus leading to potential confusions with WA dialects where the voicing was phonemic. For example, the word for SIP niiga (' serpent, elephant) in Tocharian is nakas with a -k- instead of -g- (which might be mistaken for S niika, 'firmament'), and the word for Buddha is pa or pud (poetic) or putti (= S pi1ti, 'purity'?). 395 Tocharian also had no h sound (voiceless glottal fricative) like Munda, or v, like Tibetan, Munda and Chinese. Table 6: Tocharian consonant inventory, (after Krause and Slocum 2007-2010).396

Stop

Labial

Dental

p

t

Affricate Sibilant Nasal m Liquid Glide

395

ts s n

Alveolar Palatal

Velar

Labiovelar

k

kw

C

~

s ii

Ii

r y

w

The word is actually a compoundpa.nakte, where nakte is an adjectival derivative of -nakte meaning "god" (http://ieed.ullet.net/tochB.html#pan%CC%83a%CC%88kte). putti occurs in the compound puttispariim, which is a noun meaning "Buddha-dignity". See http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/tokol-l-X.html#L2l l . The letter -iidenotes a mid high front vowel (accessed Dec. 2014). 396 http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/tokol- l-X.html#TokO l _ GPO 1_02. (accessed December 2014).

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8.5 Krorainic (language of the Niya documents) Krorainic is an IA language which devoices voiced consonants and usually grouped with GandharI in the IE classification system (Cardona 1985 vol 22, 618; Masica 1991 : 52). It was the native language of the Kingdom of Shanshan on the south side of the Tarim basin, not far (as the crow flies) from Kucha and Agni, the inhabitants believed to be ethnically and linguistically related to these Tocharian speakers, although the "official" language used for administrative purposes was not Tocharian but a Ml Prakrit (language of the Niya documents, 3rd century CE), which appears to have been influenced by the phonological structure ofTocharian, sharing with it several features not ordinarily found in a Ml Prakrit (Burrow 1935: 667- 675): 1) absence of voiced stops. The native language of Shanshan, Krorainic, lacked the voiced stops g,j, d, b so these usually changed to k, c, t, and pat the beginning of a word and were fricativizated (as in G) intervocalically (e.g. Kuge, Ogaca, etc., g = [y]). g,j, r;l, b > g, §, 0), (/, v (Burrow 1937: §15-16). d was sometimes written instead oft at the beginning of a word (e.g. dusya instead of tusya, dena instead of tena, etc.) as dwas pronounced as t. Intervocalically c andj > -y- or were fricativized (s,J, i.e. i, § 17). 2) absence of aspirated consonants and voiceless glottal fricative h. Thus the aspirated stops of Indian words tend to be dropped (§igra < S §fghra, 'swift'; agacati < S iigacchati, 'he comes'), etc. 3) There are no cerebrals (retroflexes) in Tocharian and their appearance in the Niya documents is rare and probably imported (Burrow 1935: 669). 4) There is no v in Tocharian, only a w and v in Krorainic occurs only in Sanskrit loan-words; in the native names it is modified to v = w (Burrow 1935 670). In Sanskrit loan-words p = v which is also the case in GDhp (Burrow 1937 §20; Brough 1962: §34). 5) Sibilants are weakened with§ > i (written as 1) ands> z (written asjh ors). In G, single intervocalic s was also liable to voicing (Brough 1962: § 13) and Khotanese, a neighbouring Middle Iranian language to the west possessed both a /zJ and hf as part of their phonological inventory which may have influenced the Krorainic pronunciation. There are about forty Iranian loan-words in the Niya Prakrit, indicating a considerable influence from that quarter (Burrow 1937: vii; Mallory and Mair 2000: 278).

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Note the similarities with GandharI which also regularly voices or drops intervocalic consonants and those Prakrits (like Pali) which haphazardly drop or add aspiration to consonantal stops. (e.g. Pali in Geiger §40, §62; AMg et al. , Fischel §206-14). How much these practices were influenced by bilingual Tokharian speakers isimpossible to say; with the limited data we have it is impossible to establish an evolutionary chronology. Tocharian appears to have arrived in the Tarim basin area, even earlier than Indo-Iranian language speakers, with antecedents in the Afanasievo culture of the Altai and Minusinsk regions (3500-2500 BCE), although several other theories are also tenable (Mallory & Mair 2000: 290-296; Mallory 2010: 50-53). There is evidence for the mixing of Tocharian and Indic languages from the third century BCE, when an Indian colony was established in Khotan (the neighbouring kingdom immediately to the west of Shanshan), presumably by one of Asoka's progeny (Lamotte 1988 [1958]: 257-259). 8.6 Old Sinhalese Prakrit

As stated earlier (section §5) MI records of the early Buddhist teachings have been preserved only in P, G and BHS. Another Indic language that is relevant to our study however is Old Sinhalese (OS); although geographically distant from the languages we have been discussing it has nevertheless had an important influence on the language of early Buddhism, because of Asoka's son Mahinda's early translation of the Tipifaka commentaries into this language in the third century BCE (Ciilavaf!lsa 37: 228), and their re-translation into Pali by Buddhaghosa in the 5th century CE. Presumably the source teachings were also translated into Old Sinhalese very early on, as King Devanampiya Tissa (247-207 BCE) was converted by Mahinda's preaching of the Ciilahatthipadopamasutta (MN 1, 17513 -18420) and other suttas which would have been taught in the King's native language. 397

3 'fl

In theMahiival!lsa 14, v. 65 we read the following: Lankiidipe so satthukappo akappo Lankiidhitthiine dvfsu thiinesu thero Dhammalfl bhiisitvii di.pabhiisiiya eval!l Saddhammotiiralfl kiirayf di.padipo ti. translated by Geiger (1964: 96) as "When thus in the isle of Lanka the peerless thera, like unto the Master in the protection of Lanka, had preached the true doctrine in two places, in the speech of the island, he, the light of the island, thus brought to pass the descent of the true faith."

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Table 7: Old Sinhalese consonant inventory (from Karunatillake 2001: §2.2.1).

Stops Nasals Semivowel Lateral Trill Spirants

Labial

Dental

Retroflex

Palatal

Velar

p b m

t d n

t

C

k

g

c_i

i:i

V

y r s

h

Sri Lanka was settled by the Indo-Aryans in the sixth century BCE; the original inhabitants of the island were known as the Veddas who spoke a language of unknown genetic affinity (van Driem 2001: 217-242). The first settlers were led by Vijaya who allegedly came from north-west India, while immediately after Vijaya new immigrants arrived from the north-east of India and later from the Tamil speaking central and south parts of the continent According to Geiger (1935: xxiii - xxiv), Sinhalese had a mixed character. "The base seems to be a Western Dialect brought to the island by the first Aryan colonists. But this base is overgrown with new elements imported into Ceylon at various times, probably already soon after the colonisation and from different parts of the continental India, chiefly from the East (Kaliilga)". Old Sinhalese is an Old Prakrit which has several similarities with the language of the Asokan edicts, but also several major differences which may have led to ambiguities in the transmission (from Geiger 1935: xxiv, attested in various cave transcriptions from the second century BCE onwards): 1) de-aspiration of all aspirates: e.g. P Dhammarakkhita ('protected by the Dhamma'), Old Sihala Damarakita; sometimes the aspirated consonant is resolved by splitting, e.g. P gha,:ia ('nose') > OS gaha,:ia (Geiger 1938: §36.2). Where the aspirate is retained it does not reflect OI or :MI phonology, suggesting that these words, like the other de-aspirates, were pronounced without the aspirate, the phenomenon being due to the "pedantry of scribes" (Paranavithana 1970: xxxi). The de-aspiration feature is probably due to Dravidian influence, because of the proximity of the island to south-east India and Dravidian immigration from that locale. 2) the change of s > h, P siifika ('cloak, mantle') > OS hafika; P posatha ('recitation of the Vinaya rules') > OS pohata.

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3) Shortening of long vowels: P viipi ('tank') > OS vapi or vavi. Whether this was only graphical, as in the omission of long vowels in early continental Brahrni and Karo~thi script, is not clear (see Paranavithana 1970, xxviii, who maintains that long vowels were not pronounced in actual speech). Other graphical peculiarities are omission of nasals and anusviira before a consonant and replacement of geminate consonants by a single consonant. 4) nominative singular in -e, as is also found in AMg, MagadhI and G. 5) single intervocalic stops between vowels are non-phonemic with both lenition and fortition occurring apparently randomly (Paranavithana 1970: xxx); between vowels stops gradually disappear and by the second to fourth century CE they are replaced by ay glide; where they do occur they are usually remnants of consonant clusters (e.g. k < nk, nkh, kk, kkh, etc) virtually all of which are assimilated except for nasal+ stop, as in #3 above (Karunatillake 2001: §2.1.3 and §2.1.9.1.lb). 6) the assimilation of all consonant clusters whether at the beginning of a word or internally. Since the buddhadhamma ('teachings of the Buddha') was translated both into OS (in the third century BCE) and from OS into Pali (by Buddhaghosa who translated the affhakathii ('commentary') from OS back into Pali in the fifth century CE), it is not surprising to find "Sinhalisms" in the Pali canon, like P duta ('gambling') instead of expectedjuta < S dyuta or jighaccha ('hunger') instead of dighaccha, because of the medieval Sinhala change of j > d (von Hinuber 2001: §248). Also in Sinhalese m is sometimes substituted for v which may explain a word like P siimi ('porcupine') as a substitute for siivi (Geiger 1938 §62.2; von Hinuber §209) or Vesamal).a < S Vaisraval).a (Paranavithana 1970: 2); however the alternation of m and v is also a feature of G and other Prakrits (Brough 1962: §36; Fischel §251, 261). How many of the unetymological de-aspirations of Pali words (Geiger §40.2, 60.2) are due to Sinhalese influence is unknown; apparently in OS the writing of aspirate vs. non-aspirate consonants was orthographically in free variation (Karunatillake 2001: §2.1.1; e.g. OS jhaya written for OIA jiiyii, 'wife' and OS ra;ha written for OIA riijii, 'king'), which might also account for some of the unetymological aspiration of non-aspirated stops found in the P canon (Geiger §40.1).

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9. Discussion Table 8 compares selected features of OIA and MIA with other languages which made up the linguistic fabric oflndia at the time of the Buddha and earlier. Note that the major changes which characterize the diachronic evolution of OIA > MIA and the koineization of the MI dialects are mirrored in most of these other languages, to wit: 1) While voiceless vs. voiced stops were still phonemic in MIA, they were nevertheless weakened (voiceless > voiced) and/or eliminated (voiced > glide or voiced > 0) in different MI dialects. This process was accelerated by the fact that in PD, Tib, Krorainic, Tocharian and OS, the contrast was non-phonemic, as it was in PM in some environments. The MI koine also eliminated this contrast. 2) Sometimes (e.g.in G) the intervocalic stops were further weakened by fricativization, a process probably influenced by Aramaic where interdental spirants were allophones of the dentals and Greek koine where voiced stops also became fricatives. This phenomenon also occurred in PD and Krorainic and is found in the MI koine. 3) In many dialects of MIA, - and in the MI koine - the aspirated stop is replaced by an aspirate only. This is a normal change of OIA > MIA, but also one that was probably precipitated and accelerated by the fact that native bilingual speakers of PD, PM Tibetan, Krorainic, Tocharian and Sinahlese did not have aspirated stops as part of their phonemic inventory. Aspirated stops were also not phonemic in Aramaic and in Greek koine they were often replaced by fricatives (as in G). 4) All diphthongs are monophthongized in MIA and virtually all other Indic and non-Indic languages, reinforced this tendency to simplify OIA complex vowels. Similarly, although vowel length was phonemic in MIA and the MI koine, its importance was minimized as it was not phonemic in Greek koine, PM, Tibetan, Tocharian or Krorainic, nor was it noted in the early script. 5) One of the cardinal features of the evolution of OIA > MIA was the resolution or assimilation of consonant clusters. This process was certainly accelerated by a similar tendency in all the pre-existent non-IA languages, viz., PD, PM and the Tibetan koine, where internal conjuncts were rare. Conjuncts would only occur at morpheme boundaries.

Table 8: Comparison. feature

Voiceless vs.

Vedlc(OIA)

Phonemic

MIA

Phonemic

voiced intervocalic

MIA kolne

Mos!

Aramaic

Phon emic

Greek kolne

Phonemic

contras1s eliminated

Proto-

Proto·

llbetan

Dravidian

Munda

kolne

Non-

Phonemic

phonemic

in places

Kroralnlc

Tocharian

S inhalese

Non•

Non•

Non-

phonemic

phonemic

phonemic

Nonphonemic

Weakening of intervocalic

Occaslonally

Sporadic

Co nsistently

stops

Aspirated stops

Phonemic

Co nsistently Phonemic. replaced with aspirate only In G replaced by and other dialects aspirate only

Splran ts become allophones of the dentals

Non-phonemic

Voiced stops become fricatives

Diphthongs

of Diphthongs

Monophthongization of

Consistently

diphthongs

Contrast Is neutralized at morpheme boundaries and before vowels

Before nasals unvoiced stops are voiced

Nonphonemic, except In

Nonphonemic, except In

Nonphonemic In Proto and

borrowed words

borrowed words

Old Tib.

Voiced

stops become fricatives

Aspirated stops change to fricatives

(AMg, Mg, etc.) or fricativized Monophthonglzatlon

Unvoiced stops are voiced or

Unvoiced stops are

Unvoiced

voiced

voiced or replaced

fricatlvized.

stops are

by a glide

Nonphonemic

Nonphonemic

Nonphonemic

Phonemic

Phonemic (b ut often not written)

Yes

Monophthonglzation

Monophthonglzatlon

No

No

No

No

No

No

of diphthongs

of diphthongs

diphthongs

dlphlhongs

diphthongs

diphthongs

diphthongs

diphlhongs

Yes

Non-phonemic

Phonemic

Non· phonemic

Non· Phonemic (Lhasa dialect)

JJC ~

"'....., 0 trl

ltd

C p.

although Proto loch. had some Phonemic vo~t length

>-l

::r

"'r

stops

Non • phonemic

Non· phonemic

@' -h- (Pischel §264), felt was the earlier and "correct" reading. I can now put together a composite derivation of all these occurrences; even though they are from five different sources (theDfgha and SaT[lyutta Nikayas, the Theragatha, the Vinaya, and the Sanskrit Mahiiparinirviil}asutra), they show the different potential pathways of change with an "economy of development" (Norman 199712006: 92). 409 *veha (veha, Vin 2: 1362 0) 410

vefha

J

vet;lha vetha vedha ve(k)kha vegha dvaidha

J\

J~

vesa

~~

vefa (vefha) vidha (vetha) (dvaidha) (ve(k)kha) vega The fonns in brackets are alternate possible derivations. None of this is fortition, but normal lenition (weakening or simplification) of OI > MI (e.g. vle$ka > vekha > *veha), and an artificial reconstruction by the auditor or bhal}aka and/or later scribe as to what the intervocalic 408

I believe these are all from Th-a, vol. 2, p. 21 notes 9-11. Here there is an additional variant vogha. 409 There is also the possibility of a direct line of descent from ver;lha or vekha to these other forms (that is, not through *veha), which I show in Levman 2009: 24; however, derivation through the intermediate form *veha is more parsimonious (and would not require two separate lines of descent, from both ver;lha and vekha, to account for the present forms); in the next example we have further confirmation of the practice of aspirates replacing aspirated stops (paha, pabha, etc.), where both forms are preserved in the text. 4 10 The variant form veha is found in the oldest Pali mss we possess from the ninth century; in von Hiniiber 1991: 35 16. At this point in the story, the Buddha says that various kinds of buckles (e.g. those made of gold and silver) should not be worn (na bhikkhave ucciivii(!)cii vehii dhiiretavvii), per von Hiniiber's text; exclamation mark (!) in original. na bhikkhave ucciivacii vidhii dhiiretabbii in the PTS (Vin 2: 13620).

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aspirate -h- in *veha stood for; that is, a backfmmation or Sanskritization. This is the most logical, parsimonious explanation for the variation that has come down to us, as the consonants are too disparate to result from "natural variation or transmission errors" (Karpik 2019a: 19). Natural variation could not produce so many different types of phonetically unrelated aspirated stops and other variants. There may indeed be some possible diffusionary influence here, e.g. vegha > vega or vetha > vefa, but much of the variation is not genetically related (different places of articulation, i.e., dental, retroflex, velar), and appears to result from back-formations, that is, interpretations of *veha.

Derivation of *pal,a Another example where the malleable, intermediate (koine') form has also been preserved in the Pali is the derivation of *paha, which occurs in the Buddha's description of nibbcma as vinnii,:zaf!J anidassanaf!) anantaf!) sabbato-pabhaf!) (D 1: 223 12, "Where consciousness is non-manifesting, endless, shining everywhere," Levman 2014: 378-387; 2019: 66). Here six variants (five, ifpabhuta and prabhu are grouped since they both are derived from Skt pra + bhu) have been preserved, which all point to an underlying common-denominator form *paha (which is also preserved in the commentary). This runs as follows: *paha (D 1: 223 12 ; Sv 393 18)

pabha

~~ J \ ~ ~ prthu pabhuta prabhu papalpapha patha

(Tibetan bdag po) "shining" "expansive" "pervading" "Lord" DN1:213 1 Be Zhou 2008: 297

411

Ps413 19 Ps-t318Be

"ford" 411

"pathway"

Levman Sadd62221 AMg(paha) 2014: 382-383 Sv 393 19

Buddhaghosa interprets paha//1 = papa//1 (Sv 3 93 19), "a place where people drink," therefore a fording place to cross over into nibbiina. Sv 393 18- 19: Pabhan ti papaJ/1. EtaJ/1 kira titthassa niimaJ/1. TaJ/1 hi pipanti ettha ti papa//1, Pa-karassa pana bha-k aro kato. "pabha//1 is the name of a fording place, for that name (papa//1) means 'here they drink.' The pa- syllable has been changed to a bha- syllable." Hence sabbato-pabha//1 [= sabbato-papam] means "everywhere a fording place" or "a fording place to everywhere."

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All of these interpretations of sabbato-paham are appropriate descriptions of the supreme state ("shining everywhere," "pervading everywhere," and so forth). ))aha is the earliest recoverable word, pointing to an underlying idiom where aspirated stops were transmitted as aspirates only. After a time, tradents became unsure of what word ))aha represented-whether prabha, prthu, pabhu(ta), a form of the Skt root pa ("to drink"; papa or papha), or patha-and various interpretations were made, as above. All of these are Sanskritizations, that is, restorations of an element (in this case an aspirated stop), which makes the transmission more like OI. These are not natural fortitions; they are man-made revisions. 412

Other exam pies There are many more examples that can be cited to confirm this directionality, OI > }v1I followed by partial restoration of OI features (Sanskritization). §ata

The OI word for one hundred is sata. This weakens in Middle Indic at first to §ada (GandharI, -t- > -d-) and further to saya in AMg and Jaina Mahari'i$1-fI (s- >s- and -t- > -d- > -y-, Fischel §448; Mylius 2003: 618).413 We have ample evidence from the Asokan edicts that, at least in some dialects (that of the north-west, for example), the intervocalic stop had changed to a glide or had disappeared (Levman 2014: 144-46). Plus there is reason to believe that the Asokan inscriptions were more conservative than the colloquial languages of the day, which were more advanced

412

For a fuller discussion of this derivation see Levman 2014: 378-387. Norman (1987: 30; also Collected Papers_3: 189) does not feel these variants trace back to the original pre-P reading, but to a Sinhalese scribal traditions where ha and bha were confused. However, he did not have the Tibetan example (prthul!l) which came to light in 2008 and tends to confirm the above derivation. Confusion ofletters is a possibility, but when all variants can be traced to the back-formation from an underlying, malleable form, the latter explanation seems much more cogent and compelling. 4 13 The -y- glide indicates the loss of an intervocalic stop per Pischel (§187), who calls it a very lightly articulated, a "hiatus-eraser" (Hiattilger in German), a laghuprayatnatara ya-kiira ("Lightly articulated-y- syllable").

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phonologically (Luders 1954: 9). 414 We may reasonably expect, as Norman has intuited (1983: 4-5; see quote below, page 291), that the language of the Buddha or his disciples used a similar phonological form as the other MI Prakrits, and that the "backwards" change of -y- > -t- in Pali (sata) is a Sanskritization, that is, a movement which adds in an OI element (the unvoiced -t-) to the MI Prakrit. None of the other coeval Prakrits restored the Skt form except Pali. Many more examples of common words like sata can be adduced; here I give only two more.

loka (Skt "world") > loga (-k- > -g-; Asokan edicts Jaugada II 7) > loga AMg > Zaya (-k- > -g- > -y- AMg) > loa (-k- > -g- > -y- > 0; Prakrits, Pischel § 164). G has several variants loga, loku, loo. Again Pali has restored the Skt form, loka. tiidrsa (Skt "such-like") > tadisa (G) > tiiyin (Mvu, Mahiivastu, with intervocalic -d- > -y-) 415 > tiii (AMg). Pali preserves the forms tiidi and tiidisa, where the underlying -d- has been restored, apparently back-formed from the intervocalic -y- glide. Although most aspirated stops have been restored in P to their Skt form, we sometimes find the older form preserved with the aspirate only. So, for example, for the Skt laghu ("light"), P preserves the Prakrit forms lahullahutii ("lightness"), with the aspirate stop -gh- > aspirate only -h-, a normal OI > MI change. Or it preserves both the OI and MI forms side by side, as in Skt rudhira ("blood") > P rudhira and ruhira, where the Sanskritization ofruhira > rudhira is incomplete. We find the same doubleform phenomenon in various verbs based on the Skt root dhii, like dahatildadhiiti ("to put" < Skt dhii). This led to various ambiguities in the canon, where a word like sammii-pahiina could be interpreted as either 414

Per Senart (1892: 145-55) conjunct consonants may have been written in that form (in deference to S tatsamas) but were pronounced as geminates, as was the case for the sibilants, which, though sometimes written as retroflex and palatal s- ($ and sin the northwestern dialects for example), were nevertheless pronounced as a single dentals-. Norman also notes that the Gandhar1 script in the Giindhiirf Dharmapada was archaic and represented the oral language of two centuries previously (1997/2006: 144). Masica (1991: 51) notes the same phenomenon, that the MI spoken vernacular had evolved much further than the literary language in which they were written. 415 This example is from the Sabhiyasutta of the Sutta-Nipiita (Sn), where P has tiidi in verse 522-d, but the Mvu has tiiyi (3: 3972) in the parallel form.

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"right effort" ( < Skt dhii) or "right abandoning" ( < Skt root hii; Levman 2014: 171-72). For Skt roga ("illness"), Pali preserves roga and pa-loka (idem) with a fortition of -g- > -k- (and shows the common alteration between western r- and eastern l-). This points to an underlying form roya which indeed is attested in the Prakrits (e.g. AMg roya). Pali did not exist in a vacuum; it followed the natural process of MI evolution, as did all the other Prakrits. One might object that this is all hypothesis and that the timescale of change MI > Pali is impossible to determine. I would agree that a determination with any degree of precision is not possible; but it is a reasonable and parsimonious hypothesis which is strengthened by the correspondence sets in Levman 2019a and 2020b, and further discussed below.

5. Timescale The above process applies to most of the derivations I provide in Levman 2019. The major point here is that Pali cannot have been the language in which the Buddha taught, as it is full ofvariants and Sanskritizations, which, when comparing cognate correspondent sets, point to an underlying, earlier layer. I have called this layer a koine, a simplified interlect which removed those phonemic differences impeding communication, both within MI communities speaking different dialects and between MI speaking and indigenous communities speaking a different language which lacked part of the phonemic structure of Ml. But whether one views it as a koine, lingua franca, or simply a malleable dialect(s) which simplified aspirated stops to aspirates and intervocalic stops to glides, etc. (which seems to be Norman's position) is unimportant, and does not affect the main argument here, viz., the presence of an earlier layer in the Pali transmission. 416 From these and other examples we can infer a timescale in approximately five different stages (Levman 2020b: 142-43): Stage One Fixing of the Vedic canon, MI present in nascent form

416

Norman, for example, in his study of the Sabhiya sutta shows that the sutta was composed in a dialect where "some, at least, of the intervocalic consonants had developed into -y-" (1980a: 175 or 1991: 151; 1997/2006: 85). That "clialect" may well have been a koine.

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Stage Two Diversification of the proto-Middle Indic Prakrits Stage Three Continuing evolution and diversification of Middle Indic dialects and development of a koine for mutual intelligibility between the dialects and the autochthonous languages who spoke MI as a second language. 417 Stage Four Redacted/Sanskritized MI (Pali in inchoate form) Stage Five Standardization and harmonization of the Pali canon, which continued until medieval times. Since the fixing of the Vedic canon can be dated to approximately 14001000 BCE (Jamison & Brereton 2014: 5),4 18 and the beginning emergence of Pali in its present form to perhaps the mid-third century BCE, this provides an approximate start and end date for the scale, giving us approx. a millennium for the process of diversification, koineization, evolution of Pali and its Sanskritization and standardization to take place. The earliest recoverable language of Buddhism may be placed in Stage three; although time scales are impossible to fix in absolute terms, one may infer that MI had perhaps half a millennium to evolve and diversify before a koine was necessary for communication, which may have developed hundreds of years before the birth of the Buddha. Norman dates the existence of a malleable Prakrit with intervocalic -y- (which I equate with a koine) to "the beginning of the fourth century B.C." (1980a: 74, also in CP 2, 143). 419

417

Stages two and three might well be occurring simultaneously, as the more diversification there was, the more need for an inter-language (Christoph Emmrich, personal communication) 418 Von Hiniiber (1996a: 194) suggests that "the first Middle Indic traces thus emerge from the very oldest Indian literature extant, that is from about 1000 B.C." 419 He compares parallel excerpts from the Sabhika sutra in the Mahiivastu and the Sabhiya sutta in the Sutta-Nipiita, which demonstrate an underlying, earlier idiom

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We cannot get back to Stage two except by inference. Von Hinuber, for example, suggests that the Buddha taught in an eastern Middle Indic which developed into what he calls "Buddhist Middle Indic" (von Hinuber 183: 9 or 2005: 193) which would be similar to my postulated koine of Stage 3; 420 but exactly where the Buddha fits in to this timescale-whether in Stage two or three above-is impossible to determine. I have argued (Levman 2016a; 2019) that the most parsimonious and reasonable hypothesis is that the Buddha taught in a koine (Stage three) which later evolved into Pali through Sanskritization, reworkings and revisions ofthe type outlined above. Rather than stating the "Buddha taught in this idiom," a more defensible statement would be, "this is the earliest recoverable language of Buddhism" (Levman 2019a: 63, footnote 1).

6. Pali as a natural language It may be argued that the composite character of Pali is a normal feature of natural language evolution (Karpik 2019a: 34£). Certainly every language has some artificial elements in it, adopted from predecessor or coeval linguistic forms. When scholars talk about Pali as an artificial language, they are referring to its Sanskritization and normalization, that is, a deliberate interference with the normal development of a language. This has been noted by many scholars including von Hinuber (1982: 133-40; 1983a: 1-9; 1996: 190); Bechert (1980: 15); and Norman 1983: 4- 5; 1988: 15-16 or CP 3: 237-239). Von Hinuber talks of the "backward movement" (restoration or Sanskritization of 01 forms or forms closer to 01):

common to both as pre-dating the Second Council where the Theravadins and the Mahasanghikas split. Norman dates the Second Council to 383 BCE, based on the "corrected long chronology," which dates the Buddha's death around the beginning of the fifth century BCE; therefore, this Prakrit existed with these features noted about one hundred years later, that is the beginning of the fourth century BCE. In the "short chronology" the Buddha's parinibbana occurs around 380 BCE. 420 Erratum in Levman 2019a: 66, " ... an eastern Middle Indic which he called 'Buddhist Middle Indic' should read "an eastern Middle Indic which developed into 'Buddhist Middle Indic.' Von Hiniiber felt thatBMI developed later than the lifetime of the Buddha (2004: 625), no doubt mindful of Liider' s observation that the "Urkanon" appeared to be younger than Asoka's edicts, being at a "further stage of development" ("auf einer weiteren Stufe der Entwicklung", 1954: 8). But Liiders also noted that the "Umgangssprache" (vernacular) was much further advanced than Asoka's Kanzleisprache (administrative language of government), perhaps by as much as two centuries as other scholars have suggested (see footnote 414 above).

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.. .it may be surmised that the earliest language of Buddhism, perhaps during the lifetime of the Buddha himself, was well advanced into the direction of much later Middle Indic, if compared to Pali. Thus some kind of backward movement can be observed in the linguistic history of Middle Indic at the transition from the precanonical language to Pali. This can hardly indicate anything else than raising texts originally formulated in a more colloquial way to literary standards, where, as usual, a much more conservative language prevailed (von Hinuber, 1996a: 190).

He also calls this a form of diaskeuasis or revision (< Greek ow.mcwaCJTrf< -v(v)- interchange is also constrained by the fact that a lot of coeval, autochthonous languages in the Indian linguistic area lacked the -vphoneme (proto-Munda, proto-Tibetan, Krorainic, Tocharian, protoBurmese, to name a few; Levman 2016a: 34), which would be a strong factor tending to level the two sounds to one. The ambivalence between the two sounds is reflected in the Pali orthography, where there are several words spelled in different fashions, e.g. Pali dibba (OI divya, "divine"), which is also spelled divya and diviya (divva in Prakrit and AMg); vyatta ("learned"), also spelled byatta and viyatta; vyiikara,:1a ("grammar, explanation") also spelled byiikarana and veyyiikara,:1a, to name a few. This is not just a matter of spelling, as the reading without the conjunct is in most cases the earlier reading; the restoration of the conjunct being a later Sanskritization. 428 So there does not appear to be a timeline that can be inferred for the -vy- conjunct > -bb- to Pali and later to -vv-, as they exist side-by-side. A better solution to the -bb-1-vv- question lies with Junghare's (1979: 9596) and Grierson's (1925: 231-34) suggestion that the two sounds are allophonic. This hypothesis is strengthened by the lack of the -v- sound in various of the autochthonous languages, and the mixed orthography of -vand -b- in Pali. Therefore, the lack of the -bb- geminate in the Asokan inscriptions is just a scribal or orthographic peculiarity of the Asokan chancellery and no timeline conclusions should be inferred from it.

428

Other examples include vyuha, byuha; vyiipiida, byiipiida; viyaggha, biyaggha; etc. See also, for example avyattena vs. aviyattena ("unlearned") in von Hinuber 1983c: 81 -82, where the author argues that the latter reading without conjunct is the earlier reading.

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Gemination and Degemination The "rule" that geminates do not undergo lenition is belied by the many examples we have of such in the Pali canon, including the example discussed in the Dhp (verse 335: abhivaffhaf!l, abhivaffaf!l, abhivarj,rj,haf!l, abhivuf/hGf!l and abhivurj,efhaf!l; Levman 2019a: 78). To argue that these are not phonological changes but orthographic errors is to confuse a literary timeline with an oral transmission timeline. 429 Indeed, in a literary language -!!h- > -rj,r}h- would be unusual. The text would act as a corrective and prevent it. But in an oral transmission where the tradents were not familiar with the -!!h- sound (e.g. MI as second language speakers, whose native language lacked the retroflex phoneme as in proto-Tibetan; or the distinction between voiced and unvoiced stops as in proto-Dravidian languages; or MI dialect speakers who tended to voice intervocalic stops, as in Gandhari), there was no standard to measure against. So if the consonants were not enunciated clearly, without any pause between the syllables (viccheda), but in continuous flow (ekabaddha), the sound would be transmitted as -!h- or -r}h-. (see von Hinuber 1997: 122 or 2005: 226 for an example re: anunasika). This is a normal form of lenition, called degemination; as Ven. Thanuttamo observed, "it happens naturally for most of the Pali chanters nowadays, even though they know the rules." The reader may perform a simple sound-experiment to see for her/himself. What is usually transmitted ( especially for an English language speaker who lacks these geminate sounds of stop + aspirated stop) is abhivafha, not abhivaffha. Indeed, this is reflected in the orthography (and the sonic content) of the earliest transmissions we possess (Asokan edicts and GandharI manuscripts); 430 429

Karpik (2019b: 109). A geminate in linguistics is a doubled consonant. A stop+ aspirated stop, being two different consonants, is not a geminate strictu sensu; here I will refer to it as an "aspirated geminate," where the second member of the geminate is aspirated. Karpik's argument, that geminates do not undergo lenition, would make for a lot of spelling mistakes in the canon, as it contains hundreds of alteration of voiced and unvoiced geminates (like -ff- >< -r;/r;/-) and voiced and unvoiced stops+ aspirated stop pairs (aspirated geminates, e.g. -ffh- >< -r;lr;lh-). Some of these are orthographic, but many are phonological. See examples below. 430 If one looks through the PTS version of the Sutta-Nipiita, for example (a very early work), the reader will find dozens of examples of aspirated stops with variant aspirated geminates and single stops with double stop variants, showing that often the sound of the geminate was not communicated, heard, or both. This phenomenon was compounded by the Dravidian practice of voicing all intervocalic stops, which was negated with a geminate unvoiced stop, e.g. Tamil piifu, "to sing," pronounced piir;lu - Tamil piiffu, "song" pronounced pii(f)fu, when they were followed by a

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in my 2019 paper I give exact GandharI analogies to the Dhp words in question in the forms of vrsti, represented by G vu/hi (cfDhp: abhivuttha or abhivattha) and vrddha by G vrudha (Dhp: abhivu#ha or abhiva#ha, p. 79: footnote 12) from the GandharI Dharmapada. This is not just a matter of orthography but actual sound change. 431 Not only GandharI, but all the earIiest written forms ( e. g. the Brahmi script) did not notate geminates, including of course the earliest written forms we have, the Asokan edicts. So this is no impediment to this particular example. I am arguing that sometimes geminates were heard as single consonants, that is, degeminated, and the normal phonological laws oflenition of intervocalic stops, etc., were operative. In the Pali canon there are lots of cases where geminates like these undergo lenition. 432 Li.iders discusses several examples in his 1954 study (§149-158) of geminate and aspirate geminate lenition, which he attributes for the most part to a lenition of the Ostsprache ("eastern

formative or derivative suffix (Krishnamurti 2003: 90-91 ). The gerninate in Dravidian was a "simplex" element (Zvelebil 1990: §1.7.5); although for a modern native speaker there would be a slight difference in sound between pii-tu and piit-tu (in that the first syllable in the first word is an open syliable whereas it is closed in the second word), non-native IA speakers would be unlikely to hear a difference, especially in rapid communication. In some Dravidian languages (Kui, Kuvi, Pengo, Manc;la), there was no contrast between single and double consonants (Krishnamurti 2003: 163); and in PD, when roots of (C)VC (e.g. piit-) and (C)VCC (piitt-) were not followed by a formative or derivative suffix (the enunciative vowel -u is not such a suffix), there was also no contrast. As this book has tried to show, many of the early members of the Buddhist sangha spoke Dravidian as their first language, and Pali (or the koine!dialect underlying Pali) as their second. 431 Pischel (§304) gives many examples where the or -:fta- conjunct (as in my example of abhivr.ta), which normally changes to -ttha- in MI, omits the first stop and changes to -r/ha- (ve,ta > verjha; ve,tana > ver/hal_la; sli,ti > serjhi and many others), which might lead to the confusion of abhivr.ta with abhivrddha (abhivu(r/)r/ha in MI), which I cite in Levman (2019: 78). Closer to home, or a.ta ("eight"), although spelled attha in Pali, occurs as ar/ha in AMg (Pischel ibid; Mylius 2003: 48, s.v. ar/hiirasaga ("eighteen"). Another example of this phenomenon is the or conjunct-¼-, which usually changes within a word to -kkhin MI and Pali, but in Pali sukhuma ("tender" < or su¼ma) the gemination is lost. 432 e.g. Some random variants showing lenition and/or fortition of geminate stops and aspirated geminate stops: Kevatta - Keva(l d) and another which elided them (e.g. k and t > y), suggesting that Pali was translated from a dialect which was "already mixed" (1993a: 163). Yet why these "mixture of dialects or sub-dialects" (1997/2006: 95) could not have functioned as a linguafranca or koine is not clear. 439

11. Linguistic evolution vs. linguistic diffusion Linguistic evolution vs. linguistic diffusion is an old debate which has been ongoing since the founding of linguistics as a social science in the nineteenth century. As in most antipodal views, the answer lies in the middle; both processes of diachronic evolution and coeval language influence are important for shaping linguistic history. The present discussion goes back over one hundred years to Levi and Geiger's dialogue on the origins of Pali. Levi concentrated on what he saw as the pre-Pali layer, which he called une langue precanonique (1912: 495514); Geiger attributed most of these anomalies which Levi discussed to dialect variation, verschiedenen mundartlichen Erscheinungen (1916: 4). As far as I am aware, Geiger was the first to call Pali a lingua franca and

439

Especially since Norman himself uses the term "linguafranca" in his description of Pali (e.g. Norman 1983: 5; 1989a: 35, or CP 4: 100); the answer I think is the variable usage ofthe word linguafranca in the literature. Scholars like Rhys Davids, Smith (koine), von Hinuber and myself use it to refer to a pre-Pali idiom that evolved into Pali. Others, like Norman use the term to refer to Pali itself in its standardized form, containing elements of all dialects; presumably it is a "lingua franca" because it facilitated communication between linguistically diverse monastic individuals and groups. Geiger seems to use it in both ways: the Buddha spoke in a lingua franca = Magadhi, which was similar to Pali, but had some artificial elements added after his death (the Kunstsprache ).

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Smith the first to call it a koine (1952: 178: koine gangetique) 440 and both terms seem to be used interchangeably in the literature ever since. 441 Norman, for example, calls Pali a "mixed dialect.. .probably a kind of ecclesiastical koine, the lingua franc a of the Theravadins of the eastern part of India... " (1989: 35, or CP 4: 100).

By lingua franc a, Geiger meant the inter-language of trade and government to which artificial elements were added, after the death of the Buddha, "Mit dem Tode des Meisters muBte ... in gewissem Sinn aus seiner Sprache eine Kunstsprache werden" (1916: 4, "With the death of the master, in a ce11ain sense, his language must have become an artificial language"). 442 Geiger's insights into the development of Pali are still a propos: Diese Sprache des Buddha war nun aber gewiJ3 kein reiner Volksdialekt, sondem eine dariiber stehende Hoch- und Gebildetensprache, wie schon in vorbuddhistischer Zeit die Bedurfnisse des Verkehrs in Indien sie geschaffen batten. Eine solche lingua franca enthielt naturgema.13 Elemente aus alien Dialekten, wird sich aber gerade von den auffallendsten rnundartlichen Erscheinungen frei gehalten haben. Aber sie war gewiJ3 nicht vollkommen einheitlich (p. 3-4). The language of the Buddha was certainly not a pure demotic dialect, but an elevated and educated language standing above it, which the needs of traffic and intercourse had created already in pre-Buddhist times. Naturally such a lingua franca contains elements from all dialects and was free of the most conspicuous dialectal phenomena. But it was certainly not completely standardized.

440

Smith's observation that preceding Pali there was a "koine gangetique dont l'ardhamagadhI et le Pali representent Jes normalisations Jes plus anciennes'' is in fact still relevant today. Rhys Davids (1908: 3) believed that the Buddha spoke Kosalan (the language of the kingdom which had suzerainty of the Sakyas) which was itself a lingua franca, the language of the government, court and upper class of that part of India. Pali developed out of this, after a good deal of Sanskritization (Rhys Davids 1911: 128-139). 441 A lingua franca refers to an inter-language between those with different mother tongues (e.g. between indigenous speakers and MI speakers); a koine is an interlanguage between those of different dialects (e.g. between MI speakers of different dialects). Both are applicable to the linguistic scene in northern India during the first half of the first millennium BCE. See Levman 2016a: 4 for definition discussion. 442 In Levman 2019a: 73 I identify Geiger's term Kunstsprache with the pre-Pali idiom; Geiger used it to refer to the artificial language that developed after the Buddha's parinibbiina.

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So Geiger's view seems to be that there was a lingua franc a in use well before the time of the Buddha, for purposes of intercommunication in India, which was yet not a uniform, standardized idiom. This was the language of the Buddha. He also calls it a Verkehrssprache ("inter language, common, language, linguafranca", p. 4). He says it was not a "pure people's dialect" (Volksdialekt) but an elevated language of the educated, which he equates with MagadhI, without all ofMagadhI's gross dialectal peculiarities (grobmundartlichen Eigentiimlichkeiten, p. 4). Out of and alongside this lingua franca developed the Kunstsprache or artificial language of Pali. So although he disagrees with Levi's take on linguistic evolution, he himself seems to present an outline of historical evolutionary change, without providing any more details. As I said previously, Geiger's view is not very different from my own (2019: 69) in that we both associate Pali with a lingua franc a or koine. For Geiger, Pali evolved out of the lingua .franca which the Buddha spoke with some artificial elements added later, after the death of the Buddha; these are presumably the "dialectal influences," which he refers to in his grammar, and later Sanskritizations. I maintain that the lingua franca or koine developed into Pali, over a much longer timespan; I would not characterize Pali primarily as a lingua .franca or koine (because of extensive later Sanskritization), but a later idiom which still preserves the essence of the Buddha's teaching, but with some change in lexemic content, phonology, morphology and sometimes meaning, as I have outlined here and in Levman 2019. We also diverge on other issues: I don't believe this linguafranca had MagadhI as its source, but that it arose as a true interlect of all the dialects of east, west and north India, with special influence from the north-west and with due regard paid to the phonemic constraints of indigenous language speakers; nor would I characterize it as an elevated or educated language, but a true vernacular fonn accessible to all social classes. 443 Much of the controversy over the nature and origin of Pali would be mitigated or resolved if the protagonists took a more middle way position: both synchronic and diachronic factors have played a role in the development of the language. So, although Geiger disagrees, both Levi and Luders are correct in their findings that underlying Pali was an earlier dialect or koine, and Geiger is correct in seeing dialect influences as another significantfactor in Pali' s development. Add to this Pali' s long oral tradition, 443

As indeed the "class" structure of the early Sangha shows, comprising people from all walks of life: from Brahmans to businessmen, criminals to tradespeople, kings to servants, nobles and courtesans, both men and women.

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which necessarily introduced more synchronic, diachronic and transmissional change, Sanskritizations, the constraints of indigenous phonologies introduced by those who spoke Pali as a second language, the influence of Old Sinhalese where the canon was committed to writing and the influence of the grammarians, and one has the major factors that account for Pali in its received state. It is a complex picture that can not be resolved by reference to only one cause.

12. Conclusion \Vhy is all this important? In the Khippanisantisutta, Ananda asks Sariputta what constitutes a bhikkhu of quick apprehension (khippa-nisanti). Sariputta answers that Ananda is bahussuto ("very learned") and he should answer the question himself, which he does as follows: Jdhiivuso Siiriputta bhikkhu attha-kusalo ca hoti dhamma-kusalo ca vyanjana-kusalo ca nirutti-kusalo ca, pubba-apara-kusalo ca. Ettiivatii kho iivuso Siiriputta bhikkhu khippanisanti ca hoti kusalesu dhammesu suggahita-ggiihi ca bahun ca gal_lhiiti gahitan c 'assa na pamussati (AN 3: 20!23-27)

Here, friend Sariputta, a monk is skilled in meaning, skilled in the Dhamma, skilled in the sounds and letters, skilled in the terminology, and skilled in what comes before and what goes after. In this way, friend Sariputta, a monk is one of quick apprehension of the virtuous teachings, one who understands well what he has learned, learns much, and does not forget what he has learned.

According to Norman, philology's role is to the question "Not 'what does it mean?' but 'why or how does it mean it?"' (1997/2006: 10). The purpose of philology then is understanding of the teachings, the clarification of anomalous forms and ambiguities that have been transmitted over time, and an understanding of the pathways by which they have reached us. This helps us come closer to what the Buddha actually said, identify the earliest recoverable language ofBuddhism, and understand its phonological, morphological and semantic characteristics. Philology isolates ambiguities and tries to determine whether they were deliberately intended by the composer, or caused by human interference. It is the study of the principle of anicca and paficca samuppada, the Buddhist analogue to descent with variation, in the linguistic realm. One who understands the terminology, the sounds and letters, how they change over time, what comes before and what

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comes after, ajjhattal[l-in individual suttas-and bahiddhii-in historical development, he/she has learned much and will not forget.

Acknowledgement I would like to thank Prof. Christoph Emmrich at the University of Toronto, Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi and Ven. Thanuttamo for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this chapter

SECTION THREE PALI, THE TRANSMISSION

SANK4MANA

CHAPTER EIGHT THE MEANING OF SATI IN THE BURMESE TRADITION AND AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PALI MYANMA ABHIDHAN' DICTIONARY

Abstract This chapter examines how the meaning of sati (usually translated "mindfulness") has changed over time. In the suttas the word has multifarious meanings, all of which appear to be based on and associated with the root meaning of the word as "memory" (from the OI root smr, "to remember, recall, recollect"); specifically, remembering the Buddha's teachings. This chapter deals with the changing nuances of the word and the new connotations, which, divorced from its core denotation of memory, have become a centrepiece of the secularized mindfulness movement in Europe and North America. The modern mindfulness movement traces the word's spiritual heritage to the Sayadaws of Burma and this chapter analyzes the understanding of the term in the great Burmese tradition, showing that sati never lost touch with its root meaning of memory of the Buddha's teachings, no matter what other secondary connotations are now associated with it.

Introduction The origins of the western mindfulness movement can be traced in no small part to the resurgence of meditation practice in twentieth century Burma, initiated by Ledi Sayadaw (0 Nfu.ladhaja,1846-1923),444 Mingun Jetavan Sayadaw (U Narada, 1868-1955) and the meditation lineages that they established. S. N. Goenk:a (1924-2013) was himself a student of Ledi 444 The word Sayadaw (oo~Go:f.) in Burmese) means "the presiding monk of a Buddhist monastery" (Myanmar-English Dictionary, p. 130 = MyED). 006P is derived from Pali iicariya (''teacher"); Go:f.) is an honorific affix denoting power, sacredness, reverence or royalty.

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Sayadaw's student U Ba Khin (1899-1971), and Mahasi Sayadaw (0 Sobhana, 1904-1982) was a student of Mingun Jetavan Sayadaw. Their techniques were imported to America by Jack Kornfield (b. 1945), Joseph Goldstein (b. 1944) and Sharon Salzberg (b. 1952), who founded the Insight Meditation Society (IlVlS) along with Jacqueline Schwartz in 1976. Goenka's first meditation centre was established in 1969 and evolved to the Vipassana Research Institute ( established in 1985), which has since spread all over the world. The history of this movement with an emphasis on Ledi Sayadaw is told by Erik Braun in his recent (2013) book, The Birth of Insight. Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw. In it he notes a general trend towards secularization initiated by U Ba Khin and Goenka, whereby meditation is taken out of its parochial Buddhist context and taught simply as a method for leading a healthy, stress-free way of life; in Goenka' s organization it is a "non-sectarian and universal practice explicitly available to all religious adherents" (160). In the hands of Jon Kabat-Zinn (b. 1944), a student of Kornfield, Goldstein and Robert Hover (a western disciple of U Ba Khin), this trend towards secularization and psychologization became even more widespread. Part of this reconstitution of meditation as a secular practice involved the redefinition of sati, usually translated "mindfulness" and a central part of Buddhist tranquility (samatha) and insight meditation (vipassanii) practice, as outlined in the well-known Satipat/hiina ("establishment of mindfulness") sutta. Mindfulness for Ledi fits with its characterization in the canonical text as the ability to bring knowledge ofthe Dhamma to bear on the present moment, rooted in one of the establishings (upatfhiinas). In other words, it is a sort of double-faceted mental state: recollection of Buddhist truths combined with awareness of immediate sensate experience. It is not simply "bare awareness" as one finds it often defined in later literature. That characterization of mindfulness emerges from the teaching tradition of Mahasi ... There is a particular emphasis on the practice of mindfulness (sati), understood as a nonjudgmental state of choiceless, present-moment awareness, that has its roots in the Mahasi-inflected lineage of IMS teaching .... mindfulness in the orthodox Theravada conception is not conceptualized as merely neutral observation; it includes a governing awareness of Buddhist truths about the nature of the world. (Braun 143: 166).

The Middle Indic word sati (Pali; AMg sai; GandharI spadi or svadi; SauresenT sadi) is derived from Old lndic smrti, where it clearly had the primary meaning of remembrance, the "body of sacred tradition remembered

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by human teachers," that is, the Vedaii.gas, Srauta and G:rhyasutras, Itihasas, Pura1.1as and law-codes in the Brahmanical tradition (MW). Alongside this definition Buddhism developed a parallel and complementary meaning of "clear, present-moment awareness," without in any way giving up its traditional root meaning of memory; but of course Buddhist writings interpret memory not in terms of recalling Brahmanical sacred works, but remembering the teachings of the Buddha. Scholars have recently engaged in a dialogue as to the "true" meaning of sati in the Buddhist suttas, and how much its pedigree of "recollection" is still explicit or implicit in the word, so there is no need to revisit this. Interested readers can refer to these articles. 445 In addition there is now a large body of work since Braun on the secularization of Theravadin mindfulness practice, which the interested reader may consult. Robert Sharf (2015) questions the value of mindfulness shorn of its Buddhist source and its ethical context; Huntington calls psychotherapy's mindfulness techniques a "Triumph of Narcissism," that is, an effective excising of"the soteriological heart of Buddhism, the great, sacred mystery of the transcendent" (lok:uttara), embodied in teachings on no-self' (644). And Bhikkhu Bodhi, while sympathetic to the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction movement, voiced these reservations about severing mindfulness practice from the buddhadhamma: The aim of the [secular Western mindfulness] practice was still said to be freedom, but it was an immanent freedom, really more a kind of inner healing than liberation ( vimutti) in the classical sense of the word. This reconceptualization of the training may have made the practice of mindfulness much more palatable than would have been the case if it were taught in its original context. But the omission may have set in motion a process that, for all its advantages, is actually eviscerating mindfulness from within (2016: 14).

Much of the dialogue on this subject is predicated on an interpretation of what the Pali word mindfulness (sati) actually means and to what extent recollection and retention of the Buddha's teachings are central to its semantic core. Mindfulness in the western context has been redefined as "present moment awareness" and "bare attention," but the word has a rich paramparii ("lineage"), going back to the Buddha himself, which suggests a much broader and more inclusive definition. Scholars have argued that the present mindfulness movement is a "reframing" of Burmese Buddhist 445

See Levman 2017b, 2018a and 2018b, and Analayo 2018a, 2018b and 2018c and references therein.

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meditation practice, a reinterpretation of traditional Buddhist theory in a modern historical and cultural context (Stuart 2017; and see Analayo 2018c); that is certainly the case. The purpose of this chapter is not to make any judgments as to whether such a re-purposement is "valid" or not-as the success of the modern Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction movement makes such a question meaningless-but to provide the reader an understanding of the word in the Burmese tradition, as the proximate source of the western mindfulness movement. Ledi Sayadaw himself defines sati definitively as recollection, that is as "constant mindfulness in good things so as not to forget them" (1961/2007: 55), that is recollection of the Buddha's teachings and injunctions; 446 and in his work Discourse on the Guide to Nibbana (Nib ban Lannyun) Mingun Jetavan Sayadaw specifically links sati to not forgetting the three poisons: The three primary kilesas are lobha kilesa (the defilement of greed/lust), dosa kilesa (the defilement of anger/aversion) and moha kilesa (the defilement of ignorance/delusion). There is a tendency to forget about lobha kilesa-but do not forget. There is a tendency to forget about dosa kilesabut do not forget. There is a tendency to forget about moha kilesa-but do not forget. If you do not forget, you have sati (attention, awareness or mindfulness), or sati has arisen in you. Every time sati arises, wisdom develops. Every time wisdom develops, vipassanii nepakka pafifiii (the wisdom of the discrimination of insight) emerges. Every time sati (mindfulness) and vipassanii nepakka pafifiii (the wisdom of the discrimination of insight) appear together as a pair in your consciousness, the vipassanii mind or samiidhi bhiivanii (development of concentration) takes root (Mingun Jetavan Sayadaw 1922/1973: 3). 447

In this chapter I would like to explore the understanding of the term by the Burmese Sangha as presented in their compendious 24 volume dictionary the Piili-Myanma Abhidhan' (PMA, still growing), which has a long entry on the word, longer and more complete than any entry we possess in any Pali-English dictionary (Vol. 21, page 548- 551). The PMA gives thirteen different definitions (and sixteen sub-definitions) with copious references to the usage of the word in the Tipifaka.

446

Echoing the monk Pural)a's statement when he refused to join the group of five hundred chanting the Buddha's Vinaya and sutta teachings: susaJ?1gft'iivuso therehi dhammo ca vinayo ca, api ca yath 'eva mayii bhagavato sammukhii sulaf/1 sammukhii pafiggahilaf/1 lath'eviihaf/1 dhiiressiimfti. ("Well sung is the Dharnma and Vinaya by the monks, friend; however, what I have heard directly from the Buddha and directly received, just in that way will I remember it.") (Be Vin 486; PTS, Vin 2, 2906-8). 447 Translated by Dr. U Tin Mg Myint, with Tony Scott.

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A Note on the Pali Myanma Abhidhan' and other Pali dictionaries Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a complete Pali dictionary. In English we have the Pali-English Dictionary (PED) which was composed by Rhys Davids and William Stede from 1921-1925. It is very good, but missing much material. The Critical Pali Dictionary (CPD, begun 1924 by V. Trenckner and continued by Dines Andersen, Helmer Smith and Hans Hendriksen) is the most complete of the Pali to English dictionaries, but it stops at kaya and is not currently being worked on. It is the best dictionary (most complete) for the entries that it covers. Margaret Cone's Dictionary of Pali (2001-2020) has three volumes out now, complete to the end of the bh's. It is an excellent piece of work but not as comprehensive as the CPD. Volume 4 is currently being worked on. In addition to these dictionaries, there are several others which are of use, including Robert Childers Dictionary of the Pali Language, first published in 1875 and still useful, Buddhadatta's Concise Pali-English Dictionary (1968), and the Buddhist Dictionary by Nyanatiloka Mahathera (original 1952), which is more of an encyclopaedia of key doctrinal terms, and a very good one. Malalasekera's Dictionary of Pali Proper Names (1937) is also an excellent work. The Vipassana Research Institute also has a useful Pali-English dictionary. Also worthy of mention is a mini-dictionary of Pali words beginning withs-, by Sten Konow, which contains many words not in the later PED, published in the Journal of the Pali Text Society (1909). In that journal Rhys Davids announced plans for a four volume Pali English Dictionary by various scholars which never saw the light of day; he and William Stede eventually took over the project and the dictionary was completed from 1921-25. The CST (Chat1}1a Sailgayana Tipitaka) also has a good, basic dictionary which comes with the digital version of the Tipifaka. The first Pali dictionary ever made was the Abhidhanappadfpika ("lamp of the lexicon"), which is a Pali to Pali dictionary written in Sri Lanka in the twelfth century CE., based on the Sanskrit Amarako§a ("immortal treasury").

Pali Myanma Abhidhan' None of these dictionaries above ( except for the CPD for the limited entries it covers) approaches the size or comprehensiveness of the PMA. It is currently twenty-four volumes, and presumably the last two or three volumes necessary to complete the work are underway-volume 14,

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315

number 2, for entries for the letter p, subsequent to pam- in vol 14, number 1 (all terms betweenpamajjeyya and pha), and a final volume to complete the s's (after sambh- in vol. 22) and the h's. The dictionary was apparently started soon after the Sixth Buddhist Council. According to its title page it was published by the Ministry of Religious Affairs Department (=:Df':lGGfo~ E:J:g:i+). The first volume is dated Siisanii 2556, which presumably indicates the time elapsed since the Buddha's parinibbiina; Koza 1374, which is a dating according to the Burmese system, and 2012, dated according to the normal, western standard. The earliest volume I can find is dated 1964 and the most recent is dated 2014, indicating that the publishing timescale has been ongoing for several decades. The volumes were published in Mandalay City (bl~Gru:@~ by the Ministry of

Religious Affairs of Myanmar and the chief editors feature different monks for different volumes (see below). The government of Myanmar is the sponsor. On the front cover of each volume is the imprint of a rosette which is presumably intended to represent the Dharma wheel. Inside the rosette is the following Pali motto: cira//1 titthatu sad-dhammo-siisanika-ppamukha-tthiina-mudda,:ia-yantaiilayo

which I translate as "May the true Dharnma remain for a long time (here in this dictionary) as a receptacle for and means of sealing the foremost qualities of the teachings!" (taking mudda,:ia < mudra,:ia, "the act of sealing up, closing or printing" :MW)_ 448

The reader will judge for him/herself how well the dictionary has lived up to its goal, with this one example of the definition of the head-word sati.

History Thanks to Ven. SaraI_la I have learned a little bit about the history of the dictionary which is contained in the Nidiina ("Introduction") of Volume 1, 448

Ven. Sarana ( email) tells me that his copy of the dictionary has a different motto:

cira//1 titthatu saddhammo-maramma-raffhe-buddha-siisanika-samiti-buddha-vasse2497. ''May the true Dhamma stay for long time. In the country ofMyanmar, Buddha

Sasana Union, in the Buddha year 2497."

316

Chapter Eight

starting on page 44. The dictionary was conceived in the summer of 1950 just before the Sixth Buddhist Council, which started in 1954. A committee was formed consisting of four monks and eleven laypeople. Three of the four monks had the prestigious government-issued title Aggamahapa,:irjita: vens. Nfu).uttara, Mahasi Sayadaw, and Sayadaw U Visuddha and the fourth monk, U Obhasa, was an author of a previous Myanmar Dictionary. The eleven lay people were all men, headed by Aggamahiipa,:irjita Dr. Hsayar Linn. As time went on the committee was expanded to twenty-four members whose job was to review the entries, correct mistakes and perfect the work. These included U Hote Sein, the author ofthe Myanmar-English Dictionary, ven. Silanandabhivaqisa, an Abhidhamma master, Tipitakadhara Ashin Vicittasarabhivaqisa, and from Sri Lanka, Ven. Buddhadatta, ven. Ananda Maitreya (Anandametteyya), and Dr. Vajirafifu).a. There were four monks who were the editors of the first published volumes, Sayadaw U Nfu).uttara, Mahasi Sayadaw, Sayadaw U Visuddha, and (from 1956) Sayadaw U Silanandabhivaqisa. At the present time Ban Maw Sayadaw U Kumarabhivaqisa is in charge of the committee. The committee consists of several monks who live in the Dakkhu.iarama Phayargyi Taik (monastery) in Mandalay. Their group photo and names are included at the beginning of the 21st volume. When the dictionary is complete it is estimated to contain 950,000 entries. Compare this to the OED which has about 600,000 entries. The larger number in the PMA is because the dictionary contains entries on all a word's compounds which can run into the hundreds with a common word.

Lexicographic Principles As the reader will see, the dictionary is organized as follows: 1) headword and gender. 2) explanation of the present form of the word with appropriate reference to the grammarians; in the case of a compound the individual words are dissolved. r notice that tatsamas ("similar or equal to the original or word") and tadbhavas ("derived from or, that is, similar but not equal") are not necessarily shown, nor Prakrit or indigenous correspondences (desi words, i.e. Dravidian, Munda, etc.), which are borrowed from the autochthonous languages into Offivll; in the case of sati, the or form smrti is not mentioned but the AMg form sai is noted. 3) canonical definitions, usually from the suttas (where available), commentaries, and subcommentaries. 4) dictionary definitions. 5) dictionary definitions repeated with canonical examples. The following is a translation of the entry on sati:

The Meaning of sati in the Burmese Tradition and an Introduction to the Pali Myanmii Abhidhiin' Dictionary

31 7

Headword and Preamble cDds

(rl>)

I sati,

thf (=itthi-lin = feminine)

I cXl9_ + d3

(sara + ti = sati)

11\t]ll(;~jll (Rupasiddhi 632). 449

Sutta and Commentary definitions450 0 o'l O 'l O O cD~ ,gO')")(.).), cDW 01 cXl9_00, cXl9_6lClD6l~G6l0 01 ,g:::D'.)O') cDOOII

•

saranll

etiiya, sayarri va sarati, saramm:ia (sic, should be saral)a)-mattam-eva va esati sati II "They remember with it, or it itself (sati) remembers, or it is merely remembering," that is, sati. This is a quote from the Atthasalinf(Dhammasangal)i-atthakatha) 121 14- 15 and also the Vsm 46425- 26, which goes on to say, It has the characteristic of not wobbling/floating (apiliipana). Its function is not to forget. It is manifested as guardian, or it is manifested as the state of confronting an objective field. Its proximate cause is strong perception, or its proximate cause is the foundation of mindfulness concerned with the body, and so on. It should be regarded, however, as like a pillar because it is firmly founded, or as like a door-keeper because it guards the eye-door, and so on (NaI_!amoli 1976/1999: 467).

The Atthasalinf is even more explicit about the identification of sati with memory. In an elaborate simile comparing sati to the king's treasurer, who reminds him to watch over all his possessions, the text goes on to say, In just this way, great king, sati calls to mind the wholesome Dhamma teachings: the four establishings of mindfulness, the four right efforts, the four bases of psychic powers, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven limbs of enlightenment, the eightfold noble path, this is tranquility, this is insight, this is knowledge, this is liberation, these are the transcendental

449

Rupasiddhi 632 = Kacciiyana 587, rakiiro ca, "The last component consonant r of roots, 'kara, sara' etc., is elided when a ta or ti affix is applied after them" (Titzana 2016: 736); therefore sara +ti= sati. 450 The Burmese script is as printed in the dictionary. It is followed by a translation into English or a transliteration into Pali ( where the Burmese script represents Pali), and then a translation into English. The abbreviations are from the PMA and are also listed on page 3 84 of this book. For ease ofreading they are written out in full in the text, e.g. abhi tti)a = Abhidhamma-affhakathii.

318

Chapter Eight Dhammas. Thus, 0 great king, sati has the characteristic of not forgetting (As 12119-32). 451

3.ld31

518

11 8'3

7 11

abhi

I

ttha

1

1

164

11

11 452

Abhidhamma-affhakatha

(Atthasalini). Discussion of the faculties (indriyas), including sati.

o~~

1

518

11 11)8 11

patisaiµ

1

ttha

1

1

11

81

Patisambhida-atfhakatha

11

(Saddhammappakasinz). Definition of sati same as the Atthasalinf above. 8(.J)'.)f 1

5

11

~11)

11

mahani

ttha

I

1

38

Mahaniddesa-affhakatha

11

(Saddhammapajjotika). Definition of sati same as Vsm above, with one additional sentence referring to the Satipafthanasutta. 8r'5?tl

5

11 8

11 8~J II

suttani

I

ttha

1

132

11

Sutta-Nipata-affhakatha

(Paramattha-jotika II). A slightly different definition of sati as helping a person to remember for a long time and not forgetting (the Dhamma). 453 tcl.>1ITT°7ll89e11

niti dhatu

11

149

11

Saddanfti Dhatumala. Contains the

"standard" definition of sati (as per As and Vsm) and discusses the many different meanings of the stem form sara- ("arrow, refuge, remember, think"). Defines pafissati as "remembering again and again." ~

- 8.Jocl.>11

saiµ-sapati ("just now, at present; close in front"), which

presumably associates sati with present moment awareness. 454

451

PTS edition: evameva kho Mahiiriija sati kusale dhamme apiliipeti 'ime cattiiro sati-patthiinii, ime cattiiro samma-ppadhiinii, ime cattiiro iddhi-piidii, imiini pane 'indriyiini, imiini panca baliini, ime satta bojjhangii, ayal/1 ariyo affhangiko maggo, ayal/1 samatho, ayal/1 vipassanii, ayal/1 vijjii, ayal/1 vimutti, ime lokuttariidhammii ti eval/1 kho Mahiiriija apiliipana-lakkhm;ii satf'ti. 452 The references in the PMA are to the Myanmar Sixth Council edition of the Tipitaka, Chat/ha Sangiiyanii (-ii, sic); 00~0::DAlt.Dt'). Other references are to PTS. Canon abbreviations in the PMA are found in Volume 1, pp. 91-94. PTS Pj II, I, 147 9- 10: sarati etiiya cira-kata-iidim atthal/1 puggalo, sayal/1 viisaratf ti sati, sii apammussana-lakkhm:zii, ad Sn 77. 454 The word sapati means "he curses," which is inappropriate here. Presumably the hyphen in the text (-) indicates a variant spelling of sal/'lpatilsapati < OI samprati, "now, at this moment, at present, at the right time." 453

The Meaning of sati in the Burmese Tradition and an Introduction to the Pali Myanmii Abhidhiin ' Dictionary ('

('

0

('

('

319 .

G~:::DO'J 9Cc)~°7CD~~G(Y.)'.):::D~11 He also preaches Dhamma treatises. GO'Y.)~l8'JII kotthubha = Skt kaustubha, a celebrated jewel worn by Kr~l.)8 or V~l).U. :x>m1:x>ds-r,~13.l3ITTO~II sai = sati (diminutive form) in ArdhamagadhI en tf-' G

Dictionary Definitions - sati la (m). G3DJ.iG~-3.l~di9.-oodiG8J.)O'JEf~II "The Dharma (taya), which is to ponder over, to remember, to know." lb(@). G3DJ.iG~-3.l~di9.-G&t~ OOEf~ 11 "The cause of pondering and remembering." The same definition as la except for the suffix (3.l)G&t~ OOEf~ with the meaning "cause." le (o). G3DJ.iG';1-3.l~di9_-455

§t~ 11 "Pondering over and remembering."

The suffix §cS: nominalizes the verb forms preceding it, forming a noun. 2a ( m).

(IT) lD

o

oo

C

o

OO'J"'.):)J O') ( Cc) Cc) gJ I @'.)

o

3-;) ID Ej1

G83.)

o !tl u (IT) lD5C'[: ~ ID G83.):)J O')) C'

11 "Kiiya-gata-sati (mindfulness of the body), which is skilled in the riipa-

kiiya, beginning with one's own hair." 2b

('

0

@.§,".)3.llD::)m

(@).

G

[,

L

('

G3nmG(c) 0

00 0 cc-) II "Pubbe-nzvasa-anussatz · . (rememb ranee o f previous . :::DtCG8J.)3.l8'J~2

abodes), one of the higher forms of knowledge (abhiiii'ias), which remembers the continuity of the khandhas in one's previous existence(s)."

455 These are two common words for remembering: G3a.)o'.)Go-3-;)od.i@1G3a.)o'.)Go1 J -L The word G3a.)O'.)GO = "to remember, bear in mind" per JBED (142), "to long for, be of the opinion, think, consider" per MyED (620). 3-;)~d.iq = "remember, recall, recollect" per MyED (584) and "recall to mind" per JBED (89). ('"

D

0-

320

2c (0 ).

Chapter Eight ~ 8-JC(.)J g GW'.)CG'.))'.) :).)0')11 §CY.l Efj~IDG~ 8.JO'JOg::>tll

"The establishing of mindfulness that is the object (aramma,:ia)."

458

BHSD. 376, pratyavelcym_za, one of the five jniinas. The definition "analytical retrospection" is from Nyanaponika 1949/1976: 25. In Myanmar the word is used exclusively for retrospection per Ven. Samana.

Chapter Eight

322

"Sati appears by practicing satipaffhi.ina and vipassani.i bhi.ivani.i

('meditation')."

'§

§ '§

[' C' 0 C' CY.lGC:) :::D.§iCG~ LtlT

L

II

9

[,

L

o

L

34d3~2)11 "pubbe-nivasa-anussati ('remembrance of previous abodes'; spelled pubba in PMA), the superpower which remembers the continuity of the khandhas in one's previous existence(s)." 9

:::DOJ'.).§i~Q, L -l

(

sata-anusan;>,1

0

:::DOJ'.).§i~Q:::DC1D L -LC

(

_ . -) C- 0 sata-anusan-nana -U30J . l L

§~11 "Compare the words satanusarf and satanusariiia,:ia."

0

The Meaning of sati in the Burmese Tradition and an Introduction to the Pali Myanmii Abhidhiin ' Dictionary

329

These words refer to a section of the PasadikasuttaT[l (B' DN 3, 111; PTS DN 3 1349- 10), atftaT[l kho, cunda, addhanaT[l arabbha tathagatassa satanusari-na,:iaT[l (var. vinna,:iaTfl) hoti ("As regards the past, the Tathagata has knowledge of past lives," Walshe 1995: 436); the commentary glosses satanusari-na,:iaT[l with pubbe-nivasa-anussati-sampayuttaT[l, "associated with the recollection of past lives" (B' Sv3, 97; PTS Sv 3, 914 1). 2c (o).

r: r: r: ~ r: UICGonm 8-JCUJ ~ GoXDCG8J.) 8-JOJII §OJ©'XDffi~ C: '70

0

0

LT

L

0

IL

"Sati is being learned in the Pali of the very exalted Buddha." ~

8.)0) (

0

0 ??) OJ0 no©f 2RG(.J)~ ro9.aom8.JOJII 83.)9_~1 8118G"lell 1 8 11 JJ~ )11 (vi I attha I 111 77) ti, Buddha-vacanaTfl uggahetva

01 ~II

(-~ 1 ~

dhara,:iakasati I sarattha 11 11 189 (-a1111 ttha 11 1 223).

The first reference is to the Vinaya-atthakatha (Samantapasadika, B" 1, 77 PTS 1, 10427- 29), which explains that api c 'ass a vinaya-pariyattiT[l nissiiya attano sfla-kkhandho sugutto hoti surakkhito kukkucca-pakatiinGT[l bhikkhunaT[l pafisara,:iaT[l hoti. "Moreover, for the person who relies on his competency in the Vinaya, his moral practices are well protected, well guarded; it is a reminder (pafisara,:iaTfl) for monks who have a scrupulous nature." The next phrase Buddha-vacanaT[l uggahetva dhara,:iaka-sati is a quote from the Sarattha-dfpanf, a tfka on Vin-a, which is also folllld in the Anguttara Nikiiya-affhakatha (Manorathapi1ra,:if B' 1, 223; PTS 1, 2862627), the second reference above. Here the text is commenting on Ananda, who is foremost of the Buddha's disciples of those who are learned, of those who have a good memory, of those who are clever, of those who are resolute, and foremost of the Buddha's personal attendants. The commentary reads: This venerable one, learning the words of the Buddha, being intent on learning the scriptures like a treasurer of the Ten-Powered one's teaching, memorized them. Therefore, of the learned ones, he was foremost. Having learned the Buddhavacana, the memory and retention of this monk was

Chapter Eight

330

stronger than the other monks, therefore he was called "foremost of those who have a good memory. 464

2d (ill).

G&'::>

0 C'C' ITT(.).)~ L

~

~§' G ~ :::>.J

"3.J::D" lD ~ L IL ::1

(!)

0 O') II

"Sati arises (when reflecting on) asubha ("impure, unpleasant") in the (physical) body which has the nature of asubha." "3,i~::n" GtO

(Thera

241),

asubhasabhiivekiiye, "asubha" nteva pavattanasati mufthii II Thera atth 1 1 II

255

II

The example from the Theragatha is where a person is not able to see the asubha: riipam disvii sati muffha piya-nimitlaf/1 manasi-karoto, siiratta-citto vedeti tan ca ajjhosa titthati, tassa var;li;lhanti iisavii bhava-miila-upagiimino ti (verse 98, Be p. 241; PTS p. 14)

The mindfulness of one who thinks upon a pleasant object becomes confused when he sees its form. With impassioned mind he experiences it, and stays clinging to it. His iisavas, which lead to journeying-on, increase (Norman 1995a: 13).

In the commentary (Theragiithii-affhakathii, Paramatthadfpanf V, Be 1,255; PTS 1, 214 13- 15), sati mufthii ("mindfulness is lost") is glossed asubha(sa)bhiive kiiye asubhan tveva pavattana(ka)-sati nafthii ("mindfulness, which reveals the impure in the body whose nature is impure, is lost"). 0

0 :))0')11

on U)'.)&o ~ £'::>- m

2j

L

1

L

"Sati is the ability to restrain through contemplation of the body (kiiyaanupassanii)." 0

c

00

Oc

c

O

:::>.JOO ITT(38-J tOl9_C1D (8y'5?tll9~9) ~ OO~t"'.) (f~-8.JO) G0:>8-J o0') o 0 ( 0 0 C-) . G8J'.:>O':r.)t tOl9_C1DII ll8y'5?tl~ljll~O~II -Gt'5?ll~~11Gt'5?l~IIB? II sail tesaY[I nivctra,:ia (suttani 11 434) nti vipassana yuttct-sati tesam sotanaY[I nivctra,:iGY[I

11 suttani I ttha 1 2 11 30 111 (-netti 11 13 11 netti

I

ttha 11 67)11

The Sn reference is to verse 1041 (B', page 434; PTS verse 1035). yiini sotiini lokasmif!1, (ajitiiti bhagavii) sati tesaf!1 niviira1}af!1. sotiinaf!1 saf!1varaf!1 brumi, pafifiiiyete pidhiyyare.

Whatever streams there are in the world, Ajita," said the Blessed One, "their restraint is mindfulness. I will tell you the constraint for streams. They are damned by wisdom. (Norman 1992/2006: 125).

The commentary (Be Paramatthajotikct II 2, 30; PIS Pj 2, 586 14- 16) notes that sati, which restrains these streams, is "joined with insight; sati which 470

PMA quotes page 163, but according to the ChaWi.a Saligayana Tipitaka (CST), it occurs on page 162.

The Meaning of sati in the Burmese Tradition and an Introduction to the Pali Myanmii Abhidhiin' Dictionary

33 7

searches for the paths of wholesome and unwholesome phenomena is the restraint of these streams" (sati tesarrt niviiral}an ti vipassanii-yuttii kusalaakusaliinarrt dhammiinarrt gatiyo samannesamiinii (B• var) sati tesarrt sotiinarrt niviiralJarrt). The Nettippakaral}a reference (B• 13; PTS 1321-142) is a commentary on the same verse: By the cultivation and frequent practice of mindfulness centered on the body, the eye does not attract (na-avinchati) pleasing forms to itself, nor is it afflicted by unpleasant forms [and similarly with the other five senses]. \Vhy? Because of prevention and restraint of the faculties. By what are they prevented and restrained? By the protection of mindfulness. Therefore the Bhagava said "Sati is their restraint." 471

The Nettippakaral}a-atfhakathii (B' p. 66; PTS unavailable) repeats the Paramatthajotikii commentary word for word and then goes on to comment on the word avinchati in the mu/a which CPD defines as "to pull, to draw (to oneself), to attract." The commentary reads, (fhe eye) does not draw to itself the continuity of consciousness by being a door for the occurrence of jealousy, etc., nor does it draw along the individual (after it). The abandoning of underlying tendencies is what is meant. 472

21 ( c). cJ

cati&6 rn2' G:).)'.) cDciS11 J

O

J

"Sati goes hand-in-hand with the path." e ~:).)'.) 9_CD

0

cDOJ

3a.) 9_

0

0

•

( 8J I ~ II ~) 0

o OJ

C:)08JC:)O)CT.Y) 0

0

LCD

0

cDOJ

0

3"o'.:>9_~:).)'.)9_C0118Jl~l~ll8~011 (-cDl~ll8e_jllcDl~l~llj{0)11

471

Kiiya-gatiiya satiyii bhiivitiiya bahu!Hatiiya cakkhu niivinchati maniipikesu riipesu amaniipikesu na patihannati. Sotaf{1 ... , ghiinaf{1 ... , jivhii... , kayo ... , mano. Kena kiirarena saft1vutta-niviirita-ttii indriyiinaftl, kena te saft1vutii niviiritii: sati· iirakkhena, teniiha bhagavii: "sati tesaft1 niviirara "nti. 472 B• Nett-a 67: Niivinchatfti abhijjhii-iidi-ppavatti-dviira-bhiivena citta- santiinaft1, puggalaf{1 vii niikar;lr;lhati. Anusaya-ppahiinaf{1 idha pidhiinaftl adhippetanti. The "continuity of consciousness" (citta-santiinaftl) is similar to the bhava-aliga, "lifecontinuum," the changing flux or stream which is a condition or foundation for existence. See Nyanatiloka 1980: s.v. bhavaliga-sota and bhavaliga-citta, p. 69.

338

Chapter Eight

sati arakkha-sarathf (sarp 1 3 11 5) ti magga-sampayutta sati arakkha-sarathi 11

Sarp I

ttha 1 3 1115811 (=sarp 3

11

192 11 sarp I ttha 1 3 11 278) 11

The SaYflyutta Nikiiya text refers to a gatha in the Ja1Jusso1Jibrahmw;asutta (B< 3, 5; PIS 5, 6 9- 10), which reads: yassa saddhii ca pannii ca dhammii yuttii sadii dhural'(I. hirf fsii mano yottal'(I sati iirakkha-siirathi.

Its [the divine vehicle of the Dhamma] qualities of faith and wisdom are always yoked evenly together. Shame is its pole, mind its yoke-tie, mindfulness the watchful charioteer (Bodhi 2000: 1526) The commentary (Saratthappakasinf, B< 3, 158; PIS Sp 3, 121 22- 27) glosses sati arakkha-sarathi ("mindfulness is the watchful charioteer") as Mindfulness is the watchful charioteer: mindfulness connected with the path is the mindful charioteer. For just as the protector of a chariot is called a charioteer who yokes the reins to the shaft, lubricates the axle, sends forth the chariot, and tames the horses, so is mindfulness ofthe chariot on the path. This mindfulness is called the manifestation of protection, "it searches for the paths of wholesome and unwholesome phenomena."473 The second SN reference is to the U1J1JC1bhabrahma1}asutta. Here the Brahman Ul).l).abha asks the Buddha what the recourse/refuge of the five sense-faculties are; the Buddha answers "the mind." The mind, the Buddha goes on to explain, takes recourse in mindfulness, mindfulness takes recourse in liberation and liberation in nibbana (B< SN 3, 192; PIS SN 5, 218 12- 18). The commentary (Be Sn-a 3, Saratthappakasinf, 278; PIS Spk 3, 246 11- 13) notes that "the recourse in mindfulness is recourse in mindfulness of the path, for the mind with full cognition (javana) recollects the mindfulness of the path."474

473

B• Sp3, 158; PTS Sp 3, 121 22"""27: Sati iirakkha-siirathi ti, magga-sampayuttii sati iirakkha-siirathi. Yathii hi rathassa iirakkho siirathi niima hoti, yo dhura-giihe yojeti, akkhal'(I abbhanjati, rathal'(I peseti, ratha-yuttake nibbisevane karoti, eval'(I maggarathassa sati. Ayanhi iirakkha-paccupatthiinal'(I ceva kusala-akusaliinanca dhammiinal'(I gatiyo samanvesatf ti (PTS with some B• variants). 474 satipa/isara~an ti magga-sati pa/isara~al'(I. Javana-mano hi magga-satil'(I pa/issarati (Be).

The Meaning of sati in the Burmese Tradition and an Introduction to the Pali Myanmii Abhidhiin ' Dictionary

2m (::i ). 8cx:>.Xl,K>, tJtid3 &t l T to J o

339

w5 G::>.n ~d3n J [,

"Sati goes hand-in-hand with vipassanii (insight) and the path." oe S o o 'l o o o lD9_ ~l::>.n tlGf> Gu:D'5?I ~OJ Gtl OOCDUl@fll ~'5?fllJe811 ~9_0J o o o o'l eo o o (gOJ".)(X) ID9_CDOJ".)3tlg? yqGCD), ~W 01 ~9_0J0J ~OJI-WCO'.) lD c...,.lDClJXDJ oomol@l1 igo 8':>00GOJ".) 8u8J.J~'JWOJ".) tJOWOJ".) ID ~d3n l'.:J-' {,) T T L OJ o L OJ ~'55~ 1 ~ 1 8 11 8~J II hirf fsii mano yotta I sati me phiila-piijanaf!l II suttani II

29 l n sarati etiiya cira-kata-iidim-atthaf!l puggalo, sayaf!l vii saratfti sati I

-yathii hi briihma"f}assa phiila-piijanaf!l I evaf!l bhagavato vipassanii-yuttii magga-yuttii ca sati II suttani I ttha 1 1 11 132 11

The Sutta-Nipiita reference is to B< verse 77 (PTS verse 77) saddhii bijal'(I tapo vutthi, pannii me yuga-naligalal'(I. hin fsii mano yottal'(I, sati me phiila-piicanal'(I.

Faith is the seed, penance is the rain, wisdom is my yoke and plough; modesty is the pole, mind is the [yoke-]tie, mindfulness is my ploughshare and goad (Norman 1992/2006: 9).

The quote from the commentary is as noted above in PMA (sarati etiiya .. ., Be Pj II 1, 132; PTS Pj II, 1, 147): Sati, a person remembers with sati a thing done a long time ago, etc. or sati itself remembers. For just like the ploughshare and goad of a Brahman, sati is yoked to the insight of the Bhagava and yoked to his path.

2n (u).

c-

c-

0

UIDGOCDCll:D&CW::lG::>.n ~OJI! 4)

a)

JoJ[,

"Sati goes hand-in-hand with paccavekkha"f}ii (thorough consideration, reflection, intellectual mastery, analytical retrospection, footnote 458)."

340

Chapter Eight

Sati upatthita (therI 11 3 24) ti paccavekkha,:iayutta sati sabbako.larri upatthita

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11 vajira 11 1611 48111sarattha121141911 vimati 111133711 visuddhi ti I l 11 72)11 The reference to the Therzgo.tha is to verse 388: mayha111 hi akkuffha-vandite sukha-dukkhe ca satf upat{hitii sankhatam asubhan tijiiniya sabbatth' eva mano na limpati.

For my mindfulness is established in the midst of both reviling and praise, happiness and pain; knowing that conditioned things are disgusting, my mind does not cling to anything at all (Norman 1995a: 39-40).

The commentary (B< Therzgo.tho.-affhakatha, Paramatthadzpanz VI, 264; PTS ThI-a 2, 2393-4) explains satz upatthita as mindfulness which is yoked with paccavekkha,:ia ("reflection, thorough consideration") and is established at all times (paccavekkha,:ia-yutta sati sabba-ko.larri upatthito.). The Vinaya-affhakatha (B< Samantapo.so.dika 2, 272-73; PTS 3, 6948- 12) reference is to an explanation of paccavekkha,:ia-suddhi, one of the four kinds of purity. "It is the moral practice connected with the enjoyment of requisite means, because of purification through thorough consideration, by the method beginning with the one mentioned in the sutta (Be :tvIN 1, 23) "He pursues the yellow robe with proper care." Therefore it is said "There is no offence for one who enjoys (mindfully), even though he was not mindful in the acceptance." 475

The other references are the same as Sp 2 above (So.ratthadzpanz-fzka, Vina-t 2; Vinayasangaha-atfhakatha 67; Visuddhimagga 1, 41), except for the Vimativinodanz-fzka 1, 337, which is about ''the mindfulness of thorough consideration in accepting and enjoying (requisites)" (pafiggaha,:ie ca paribhoge ca paccavekkha,:io.-sati).

475

Sp 3, 6948- 12 paccavekkhm,za-suddhi niima paccaya-paribhoga-sannissita-sf!a111, ta111 hi pa{isankhii yoniso cfvara}fl pa{isevatfti iidinii nayena vuttena paccavekkhm,zena sujjhanato "paccavekkhm,za-suddhi"ti vuccati, tena vutta}fl pa{iggaha~e pana sati}fl akatvii paribhoge karontassa aniipattfti. The word paccavekkha~a comes in neuter and feminine (paccavekkhm,zii) forms.

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"Sati ponders over and remembers again and again." G

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"anu anu sati anussatf" ti imam-atthaf!l dasseluf!l "puna-ppunaf!l

uppajjanato" ti vatvi'i na etha anu-sadda-yogena sati-saddo atth-antaravi'icatoti dassetuf!l "satiyeva anussatf" ti vuttaf/1 II visuddhi II tI I l II 218 II

The first reference is to Visuddhimagga (B< 1, 191; PTS 1, 1974- 5) and the second to its commentary, the Mahi'iffki'i: "Because of occurring again and again in the ten recollections, sati is itself a recollection." Commentary (B< Mahi'iffki'i 1, 218; PTS not available): anussatisuti anussati-kammatthiinesu. "anu anu sati anussati"ti imamatthal'(I dassetul'(I "puna-ppunal'(I uppajjanato "ti vatvii na ettha anu-saddayogena sati-saddo atth-antara-viicakoti dassetul'(I "satiyeva anussatz"ti vuttal'(I. anussatisu in the recollections of meditation subjects. "Having said 'because of occurring again and again' to show this meaning of 'anu anu sati,' the word sati, joined with the word anu, is not here to show an expression of difference in meaning; 'sati itself is anussati' is declared."

The commentary seems to be a verbose way of saying that sati and anussati are not two different things; both mean "remembering" but anussati means remembering again and again in different meditational contexts.

"The four sati-patfhi'inas" (establishing of mindfulness, DN 22, MN 10).

Chapter Eight

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The mula reference is to the Atapfsutta of the Itivuttaka (B< 4), which reads:

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Yo ca satimii nipako jhiiyf iitiipf ottiipf ca appamatto sa}J1yojana}J1 jiiti-jariiya chetvii idheva sambodhim-anuttaralJ1 phuse.

Whoever, mindful and wise meditates, ardent, scrupulous and diligent having cut away the bonds of birth and decay right here, he may touch the highest enlightenment.

The commentary (B< Itivuttaka-affhakatha Paramattha-dfpanf 101; PTS Ita 10628- 30) glosses satima: Because ofhis/her application of the four establishments of mindfulness, on account of the nature of mindfulness and wisdom (nepakka), which is able to remember things done or said a long time ago, that is, because of remembering the Buddha's teachings" (cira-kata-cira-bhiisitiinaf/1 anussarm.ze samatthassa sati-nepakkassa sabhiivena catu-sati-patthiina-yogena satimii). Nepakka is specifically defined in terms of wisdom (paiiiiii) and perfect understanding (sampajaiiiia) in the next line's gloss on the word nipako (''wise"; Ita 10630-32).

"The establishing of mindfulness that is the object (aramma,:ta)." oo

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satiya (vi I ttha I 2 II 12 II visuddhi I 1 II 261) ti sammadeva kamma-ffhcinasallakkhal}a-vasa-ppavattiiya satiya

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The mula text quotes the following gcitha (B< Vin-a 2, 12, V sm 1, 261; PTS Vin-a 2, 406 1- 2 ; Vsm 269 15- 17) Yathii thambhe nibandheyya, vacchal/1 damal/1 naro idha Bandheyy' eva1J1 sakal/1 cittal/1, satiyiiramma1,1e dafhal/1.

The Meaning of sati in the Burmese Tradition and an Introduction to the Pali Myanmii Abhidhiin' Dictionary

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Just as a man taming a cow here would bind it to a post, In the same way, one should bind one's own mind firmly to the object of mindfulness.

After this verse the Sp and Vsm continue with a list of the 16 meditation subjects drawn from theAniipanasatisutta (MN 115) andPafisambhidiimagga, starting with breathing in and out and ending with renunciation (pafinissagga). Of the ten anussatis (recollections), recollection of the breath is the ninth, the others being Buddha-anussati, Dhamma-anussati, Sangha-anussati, sfla-anussati, caga-anussati, devata-anussati, marm:zaanussati, kiiya-gata-sati, anapana-sati and upasama-anussati. The commentary glosses satiya ("of mindfulness"; B< Saratthadfpanf-!fka 2, 185, V sm Mahatzka 1, 315) sammadeva kamma-tthana-sallakkha,:iavasa-ppavattiiya satiya, "of mindfulness which is carried out by means of thoroughly bearing in mind the meditation subject (the aramma,:ta of the above verse). c-r:::c-

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"Thinking, being focused while concentrating on an object of sense or thought (aramma,:ia)." This entry is the longest in the sati definition and fifteen different references to various parts of the suttas and Vinaya are given. Oo

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261) ti

This is a standard trope from the Mahasatipafthanasutta, which occurs several places in the canon: bhikkhu arafifia-gato vii rukkha-miila-gato vii sufiniigiira-gato vii nisfdati pallankal'(I iibhujitvii ujul'(I kiiyal'(I pm,1idhiiya parimukhal'(I satil'(I upaffhapetvii. So sato va assasati, sato va passasati (B• DN 2, 231; PTS DN 2,291 H)

Having gone to the forest, to the foot of a tree, or an empty hut, a monk sits down, crosses his legs, sets his body straight, establishes mindfulness in front and just mindful he breathes in, just mindful he breaths out.

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The above is from the Satipaffhcina sutta, but a version of this occurs in several other places including B' Vin 1, 89 (PTS, Vin 3, 7031- 34), B' DN 1, 67 (PTS DN 1, 71 18-20), and Vibhanga 253, 261 (PTS 244 19-22, 2524- 11). ~

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~ I :::D sannogo is an example. The consonant -mbefore a semivowel, can also, under some circumstances, appear as -mm(iigamya > iigamma, "with reference to"; Kacciiyana 28). The nasalization question is compounded by the homorganic nasal rule where the nasal before a stop changes to the homorganic nasal of that particular varga (Kacciiyana, sutta 31). In Pat).ini's grammar the rules are multivalent, explained by Cardona (2013: 13) and summarized as follows: "In the spoken language Pat).ini's grammar accounts for, then, anusviira occurs before r and spirants, word-final anusviira alternates with stops homogeneous with following stops, and in particular contexts nasalized vowels alternate with complexes consisting of clear vowels followed by anusviira" (p. 14; see also Whitney §70f; Emeneau 1946: 91).

3. Nasal consonant before a sibilant According to the Whitney, if final radical -m in internal combination is assimilated to a following spirant, it becomes anusviira. In external combination it becomes a nasalized semi vowel (anuniisika) before y, v, and l as we have seen above, and before r, a sibilant or h it also becomes anusviira (§212); the same rules hold true for Pat).ini and the Pratisakhyas (Cardona 2013: 71). However, it is still not clear how this anusviira is to be pronounced: as a nasal stop, a nasal after-tone following the vowel (what Whitney calls, a "prolongation of the same vowel-sound with nasality added," that is, aY[l, iY[l, UYfl), or a "nasalized bit of neutral-vowel sound" (§71g, §73b, arh, irh, urh), that is, anuniisika. A nasal semi-vowel is also a possibility before glides y, v, and l. Stenzler claims that final m should be pronounced as a velar nasal before sibilants (1997: §9), but most 01 grammars simply prescribe an anusviira before any consonant (Whitney §213e; Macdonell 1916/1966: §42.1; Goldman and Goldman 1999: §3.49; Kacc 30; Sadd 153), while at the same time allowing or prescribing the The diacritics over 5 = nasalized vowel articulated separately (milliseconds) but in continuous stream with the preceding a.

493

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homorganic nasal rule to apply in close assimilatory contact. So presumably a word like saf!lsiira could be pronounced as sii-siira, or as sm;-siira; and many seem to pronounce it as sam-siira, with full nasal consonant. More to our point, how is the final -af!l in Buddhaf!l pronounced before sarariaf!l? As the quote from the Sumangalviliisinf above notes (footnote 489), part of the answer lies in how fast the words are spoken, whether in close junction or separated. Sv suggests that words spoken quickly tend to promote the vowel nasalization and pronunciation with a hiatus after every word lends itself to the pronunciation of the full nasal stop. But a little experimentation will show that either is possible and neither appears easier or more natural than the other. Plus the pronunciation of a full nasal stop at the end of a word sounds incorrect in MI where all final nasals are converted to anusviira (Pischel 1900/1981: §348); that is, the final nasal consonant is an OI relic (padapii/ha recitation, see below) and is not heard in the Prakrits ( e.g. acc. sing. Skt dharmaf!l > P dhammaf!l, gen. pl. Skt. dharmiiniim > P dhammiinaf!l, etc.). There is the further issue of dialect variation, which must have also played a role in variant pronunciations.

4. Nasalization in Pali, the niggahTta All the OI nasals are present in MI with the same ambiguity as regards nasalization. Pali uses the word anusviira only once (Sadd 60627), where it appears as anussiira, and the word anuniisika does not refer to a specific kind of vowel or consonant nasalization as in OI (am, etc.) but just to a nasal sound in general, not distinguished from anusviira and its equivalent term in MI, niggahfta ("restrained, checked" < Skt ni + grah, "stop, restrain, suppress, contract, hold down"). The word denotes restraining or repressing that closure of the organs of aiiiculation, which is required to make a stop or full nasal consonant (cp. Cone's Dictionary of Piili vol. 2: 547, s.v. nigga,:ihiiti, niggahfta, "the nasal sound, a nasalized vowel"). Sadd defines it as follows: A,µ bµ u,µ iti ya,µ sarato para/fl suyyati, talfl niggahrta1,.n. Yaf!l sadda-rupam Gl'fl if!l um iti sarato paraf!1 hutvii suyyati, taf!l niggahftaf!l niima bhavati, seyyath'idaf!l "ahal'fl kevatta-giimasmil!'l ahul!'l kevatta-diirako" t 'ice iidisu rassa-ttayato para7!1 bindu niggah'ital!'l niimii ti datthabba7!1. Tal!'l pana siisanika-payoga-vasena rassa-saral!'l nissiiya gayhati ucciir'iyat'i ti niggah'itan ti vuccati; karm;iiini vii niggahetvii a-vivatena mukhena saanuniisikal!'l katvii 'iritan ti niggahftaf!l, vuttam pi c 'eta7!1: "niggah'itan ti yaf!l karm:ziini niggahetvii a-vissajjetvii avivafena mukhena sa-anuniisikaf!l katvii

Nasalization in Pali: How to Pronounce "Buddhaf/1 saral'}af/1 gacchiimi"

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vattabban" ti. Ettha ca "niggahftan" ti siisane vohiiro, sadda-satthe pana taf/1 "anusviiro" ti vadanti (Sadd 606 17- 27). 494 ''Af/1 if/1 wµ"-that is niggahfta, which is heard after a vowel.

That speech form Gf/1 if/1 Uf/1, which is heard occurring after a vowel is called niggah"ita, for example: ahmµ kevaffa-giimasmilfl ahu,µ kevaffa-diirako ("! [lived] in a fisherman's village; I was the fisherman's son"). In ahaf!l kevaffa-giimasmif!l ahuf!l and such, the bindu (dot) 495 after the three short vowels is to be viewed as the niggah"ita. Moreover, it is called niggah"ita because, due to the usage associated with the teaching of the Buddha, it is uttered, it is pronounced depending on a short vowel. Or, "Having restrained the organs of articulation with a closed opening, 496 having made a nasal sound, it is uttered" = niggah"itaf/1; and that also is called niggah"ita, which should be spoken, having restrained the organs of articulation, preventing them from sounding (a full consonant), and making a nasal sound with a closed mouth. Here the word is "niggah"ita," but in the Sanskrit grammars it is called anusviira.

Sadd and Kacc both have the homorganic nasal rule, where the niggahfta changes to its vagga nasal before a stop. 497 However, neither discuss the issue of the actual sound of the niggahfta when it is a vowel + nasalization, nor the question of suprasegmental influence on the pronunciation ( as in Sv above), when the words are pronounced connected or detached. The horn organic nasal rule seems to be suppressed when the words are detached; however, they would not be pronounced as a full nasal stop (as Sp allows) but as a regular niggahfta, that is, a vowel followed by nasalization (which is presumably indistinguishable from an immediately nasalized vowel, anuniisika, in regular speech tempo). In the ritualistic context of ordination, the formula would likely be pronounced slowly with the words detached, suggesting that nasalization of the final vowels of buddha]!l, dhamma]!l 494

The quote in Sade!, niggahitan tiyaf/1 karal'}iini ... vattabbaf/1 is from Sv 7, 13993()-32. The dot in DevanagarJ script, underdot or overdot (1?1 or m) in Roman. 496 The phrase a-vivafena mukhena, ''with a not-opened opening," presumably refers to the partial closure/lowering of the soft palate which forces air up through the nose, resulting in nasalization of the vowel; at the same time the production of a regular nasal consonant is restrained/repressed (niggah"ita). In a regular nasal consonant, the soft palate is raised and the nasal is articulated with the lips or tongue at the relevant point of articulation; the mouth is occluded at some point and the airstream is expelled entirely through the nose. With a nasalized vowels the airstream is expelled partly through the nose and partly through the mouth (Rodriguez 2018). Thanks to Ven. Thanuttamo for help with this passage. 497 Sadd 138 (Smith 1930/2001: 628 andKacc 31 (Pind 2013: 10; Thitzana 2016: 495

155).

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(pronounced buddha, dhammci, as in French enfant, [ci.fii]) etc., would be the appropriate pronunciation). 498 We will return to this point later.

5. Nasalization in Diachronic Perspective One can observe a trend towards increased nasalization from OI > MI. In Vedic, short vowels followed by anusvara vary with a long vowel without nasal (Edgerton and Bloomfield 1932/1979: §300). Edgerton and Bloomfield considered this to be Prakritic in character as the same phenomenon is rep011ed in Pali (Geiger 1916/2015: §6.3), but it is quite possible that the long vowel in Pali retained the nasalization as was the case in GandharI, where, for example, the nasal was lost and replaced by a long vowel, but the vowel was still nasalized (Brough 1962: §46; Fussman 1989: §33).499 A vowel in contact with a nasal sound tends towards nasalization and this is actually so notated in the Asokan inscriptions (Norman 1992: 331), although there cannot have been much, if any, phonetic difference between, for example, pravasa1J1mhi ("on starting on a journey") in Gimar' s ninth rock edict and pravasamhi, without nasal, as the vowel before -mhi is automatically nasalized to a certain extent. Piil).ini authorized the nasalization of short or long vowels a, i or u at the end of a sentence (Bloch 1965: 48; original 1934 French edition page 45). 500 Vowels in front of OI sibilants and letter r were particularly prone to nasalization in MI when preceded or followed by a stop or glide. Basu called this "compensatory nasalization" to compensate for the consonant lost by assimilation OI > MI (1943: 178-181). 501 Intervocalically, a vowel before

498

Ven. Pianuttamo of the Sasanarakkha Buddhist Sanctuary in Taiping, Malaysia, informs me that they do both procedures one after the other, continuous and interrupted. 499 For example Skt sar(lstava ("praise") > Pali santhava, GandharI sadhava = siidhava, pronounced siir(ldhava, (long vowels were not notated in GandharI). 500 According to George Cardona (personal communication), the rule (Pa.I)ini 8.4.57) "as traditionally interpreted, applies in prepause position, optionally." 501 E.g. Sanskrit darsana ("seeing"), Pali dassana (idem) or AMg dar(lsa'f_la (idem); Skt ghar$a'f_la ("rubbing"), Pali ghar(lsana (idem), AMg ghar(lsa (idem) or ghiisa ("to rub"); Skt har$a'f_la ("bristling"), Pali har(lsa'f_la (idem), AMg harisa or hiisa (idem); Skt sufru$ii ("desire to hear, obedience"), Prakrit (Asokan inscription Gimar 13), SUSUY(ISG.

Nasalization in Pali: How to Pronounce "Buddhaf/1 saral'}af/1 gacchiimi"

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a sibilant could sometimes be replaced with anusviira. 502 Sometimes anusviira in 01 is replaced with a long syllable in MI, 503 but these were probably pronounced with nasalization as per the GandharI practice above (compare for example the pronunciation of NIA sih or sirrih, which is pronounced singh, in the common family name). This trend has also been called "spontaneous nasalization" (that is, occurring for a non-etymological reason; Mallik 1975; Fussman 1989: §33.1), but Grierson notes its "inheritance from the oldest times" (1922: 387) and its continuation and augmentation in modem NIA (Hindi, for example); therefore its potential as a diachronic time marker seems prima facie useful.

6. Buddhalfl sara,:zalfl gacchami In 01, between two words (external sandhi) final m before a sibilant changes to anusviira (Section §3 above; Whitney §213e; Goldman and Goldman, §3.49), while before a mute (stop), it changes to the homorganic nasal, which is generally represented by an anusviira (Whitney §213i), i.e., buddham sara,:iam gacchiimi > buddharri sarariart1 gacchiimi (OI) or > buddharri sarariart1 gacchiimi (Pali). The same rule applies in internal sandhi, i.e., within a word (Whitney §212). The question is, what is the phonetic value of the anusviira? ls it a nasalized vowel (a, etc.), or does the anusviiralniggahita assimilate to the following sibilant (before sarariaf/1) and stop (before gacchiimi) as a velar nasal ( -,; or -n)? In 01, assuming the words were pronounced in close junction (so that the final -m in buddham and the initial s- in sara,:iam were in contact, as also the final-min sara,:zam and the initial g- in gacchiimi), they would probably have been pronounced with a homorganic nasal at the end of each word:

502

For example, Skt bhf$al'}aka ("horrible"), Pali bhif/'/sanaka (idem), AMg bhfsal'}a (idem); Sktjigf$ati ("he wishes to win"), Palijigi1?1sati ("to wish to acquire"); Skt sisumiira (crocodile), Pali suf/1sumiiro (idem); AMg susumiira (idem); Skt mahi$a ("great, powerful, a buffalo"), Pali mahif/1SG (idem), AMg mahisa (idem). 503 Skt. sif/1ha ("lion"), Pali, AMg sfha (idem); Skt saf/1rambha ("excitement"), Pali siirambha (idem); Skt saf/1riiga ("passion"), Pali saf/1riiga and siiriiga (idem); Skt sif/1hala (Sri Lanka), Pali s"ihala (idem). All the examples in footnotes 501-503 are taken from Mallik 1975. Some are also found in Basu 1943 and Geiger §6. 3.

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Version 1: buddhar; sara1Jar; gacchiimi (buddhan saranan gacchiimi).

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j

j

gac

cha

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How do we know this? Because of the evidence of internal sandhi in many 01 words where the homorganic nasal is written out between the first and second syllables presumably indicating their pronunciation: e g. anga, "limb"; pankti, "row of five"; svapna-nansana/:l, "destroying sleep" (Edgerton and Bloomberg 1932/1979: §300), also written -nafJ1sana/:l and -niisana/:l; iinansa, "portionless," also written iinafJ1sa and anasa (ibid §301 ); vyanjana, "consonant"; etc. If the words were not conjoined and the nasal and sibilant/stop were not in close contact, it is quite possible that the final nasals would have been pronounced as a regular bilabial nasal consonant with full closure (as Sp suggest for the MI formula), i.e. Version 2: buddham (pause) saralJam (pause) gacchiimi. 504

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J dham

I

J J j sa

ra

l)am

I

J gac

j cha

II mi

This is a padapiitha form of recitation where the rules of sandhi are deliberately ignored (von Hintiber 1987: 227). However, to apply this style to a recitation in Pali would be an archaism, as the equivalent Pali words were never pronounced with a final m consonant, but with a nasalization of the final vowel: buddham in OI > buddhafJ1 in Ml, which presumably in isolation was pronounced buddhii, that is, as a nasalized vowel. 505 This fact seems to be acknowledged in the first phonetic prescription Sp provides, 504

The apostrophe (') above the staff indicates a brief pause in standard musical notation. Long syllables are presented by half notes and short syllables by quarter notes. The 4/4 designation after the treble clef sign (which indicates where middle C is on the five-line staff) means that there are four notes to the measure (numerator) and the quarter note (the four in the denominator) gets the beat. 505 The niggahlta is retained in AMg for the accusative case (-al?'I) but not, for example, in GandharI, where the ending is -o, -a, or -u for a-stem nouns (Brough §75). There is no marking of anusviira in GandharI (Brough §14), although that doesn't mean it wasn't pronounced; see Fussman above, plus the language had special characters which represented at least the velar nasal (= g, Brough § 8).

Nasalization in Pali: How to Pronounce "Buddha7?1 sarm:ia'!'l gacchami"

367

where it says that if the formula is pronoW1ced in close jW1ction, one makes a nasalization at the end of each word (anunasik-antani vii katva ... ). Notice the use of the word anuniisika, which is generally considered to be equivalent to anusvaralniggahfta (CPD), but in fact might be a throw-back to the technical meaning of the word as the nasalization of (in this case) a vowel (see discussion above). So the formula in Pali would be pronoW1ced as follows: Version 3: buddhii sara11ii gacchiimi

which has a nasalized vowel as in French. If niggahfta is considered a separate soW1d after the non-nasalized vowel (but in continuous stream with it), it would sound like this: 506

'

u'

Ij Bud

J J

u'

sa

Qa

I

dha

ra

j

j

gac

cha

I

a

I

j

11

mi

Otherwise, if the anusvaralniggahlta was considered a full vowel nasalization, it would soW1d like this:

,1

j

j

Bud

dha

' I

J

j

j

sa

ra

Qli

I

j

j

gac

cha

1J

11

mi

If the first -af!l was considered to be an anunasika (as the Pratisakhyas prescribe before the following sibilant) and the -af!! at the end of the second word was an anusvara, it would sound like this:

j Bud

506

dharfl

sa

~

}

~ L ·I

ra

r:ia

j gac

cha

11 mi

Showing a half note for a long syllable and a quarter note for a short, with the final syllables in the first two words broken into two quarter notes, the first nonnasalized, the second with anusvara (niggahfta) .

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However, there would be very little difference between these three examples, in actual practice. The average listener would simply hear a nasal at the end of both words. One might argue that in close contact the final niggah'itas would be assimilated to the initial consonants (as in 01 version one above) and pronounced as regular (velar) nasal consonants: Version 4: buddha!] sararzal) gacchiimi (buddhaiz saranaiz gacchiimi)

'1 j

Bud

j dhari( ~)

I

j

j

j

sa

ra

Qari(~)

1J gac

j cha

I

j

11

mi

Indeed, one sometimes hears monks chanting it in this way (always in Sri Lanka). But since there is always a pause between the words, and they are not in contact, it sounds like a hypercorrection, that is, an attempt to apply a rule of consonantal contact when the consonants aren't in conjunction. So an argument could be made that if the formula was pronounced quickly with the words in contact, version 4 would be appropriate (contra Sp which prescribes only version 2 and 3). Most versions one hears on Y ouTube use version 2 with a full bilabial consonant or version 1 or 4 with a velar nasal consonant either in close contact with the following word (Version 1) or separated (Version 4). Version 3, nasalization, as in French, is seldom, if ever, heard. Version 2 however, is a Sanskritization and "wrong" from an MI point of view as final m's were never pronounced with full closure at the end of a word, regardless of whether there was a pause between words. See further discussion below (Section 9).

7. Is there a "Correct" Way to Pronounce the Formula? In the Brahmanical belief system, speech is personified as the Goddess Viic, the wife oflndra and the mother of the Vedas, one of the primordial creative powers of the universe. Like the gods, speech is timeless and immortal and its accurate recollection, retention and recitation in the Vedic rituals were essential for their ritual efficacy. This was not the Buddha's view. In his teachings everything, including the gods and language, was anicca, impermanent and subject to change. He

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369

forbade his teachings to be translated into Vedic and ordered them to be learned sakiiya niruttiya ("in my own terms," Levman 2008-2009); that is, in the Prakrit which he spoke and the special nomenclature and techniques he developed to communicate his insights about the nature of life and release from suffering. For the Buddha language was a man-made invention, consisting of arbitrary designations with their meaning created by agreement. Speech was simply another aspect of avijja; our unquestioning use of words and wrong view regarding their referents led to the delusion of the I, craving and afflictions. In the Buddhadhamma, one had to transcend speech by realizing that the people and things that speech referred to were anatta, non-existent (Levman 2017a). One of the problems of transmitting the Buddha's teachings was the large number of disciples who did not speak an Indo-Aryan language as their first language or spoke a dialect different from that of the Teacher. This also led to the altered transmission of the Vinaya and Suttas by disciples who could not hear certain phonological distinctions not present in their own language or dialect. Hundreds of these anomalies are preserved in the different recensions of the canon, testifying to these transmission ambiguities. The passages dealing with this problem provide a valuable insight into the phonological issues that the early Sangha had to deal with to try and preserve the integrity of the sasana (Levman 2017). Some of these problems were touched on above with the issue pronunciation of a kamma-vaca; incorrect pronunciation of (inter alia) a nasal as a non-nasal or vice-versa invalidated the proceedings (von Hinuber 1987). Although there is a lot of instruction from the Buddha in the Vinaya and Suttas about memorizing, reciting and applying the teachings, there is very little about how to actually pronounce them. There are two important incidents in the Vinaya which give us a clue. In the first the Buddha spends the night with a monk S01_1a from Avanti, who had come to visit him. In the early morning the Buddha asks So1_1a to recite the Dhamma and he recites (from memory) the verses from theAfthakavagga, the fourth chapter of the Sutta-Nipiita, a long vagga consisting of over 200 verses. At the end of his recitation (sara-bhanna, "intoning, speaking the sound"), the Buddha praises him saying: siidhu bhikkhu su-ggahitiini kho te bhikkhu atthakavaggikiini su-manasi-katiini su-upadhiiritiini kalyiil'}iyiipi 'si viiciiya samanniigato vissatthiiya anefa-galiiya atthassa viiiiiiipaniyii (Vin 4, 19638- 1973 ).

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"Excellent! monk. TheseAtthakavagga verses have been well learnt by you, monk, well retained, well comprehended. You are endowed with a charming voice, which enunciates well (vissatthiiya), is clear and faultless (anelagalaya, lit: "not dripping with drivel"), and makes the meaning clear (atthassa vififiiipaniyii)."

The term vissaftha is a technical term meaning "non-nasal" and contrasts with niggahfta (Sv 1762 5; Levman 2017a: 32) but here it only means "distinct" or "well-enunciated."507 This injunction to recite the Dhamma so that the meaning is clearly audible is contrasted with another incident in the Vinaya, where a group of monks were singing the Dhamma with "an extended sound of singing" (iiyatakena gfta-ssarena) so that one could only hear the music and not the words. People complained and the Buddha forbade the practice, citing five dangers. 508 The commentary sums these up: this kind of singing which extends the length of the syllables in melismatic song, destroys the metre, and destroys the syllables. 509 In other words, the recitation/singing no longer has any value as Dhamma edification, for one can't hear what is being said. The Buddha's instructions are clear. When one recites the Dhamma, one should do so with clear pronunciation and without any melismatic embellishments, which obfuscate the meaning. As is well known, mispronunciation of the Dhamma may well change its meaning, which is why the refuge formula had to be pronounced exactly as 507

In Sp the commentator criticizes Dhamma instructions (by people speaking MI poorly) which are all non-labial (nirotfha), all unobstructed (vissaffha), or all nasal (niggah"ita). The usual term for non-nasal is vimutta (Deokar 2008: 116-18), but the verb visajjati ("set free, emit, discharge; gerund form vissajjetvii, < Skt vi + srj, "to send or pour forth, let go or run or flow, emit, to set free, release'') is also used to describe a non-nasal sound (Sp 7. 1399 35-14001): vimuttan ti yal'(l kara1_1iini aniggahetvii vissajjetvii viva/ena mukhena anuniisikal'(l akatvii vuccati. "Not obstructing the organs of articulation, emitting the sound freely (vissajjetvii), pronounced with an open aperture without a nasal sound, that is called vimuttal'(l." Presumably vivatena mukhena here means not lowering the soft palate and causing the air to go through the nasal passage (footnote 496). 508 I) becoming pleased with oneself, 2) others being pleased with the sound (and therefore being distracted from the Dhamma), 3) householders being annoyed, 4) disruption in concentration on the Dhamma, 5) a later group of people (pacchimii janatii) imitating the monks (Vin 2, 10817- 20). 509 Sp 6, 1202 10- 12 : ettha iiyatako nama tal'(l vattal'(l bhinditvii akkhariini vinasetvii pavatto. "Here 'extended' [from iiyatakena g"itassarena, 'extended sound of singing') means breaking whatever metre (is being used) and destroying the syllables."

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371

specified. Buddha and buddharri mean two different things, the first is a vocative case, the second an accusative, so if one intones Buddha sara,:tarri gacchiimi, where a non-nasal (-a) is substituted for a nasal (-arri), it means "Oh Buddha, I go for refuge," rather than the intended double accusative, buddharri sara,:tarri gacchiimi, "I go to the Buddha for refuge." With so many different MI dialects and indigenous MI speakers who spoke a different language and were unfamiliar with the sounds of MI Prakrit, this was a common phenomenon (Levman 2017a: 31-34).

8. Other languages We must also take into consideration the effect of other indigenous language speakers who learned MI as a second language and brought their own phonetic/phonemic inventory to bear on the pronunciation of this formula. One should not forget that during the Buddha's time it is quite likely that the IA immigrants were outnumbered by the local residents who spoke a variety of other languages (Levman 2017a; see note 23). The Buddha himself was certainly multilingual and may have come from a mixed ethnic background. Nasalization of vowels is phonemic in some Dravidian dialects. Zvelebil cites an example in Tamil, colre, "I say" vs. colre, "you say" (1990: 6). Also in Dravidian Tamil, a final nasal consonant was not pronounced but nasalized the preceding vowel, as in Pali; presumably this was the same in proto-Dravidian during the Buddha's time. Nasalization of vowels is also phonemic in Santali, a Munda language (Anderson 2008: 23) which may have been one of the native languages of the Sakya clan (Levman 2011: 47, 52-53; Levman 2013: 148-49). Tibetan, both classical and modem, also has contrastive nasalization for all vowels (Delancey 2203: 271). In Proto Tibeto-Burman, nasalized vowels occur most commonly through the decay of a syllable-final nasal (Matisoff 2203: 247). In modem Burmese, for example, all final nasal consonants are not pronounced and the vowel preceding is nasalized (Jenny and Hnin Tun 2016: 2.1.2.2). The ancestral prototypes of these languages would have formed the principal autochthonous language groups of the inhabitants of northeast India during the ministry of the Buddha. The nasalization of final vowels in the ordination formula would not have been foreign to any of these groups. Additionally, in close juncture, all of these languages had some form of nasal assimilation, similar to the O1/MI junction rule whereby homorganic nasals assimilated to their place-of-articulation counterpart under contact conditions. In Burmese, for example, a stop following a nasal is sporadically

372

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nasalized (ibid §2.1.5.2). Tibetan too has sporadic insertions of, or change to, nasals at morphemic junctions. 510 In Dravidian, nasals assimilated to stops homorganically internally (Zvelibil 1990: 1.7.13) and externally at word boundaries (Wilden 2018: 25); information on external sandhi is, for this matter, not available with the Munda languages.

9. Discussion Recall that in the Samantapiisadika, substituting a nasal som1d for a nonnasal sound (or vice-versa) was considered a serious mistake and ruined the proceedings. One can appreciate the fact that both absence and presence of nasalization may change the meaning of a word (as in the example above, with buddha, pronounced instead of buddharri). However, this is not the case regarding the three-fold possibilities of pronouncing the niggahfta -a,rt in buddharri; that is, whether one pronounces it buddham, buddharrt (buddhfi) or buddhan (buddhalJ), the meaning and case remain unchanged. So, although Emeneau (1946: 86) argues that -arri is a separate phoneme alternating with -am, that does not appear to be the case, as the sound change is dependent on the phonetic context in which it occurs; that is, -a,rt is an allophone of -am in the word final position (in pausa, when no word follows), and -aN (N = homorganic nasal) is an allophone of -am before a stop in close juncture, that is, where there is contact between the nasal and stop. In the Prakrits all final nasals become an anusvara (niggahfta) at the end of a word (Pischel 1900/1981: §348). So, assuming a pause between the words (as most renditions of the ordination formula show), then one should pronounce buddharri and sarm:zarri with a final nasalized vowel. If the fo1mula is pronounced in one continuous line, then the homorganic nasal rule may operate, that is, the -arri in buddharri > -al] before the sibilant sand the -aY(I in sara,:zarri > -al] before the initial g- in gacchami. There are two caveats to this prescription, however. Sv counsels the opposite, that in close juncture the vowels are nasalized, and secondly, even though all the Pratisakhyas prescribe a homorganic nasal stop before a following stop, PfuJ.ini gives the homorganic nasal only as an option, with anusvara as the

510 For example rnal-byor ("yoga," normally sounding nel-jor) is pronounced rnenjor with change of-/ > -n, and sgrnb-jug ("complete engagement," sounding r;lubjuk) is pronounced r;lum-juk, with change of -b > -m. The word dge- 'dun (Sangha, sounding ge-dun) is pronounced gen-dun with insertion of -n (Wilson 1992: 94).

Nasalization in Pali: How to Pronounce "Buddhaf/1 saral'}af/1 gacchiimi"

373

other allowed rendition (Emeneau 1946: 91; \Vhitney 7lf; Cardona 2013: 71, P3J.1ini references on page 13). The Sv prescription, which allows the pronunciation of a normal nasal (-am) at the end of the word, would only apply to 01 and not Ml. MI languages never pronounced an n or m word-final. This must be viewed as a Sanskritization or archaism. futerestingly, Sv never mentions the homorganic nasal rule, even though it talks about intoning the formula eka-sambandhani ("the words in one continuous line"). This suggests that in the tradition represented by this text (finalized in the fifth century CE but with a pedigree no doubt centuries earlier, perhaps even going back to the Buddha's time), no one was pronouncing the formula in this way. One can conclude, therefore, that the preferred pronunciation of the formula is: Buddha sara,:ia gacchami (Version 3 above),

While the homorganic nasal pronunciation is also possible, buddhar; sara,:iar; gacchami (buddhan saranan gacchami) (Version 4 above)

although, as Deokar notes (2009: 181): "the pronunciation ofniggahfta as a guttural nasal is of Sri Lankan origin. It, however, does not agree with the phonetic description found in the traditional works of Pali grammar." Lastly, pronunciation with the regular nasal -m is ''wrong" in MI, viz., buddham (pause) sara,:iam (pause) gacchami (Version 2 above).

I put "wrong" in inverted commas, as it is unlikely that the Buddha would have worried about any of these versions, as they are all allophonic variations and did not change the meaning or more importantly, the intention; he understood that language was anicca, like everything else, and his disciples came from various backgrounds and traditions. A Brahman, for example, would probably be a stickler for the homorganic pronunciation before a stop as all the Pratisakhyas prescribed that, although P3J.1ini allowed either a homorganic nasal or a nasalized vowel. Yet most ofthe Pratisakhyas preferred a nasalized vowel before a sibilant. So, this presumably allowed for yet another possibility of pronunciation with a nasalized vowel before the s- in sara,:iayt1 and a homorganic nasal before the g- in gacchami, viz., Buddha sara,:iar; gacchami (Version 5)

Chapter Nine

374

,1

~

~

Bud

dharil

I

~

~

~

I~

sa

ra

Qari(~)

gac

~ cha

I~ mi

However, the mixing of these two nasal forms seems highly unlikely (and it is unlikely that anyone would hear it as such). There are several other factors which I have touched on above, which help to corroborate this conclusion, that version 3 is the preferred sonic representation of the formula. 1) It subsumes the historical distinction between anuniisika and anusviira. No one seems to understand the difference between anuniisika and anusviira. Presumably anuniisika represents the nasalized vowel am, im, um, while anusviira af!1, i1!1, Uf!1 represents an "after-sound" a pure vowel which is (milliseconds) later nasalized (Oberlies 2019: 58, note 4). Although they are phonetically indistinct, it would be the difference between buddhii and buddhaa (buddham and buddha1?1); nasalized and separately articulated but in a continuous stream with the preceding -a-, as shown in the first musical example of Version 3. The anuniisika only survives today before the consonants y, v, and /, and I have not been able to find under what circumstances it is employed as a stand-alone nasalized vowel. Since in the present context one is an allophone of the other, they are melded here and the distinction is moot.

a=

2) The pronunciation of anusviira ( or anuniisika/ 511 niggahfta) before a sibilant-in the phrases (-af!1 sara~za1!l)-corresponds with the prescriptions of Pfu).ini, the Pratisakhyas, and most grammars including the Pali grammarians (Kacc 30 and Sadd 153). 3) The pronunciation of the final -af!1 as nasalized vowels (rather than a homorganic nasal or a regular nasal consonant) is in harmony with the 01 > MI trend towards nasalization in various contexts (Section §5 above). 4) Indigenous language speakers who spoke MI as a second language were quite familiar with nasalized vowels as a phonemic and phonetic component of their speech repertoire and would have no trouble understanding and 511 The Viijasaneyipriitisiikhya, for example, prescribes that-m changes to anusviira before spirants and to an anuniisika, nasalized semi-vowel homorganic with the semi-vowel that follows. The Saunakiyii Caturiidhyiiyikii is the same in the latter case, but in the former, prescribes that-m change to anuniisika (Cardona 2013: 71).

11

Nasalization in Pali: How to Pronounce "Buddhaf/1 saral'}af/1 gacchiimi"

375

pronouncing the same. This study only looked at three possible autochthonous groups (Munda, Dravidian and Tibeto-Burman), and it is quite possible, judging from the proscriptions in the Samantapasadika discussed above (Section§ 1), that there were other groups of autochthonous speakers or dialect speakers who lacked the nasal or had their own specific way of articulating it.

10. Conclusion Taking all this into account, one reaches the following conclusion: There are two possible, "correct" ways of pronouncing this important part of the ordination formula. 512 Version 3, with nasalization of final vowels. Buddha saralJa gacchami

And version 1, with homorganic nasal at word juncture. buddhm; saralJarJ gacchami (buddhan saranan gacchami).

It is important to note that the homorganic nasal is not a niggahfta or nasalized vowel, but involves the full pronunciation of a nasal consonant, articulated both through the nose and at the relevant point of articulation. 513 Since version 1 only applies in close juncture, which, from what I have been able to determine, is not usually the case in this ritualistic situation, it leaves version 3 as the preferred method of articulation. Even in close juncture the nasalized vowel is the prescribed (Sp) and allowed (Pfu).ini) pronunciation, by at least two prominent authorities. In those renditions I have listened to on Y ouTube (which are sung, not spoken), usually the full -m is pronounced, which is not historically accurate. I have heard one that recited with a nasalized ending, and a few that recited 512 I use "correct" in the sense of non-violation of any natural articulatory constraints and non-violation of any grammatical prescriptions, ancient or modern. "Appropriate" might be a better choice of words. It is unlikely that the Buddha would have disapproved of any of these versions, as none of them changed the meaning or intention of the formula and he did not believe that sound had any intrinsic nature of its own, beyond that imputed by man. 513 As Padarupasiddhi 2 points out, both niisika-tthiina-jii ("articulated at the point of articulation belonging to the nose") and saka-tthiina-jii ("articulated at the relevant point of articulation for the nasal consonant"), that is fza, iia, l'}a, na, and ma. I thank Ven. Thanuttamo for pointing this passage out to me.

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with homorganic nasals (which accords with the Sinhalese monastic tradition). In these recitations there is a long space between words which is sometimes filled with the prolongation of the final vowel sound, so presumably they might be considered in close juncture; however, the ordination formula in most cases is simply spoken in the local temple with a pause between each word. Nevertheless, whether there is a pause or not does not change this conclusion that Version 3 above is the appropriate sonic formula for all the reasons given.

Acknowledgments I would like to thank Prof. George Cardona and Ven. Thanuttamo of the Sasanarakkha Buddhist Sanctuary for their helpful suggestions, corrections and advice, which have helped to improve this section.

CHAPTER TEN CONCLUSIONS

One of the reasons the field of Buddhist Studies is such a vibrant academic discipline is the richness of its heritage, the extraordinary mixture of past and present cultures, peoples, languages and diasporas, which continues to this day. \Vherever Buddhism spreads, it blends with and enhances the local culture, producing a unique synthesis illuminating the true nature of life. But when one studies any field in depth, one quickly realizes how much one doesn't know. Indeed, it is that very ignorance which motivates scholars in Buddhist Studies on their odyssey of discovery. In the parallel field of geology, which, like Buddhism, also deals with the evolution of life over the countless aeons of "deep time," researchers soon learn that what remains of the rock record of ancient life is far exceeded by what has been eroded away. So many of our conclusions about species interaction and evolution are only reasonable inferences and cannot claim to be "scientific fact." The same situation applies to Buddhism. We have only one (relatively) complete Indic language record of the Buddha's teachings. Yet we know there were several others, as fragments have survived, and there is no reason to believe that at one time they too were complete. In India we have witnessed Buddhism go from almost a national religion in the time of Asoka, to its near-extinction in the time of the Muslim invasions, where there were not even any monks around who knew how to read the Buddhist texts. In Sri Lanka of the first century BCE, more than a millennium earlier and under similar circumstances, the fragility of the Sangha under threat of impending war and famine propelled the community to preserve the Buddha's teachings in writing. Many Indic Buddhist works are preserved only in Chinese and Tibetan. The Chinese, it may be argued, have a much more complete record of the Buddha's teachings than do some of the Indic languages (like GandharI), though the translations did not occur until the early centuries CE, centuries after the works were handed down in various Indic forms.

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The history of Buddhism amongst the indigenous peoples is even sketchier. Unaware of what they didn't know, scholars have long viewed Buddhism as an Indo-Aryan phenomenon, influenced by and responding to the Upanisads in its Weltanschauung and philosophy. Yet at the time of the Buddha the Indo-Aryans were not the plenary population in the north-east of India (see note 23). As has often been noted, the Indo-Aryans did not enter into India in a cultural or linguistic vacuum; there was a local, thriving and populous indigenous population. The Buddha, as we have shown, came from a tribe which was at least bi- and perhaps tri-lingual. We can reasonably surmise that his teachings were transmitted not only in MI but also in Dravidian and/or Munda and perhaps other ancient languages, none of which have survived. But though the teachings haven't survived, many of the words have been assimilated into Old Indic and Pali and they tell an untold story of flora, fauna, towns, rivers, other cultures, aborigines, mendicants, religieux, and their belief systems. We are only now beginning to understand the influence of these autochthonous groups on early Buddhism. Ignoring them is sure to produce a lopsided, biased image of Buddhism as some kind of apotheosis of Brahmanism. Certainly, Brahmanical influences, especially Brahman converts to the Buddha's philosophy, played an important role, but it was not the whole picture. It is only through this kind of meticulous analysis shown in Chapters Two, Three and Four that we can start to appreciate the extent of the indigenous influence on Buddhism and Pali, in phonology, morphology, syntax, and of course word borrowing. Some of these borrowings are very old and could have happened centuries before the Buddha, who simply inherited words of long-established usage. However one may infer that a significant amount are coeval with the time of the Buddha (see discussion on page 137 and in Levman 2021 d "T imelines"). The extent of the bonowing and the technical significance of the words strongly suggests a deliberate carrying over, transference, or adoption of one belief system into another. This is an ongoing project; on virtually every page of the Tipi/aka one finds words of "foreign" origin (non-IA), foreign names, and foreign technical terms. It may take decades before a complete list is formulated and its significance understood. What is now needed is a Pali Etymological Dictionary of nonIA words, which is a project for the next generations of graduate students. I am cunently working on a Prolegomenon for it. South Asian philologists have long argued that Pali was not the "original" language of Buddhism, but a reworking of an earlier idiom, whether an earlier dialect or a koine or a lingua franca of trade and commerce or government. This study reveals that underlying and alongside this earlier

Conclusions

379

idiom were other languages, Dravidian, Munda and others, parts of which have been retained in Pali. Some have argued that Pali was the language the Buddha spoke and account for the undeniable change in Pali over time by invoking only one or two factors like natural language variation or transmission errors. There are in fact several forces that have been active in the change of Pali over time including: 1) diachronic language change, which is a universal characteristic of all languages 2) linguistic diffusion (synchronic language change) from neighbouring IA languages 3) Sanskritization 4) linguistic diffusion from the autochthonous languages resulting in structural alteration, and much word borrowing where thousands of variant forms are evidence of non-IA phonetic structures adapted to a different phonological scheme 5) oral transmissional errors in the bhii,:iaka (reciter) system 6) transmission errors once the canon was written down and copied, through such errors as word division, haplography, script mis-reading, dittography, etc. (Tov 1992/2001: 199-286) 7) the harmonization and standardization of the Pali language by the grammarians. The evolution of Pali is discussed in Section two, in partial answer to those who maintain that Pali is a monolithic entity, unchanged in any major respect since the time of the Buddha. But it is no more possible for language to remain unchanged than it is for any dhamma to be exempt from the law of anicca; na fhiinarJ1 vijjati ("It is not possible"). Section Three, once again, shows how crucial philology is to understand the transmissional pathways of Buddhism. Chapter Eight deals with the changing nuances of the word sati in Pali. Originally the word meant "memory" but it took on new connotations in Buddhism ("mindfulness"), which, divorced from its core denotation, became a centrepiece of the mindfulness movement in Europe, North America, and around the world. The modem mindfulness movement traces the word's spiritual heritage to the Sayadaws of Burma and this chapter analyzes the understanding of the term in the great Burmese tradition, showing that sati never lost touch with its root meaning of memory (of the Buddha's teachings), no matter what other secondary and/or misleading connotations are now associated with it. Pali is a phonetic language, except for the niggahfta (nasalization), and there are three possible ways of pronouncing it, as a nasalized vowel, a homorganic nasal or a straight nasal consonant. Although this might seem an arcane point to many readers, the pronunciation ambiguity of the niggahfta or anusviira has been unresolved since Pfu).ini 's time. Since hardly a sentence goes by without encountering the nasalization bindu symbol (1?1 or m), and correct pronunciation is so important historically in the Pali recitation rituals, a thorough analysis of the pronunciation issues is long

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overdue. Language is ultimately an oral phenomenon. This book starts with the oral medium and languages in which the Buddha taught two and a half millennia ago and it is perhaps fitting, therefore, that it ends with musings on how the Buddha might actually have pronounced the teachings.

ABBREVIATIONS

AA AMg AN Ap As AV B< BHS BHSD

BMI Bodding Brough caus. CDIAL CM cp CP CPD CR CST DED Dhp Dhs DN DN-a DOP DPPN DPR DTS Ee EMC

Austro Asiatic language group ArdhamagadhI Anguttara Nikaya Apadana Atthasalinf Artharvaveda Bunnese recension (CST) Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, Edgerton 1953/1998. Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary (Edgerton 1953/1998) Buddhist Middle Indic Bodding 1929-1936 Brough 1962 causative A Comparative Dictionary ofInda-Aryan Languages (Turner 1971) Central Munda compare Collected Papers (Norman) Critical Pali Dictionary Levman 2013 "Cultural Remnants of the Inidgenous Peoples" Chanha Sailgayana Tipitaka Dravidian Etymological Dictionary, Emeneau and Burrow, 1984 Dhammapada Dhammasanga,:ii Dzgha Nikaya Dfgha Nikaya-affhakatha, Sumangalavflasinf Dictionary ofPali (Cone 2001-2020). Dictionary ofPali Proper Names, Malalasekera 1938/2003 Digital Pali Reader (Pali.Sirimangalo.org) Dhammachai Tipitaka Series (Dharmakaya Institute) PIS edition Early Middle Chinese

382 G GDhp Geiger HJ Homer IA IE IIr

IMS IPA It-a Ja JBED K Kacc Kuiper

Un M MBh MC MED MyED Ml M2 MI MIA MISL MN Mp MPP MPS Mvu Nett Nett-a NIA Nidd II NM OED

or OIA

Abbreviations

GandharI GandharIDhammapada (Brough 1962). Geiger 1916/2005 Yule and Burnell 1903/2000 Homer 1938-66/2001-07 Indo-Aryan Indo European Indo-Iranian International Meditation Society International Phonetic Association Jtivuttaka-affhakatha or Paramattha-dfpanf Jataka Judson Burmese-English Dictionary KalsI (Rock Edict) Kaccayana (Pind 2013) Kuiper 1948a Dfghanikayaffhakathatfka, Lfnatthavw_1,:iana, (Sv-a-t) Mansehra Rock Edict Mahabharata Middle Chinese Munda Etymological Dictionary (Stampe, D.) Myanmar-English Dictionary (Department of the Myanmar Language Commission, 1994) Mayrhofer 1956-1976 Mayrhofer 1992-96 Middle Indic Middle Indo-Aryan Middle Indic as a Second Language speakers Majjhima Nikaya Manorathapura,:if, Anguttara Nikaya-affhakatha Mahaparinibbanasutta Mahaparinirva,:iasutra Mahavastu Nettippakara,:ia Nettippakara,:ia-affhakatha New Indo-Aryan Cullaniddesa North Munda Oxford English Dictionary Old Indic Old Indo-Aryan

Pali and Buddhism: Language and Lineage

p Pati Pati-a PB PCD PD PDhp PED

PJII Fischel PM PMA

PND p.p. Ps PSD PSDI PSD II PTSD PW Sadd Sh S/Skt SM SN Sn Southworth Sp Spk Subasi UV Sv Sv-a-1

1 Th Th-a ThI Tib

TL Ud UV

383

Pali Pafisambhidamaggal Pafisambhidamagga-affhakatha, Saddhammappakasinf transliteration per Pulleybank 1991 proto-central Dravidian proto-Dravidian PatnaDhammapada (Cone 1989). Pali English Dictionary Paramathajotika II, Sutta-Nipata commentary Pischel 1900/1981 proto-Munda Pali Myanma Abhidhan' proto-north Dravidian past participle Papancasudanf (Majjhimanikiiya-affhakatha) proto-south Dravidian proto-south Dravidian I (Southworth, Fig. 2.4; §8.22) proto-south Dravidian II (Southworth, Fig. 2.4, §8.22) Pali Text Society Dictionary Petersburger Worterbuch, Bohtlingk and Roth 185575/1990 Saddanfti (Smith 1930) ShabazgarhT Rock Edict Sanskrit South Munda Sarriyutta Nikiiya Sutta-Nipata Southworth 2005 Samantalapasadika, Vinaya-affhakatha Saratthappakasinf, Sarriyutta Nikiiya-affhakathii Nakatani 1987. Sumangalaviliisinf, Dfgha Nikiiya-affhakatha Sumangalaviliisinf, Lfnatthavar,:zana ffka Theragatha Theragatha-affhakatha, Paramattha-dfpanf Therzgatha Tibetan Tamil Lexicon Udana Udanavarga

384

Abbreviations

V Vibh Vibh-a Vin Vsm Vv Vv-a Whitney Witzel X

vowel Vibhanga Vibhanga-affhakathii, Sammohavinodanf Vinaya Visuddhimagga Vimiinavatthu Vimiinavatthu affhakathii Whitney 189712000 Witzel 1999a "a vowel feature which must be reconstructed for ProtoMunda" (Zide & Zide 1976: 1330, note 4) derived from evolves to, source for alongside, corresponding, compare to, allophone

< >

PMA Abbreviations (Volume 1, pp. 91-94) aqi aqi ttha ap aptt}ia abhi ttha 1 abhi ttha2 abhi ttha 3 abhi dha abhi vi cu\ani cu\ani ttha dI dittha ditI itivut itivut ttha ma mattha mahani mahani ttha milinda mulaty netti netti ttha

Anguttara Nikiiya Anguttara Nikiiya-affhakathii, Manorathapiira1.1f Apadiina Apadiina-affhakathii, Visuddhajanaviliisinf Dhammasanga1.1f-affhakathii, Atthasiilinf Sammohavinodanf, Vibhanga-affhakathii Abhidhamma-affhakathii, Pancapakara1.1a. Dhammasanga1.1i Vibhanga Cii/aniddesa Cii/aniddesa-affhakathii, Saddhamma-pajjotikii Dfgha Nikiiya Dfgha Nikiiya-affhakathii, Sumangalviliisinf Dfgha Nikiiya-affhakathiiffkii, Lfnatthava1.11.1anii Jtivuttaka Itivuttaka-affhakathii, Paramatthadfpanf Majjhima Nikiiya Majjhima Nikiiya-affhakathii, Papancasiidanf Mahiiniddesa Mahiiniddesa-affhakathii (Saddhammapajjotikii) Milindapanha Miila-ffkii, Vibhanga-affhakathii Nettippakara1.1a Nettippakara1_la-affhakathii

Pali and Buddhism: Language and Lineage

niti dhatu pacit yo patisa111 patisa111 gal_lthi patisa111 ttha sarp sa111 ttha sarattha suttani suttani ttha ttha thera thera ttha therI therI ttha vaJrra vimati VI

visail.gaha visuddhi visuddhi tI vi ttha

385

Saddanfti Dhatumala. Pacityadiyojana, Vinaya-tfka Patisambhidamagga Pafisambhidamagga ga,:ifhipadattha-va,:i,:iana Pafisambhidamagga-affhakatha, Saddhammappakasinf Sarrzyutta Nikaya Sarriyutta Nikiiya-afthakatha, Saratthappakasinf Saratthadfpanf-ffka, sub-commentary on Samantapasadika, Vin-a-t Sutta-Nipata Sutta-Nipata-atfhakatha (Paramattha-jotika II) affhakatha Theragatha Theragatha-affhakattha, Paramattha-dfpanf Therfgatha Therfgatha-affhakatha, Paramatthadfpanf Vajirabuddhi-tfka, sub-commentary on Samantapasadika Vin-a-t Vimativinodanf-ffka, sub-commentary on Samantapasadika Vin-a-t Vinaya Vinayasangaha-affhakatha Visuddhimagga Visuddhimagga Mahaffka Vinaya-affhakatha, Samantapasadika

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