Misplaced Pages

#189810

99-542: The name Meiktila comes from Mithila , the name of an ancient Indian kingdom. The history of Meiktila is closely tied to that of central Myanmar's Dry Zone , home of the Bamar people . The region had been part of various Bamar kingdoms at least from 11th century CE to 19th century CE before the British Empire took over all of Upper Myanmar in 1885. Meiktila was part of the 1945 Battle of Meiktila and Mandalay , during which

198-616: A senāpati ("General-in-Chief"), and a bhaṇḍāgārika ("Treasurer"). Since the Vaideha Assembly met only once a year, it was the Council, that is the inner body of the Assembly, which met more frequently to administer the Videha republic. The Vaideha Council was the body with the supreme authority of the internal administration of the republic, although in practice it held the supreme power of

297-415: A Middle Indo-Aryan language , is different from Classical Sanskrit more with regard to its dialectal base than the time of its origin. A number of its morphological and lexical features show that it is not a direct continuation of Ṛgvedic Sanskrit. Instead it descends from one or more dialects that were, despite many similarities, different from Ṛgvedic . The Theravada commentaries refer to

396-515: A before doubled consonants: The vowels ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩ are lengthened in the flexional endings including: -īhi, -ūhi and -īsu A sound called anusvāra (Skt.; Pali: niggahīta ), represented by the letter ṁ (ISO 15919) or ṃ (ALA-LC) in romanization, and by a raised dot in most traditional alphabets, originally marked the fact that the preceding vowel was nasalized. That is, aṁ , iṁ and uṁ represented [ã] , [ĩ] and [ũ] . In many traditional pronunciations, however,

495-521: A lingua franca or common language of culture among people who used differing dialects in North India, used at the time of the Buddha and employed by him. Another scholar states that at that time it was "a refined and elegant vernacular of all Aryan-speaking people". Modern scholarship has not arrived at a consensus on the issue; there are a variety of conflicting theories with supporters and detractors. After

594-444: A voiced retroflex lateral approximant [ɭ] or non-retroflex [l] "l" sound. Both the long ā and retroflex ḷ are seen in the ISO 15919 / ALA-LC rendering, Pāḷi ; however, to this day there is no single, standard spelling of the term, and all four possible spellings can be found in textbooks. R. C. Childers translates the word as "series" and states that the language "bears

693-650: A continuation of a language spoken in the area of Magadha in the time of the Buddha. Nearly every word in Pāḷi has cognates in the other Middle Indo-Aryan languages, the Prakrits . The relationship to Vedic Sanskrit is less direct and more complicated; the Prakrits were descended from Old Indo-Aryan vernaculars . Historically, influence between Pali and Sanskrit has been felt in both directions. The Pali language's resemblance to Sanskrit

792-547: A degraded form of Pali, But Masefield states that further examination of a very considerable corpus of texts will probably show that this is an internally consistent Pali dialect. The reason for the changes is that some combinations of characters are difficult to write in those scripts. Masefield further states that upon the third re-introduction of Theravada Buddhism into Sri Lanka (The Siyamese Sect), records in Thailand state that large number of texts were also taken. It seems that when

891-567: A few loan-words from local languages where Pali was used (e.g. Sri Lankans adding Sinhala words to Pali). These usages differentiate the Pali found in the Suttapiṭaka from later compositions such as the Pali commentaries on the canon and folklore (e.g., commentaries on the Jataka tales ), and comparative study (and dating) of texts on the basis of such loan-words is now a specialized field unto itself. Pali

990-643: A high degree of mutual intelligibility. Theravada tradition, as recorded in chronicles like the Mahavamsa , states that the Tipitaka was first committed to writing during the first century BCE. This move away from the previous tradition of oral preservation is described as being motivated by threats to the Sangha from famine, war, and the growing influence of the rival tradition of the Abhayagiri Vihara . This account

1089-488: A mix of several Prakrit languages from around the 3rd century BCE, combined and partially Sanskritized. There is no attested dialect of Middle Indo-Aryan with all the features of Pali. In the modern era, it has been possible to compare Pali with inscriptions known to be in Magadhi Prakrit, as well as other texts and grammars of that language. While none of the existing sources specifically document pre-Ashokan Magadhi,

SECTION 10

#1732851356190

1188-453: A monarchical regime during the era of the Brāhmaṇa s , lasting from around 900 BCE to around 700 BCE. One attested king of Mahā-Videha was Mithila, who gave his name to the tribe's capital of Mithilā . The Vaidehas were Brahmanised during the later Brāhmaṇa period, shortly after Kosala's Brahmanisation. This Brahminisation of Mahā-Videha happened during the reign of the king Janaka , who

1287-415: A number of similarities between surviving fragments and Pali morphology. Ardhamagadhi Prakrit was a Middle Indo-Aryan language and a Dramatic Prakrit thought to have been spoken in modern-day Bihar & Eastern Uttar Pradesh and used in some early Buddhist and Jain drama. It was originally thought to be a predecessor of the vernacular Magadhi Prakrit, hence the name (literally "half-Magadhi"). Ardhamāgadhī

1386-672: Is a classical Middle Indo-Aryan language on the Indian subcontinent . It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist Pāli Canon or Tipiṭaka as well as the sacred language of Theravāda Buddhism . Pali is designated as a classical language by the Government of India . The word 'Pali' is used as a name for the language of the Theravada canon. The word seems to have its origins in commentarial traditions, wherein

1485-563: Is currently relatively little known, particularly in the Thai tradition, with many manuscripts never catalogued or published. Paiśācī is a largely unattested literary language of classical India that is mentioned in Prakrit and Sanskrit grammars of antiquity. It is found grouped with the Prakrit languages, with which it shares some linguistic similarities, but was not considered a spoken language by

1584-527: Is frequently chanted in a ritual context. The secular literature of Pali historical chronicles, medical texts, and inscriptions is also of great historical importance. The great centres of Pali learning remain in Sri Lanka and other Theravada nations of Southeast Asia: Myanmar , Thailand , Laos and Cambodia . Since the 19th century, various societies for the revival of Pali studies in India have promoted awareness of

1683-496: Is generally accepted by scholars, though there are indications that Pali had already begun to be recorded in writing by this date. By this point in its history, scholars consider it likely that Pali had already undergone some initial assimilation with Sanskrit , such as the conversion of the Middle-Indic bahmana to the more familiar Sanskrit brāhmana that contemporary brahmans used to identify themselves. In Sri Lanka, Pali

1782-484: Is home to the Myanmar Aerospace Engineering University , a national university; and regional universities and colleges such as Meiktila University , Meiktila Institute of Economics , Computer University, Meiktila , Technological University, Meiktila and Meiktila Education College . Of the city's six public Basic Education High Schools , BEHS 1 Meiktila or Royal High School is considered

1881-758: Is much lower than most of Indochina because of the rain shadow of the Arakan Mountains to the west. Meiktila has 44 Buddhist pagodas as of 2020. The most well-known pagodas are located on the lakefront, although they exist throughout the town in both upland and lowland areas. Below is a table of 10 of the main pagodas in Meiktila: Other, lesser-visited pagodas include ones in the Aung Zaya and Yan Myo Aung quarters. The city's well-known pagodas are Shwemyintin, Shweyinmi (asa Hteethonesint), Nagayon , Yele, Sutaung Pyi, Hpaung Daw U Pagoda and Phaungdawoo. Meiktila

1980-660: Is often exaggerated by comparing it to later Sanskrit compositions—which were written centuries after Sanskrit ceased to be a living language, and are influenced by developments in Middle Indic , including the direct borrowing of a portion of the Middle Indic lexicon; whereas, a good deal of later Pali technical terminology has been borrowed from the vocabulary of equivalent disciplines in Sanskrit, either directly or with certain phonological adaptations. Post-canonical Pali also possesses

2079-436: Is sometimes substituted with tanti , meaning a string or lineage. This name seems to have emerged in Sri Lanka early in the second millennium CE during a resurgence in the use of Pali as a courtly and literary language. As such, the name of the language has caused some debate among scholars of all ages; the spelling of the name also varies, being found with both long "ā" [ɑː] and short "a" [a] , and also with either

SECTION 20

#1732851356190

2178-930: Is that literature in Paiśācī is fragmentary and extremely rare but may once have been common. The 13th-century Tibetan historian Buton Rinchen Drub wrote that the early Buddhist schools were separated by choice of sacred language : the Mahāsāṃghikas used Prakrit, the Sarvāstivādins used Sanskrit, the Sthaviravādins used Paiśācī, and the Saṃmitīya used Apabhraṃśa . This observation has led some scholars to theorize connections between Pali and Paiśācī; Sten Konow concluded that it may have been an Indo-Aryan language spoken by Dravidian people in South India, and Alfred Master noted

2277-561: Is the most easterly of the districts in Myanmar's central dry zone. It lies between Wundwin , Myingyan, Yamethin , and touches Shan State on the east. The chief feature of the region Lake Meiktila , an artificial irrigation and water reservoir , 7 miles (11 km) long, 0.5 miles (0.80 km) wide. The lake is divided into two parts, north and south, by a bridge on the Meiktila- Kyaukpadaung highway. Mondai dam supplies water to

2376-512: Is thought to have entered into a period of decline ending around the 4th or 5th century (as Sanskrit rose in prominence, and simultaneously, as Buddhism's adherents became a smaller portion of the subcontinent), but ultimately survived. The work of Buddhaghosa was largely responsible for its reemergence as an important scholarly language in Buddhist thought. The Visuddhimagga , and the other commentaries that Buddhaghosa compiled, codified and condensed

2475-746: Is usually divided into canonical and non-canonical or extra-canonical texts. Canonical texts include the whole of the Pali Canon or Tipitaka . With the exception of three books placed in the Khuddaka Nikaya by only the Burmese tradition, these texts (consisting of the five Nikayas of the Sutta Pitaka , the Vinaya Pitaka , and the books of the Abhidhamma Pitaka ) are traditionally accepted as containing

2574-797: The Dharmaśāstra s approved of it as a pure land, although the later the Manusmṛti mentions the Vaidehas with contempt, following the earlier Brahmanical tradition of opposition to the Prācya non-Vedic Indo-Aryan tribes. The close relations between the Vaidehas, the Kāśyas, and the Kauśalyas continued after the Brahminisation of these states: at one point Jala Jātūkarṇya was the purohita of all three kingdoms; and

2673-480: The Pāli (in the sense of the line of original text quoted) was distinguished from the commentary or vernacular translation that followed it in the manuscript. K. R. Norman suggests that its emergence was based on a misunderstanding of the compound pāli-bhāsa , with pāli being interpreted as the name of a particular language. The name Pali does not appear in the canonical literature, and in commentary literature

2772-683: The Allied forces under William Slim defeated the Japanese forces . Soon after Burma's independence from Britain in 1948, Meiktila briefly fell under the insurgent Karen forces . On 22 March 2013, a state of emergency was imposed in the town after two days of anti-Muslim riots after dozens of people were killed and more than 12,000 were forced from their homes, the overwhelming majority of whom were Muslims. This violence later spread to other places in Burma such as Okpho and Gyobingauk Townships . Meiktila district

2871-531: The Himālaya mountains in the north. To the west of the Sadānirā river, the neighbour of the Vaidehas was the kingdom of Kosala . The Sadānirā and Kauśikī rivers remained the respective western and eastern boundaries of the later Videha republic, although its territory covered only the northern part of that of the former Videha kingdom, with the latter hence being called Mahā-Videha ("greater Videha"). The Videha republic

2970-706: The Iron Age . The population of Videha, the Vaidehas , were initially organised into a monarchy but later became a gaṇasaṅgha (an aristocratic republic ), presently referred to as the Videha Republic , which was part of the larger Vajjika League . The borders of the Videha kingdom were the Sadānirā river in the west, the Kauśikī river in the east, the Gaṅgā river in the south, and

3069-832: The Kāśyas , Kauśalyas , Māgadhīs , and Āṅgeyas , as Prācya s (meaning "Easterners") not belonging to the Madhyama-Diś , that is the land of the Brahmaṛṣi s where Vedic rituals and customs were followed, and consisting of the areas of the Kuru, Pāñcāla, Matsya , and Śūrasena tribes. Brahmanical literature also referred to the Vaidehas and the Māgadhīs with less prestige than the Brahmanised Kuru-Pāñcālas and with language referring to mixed castes. The Vaidehas were initially organised into

Meiktila - Misplaced Pages Continue

3168-710: The Mahāsāṃghika branch became influential in Central and East India . Akira Hirakawa and Paul Groner also associate Pali with Western India and the Sthavira nikāya, citing the Saurashtran inscriptions, which are linguistically closest to the Pali language. Although Sanskrit was said in the Brahmanical tradition to be the unchanging language spoken by the gods in which each word had an inherent significance, such views for any language

3267-757: The Milindapanha ) may have been composed in India before being transmitted to Sri Lanka, but the surviving versions of the texts are those preserved by the Mahavihara in Ceylon and shared with monasteries in Theravada Southeast Asia. The earliest inscriptions in Pali found in mainland Southeast Asia are from the first millennium CE, some possibly dating to as early as the 4th century. Inscriptions are found in what are now Burma, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia and may have spread from southern India rather than Sri Lanka. By

3366-608: The Pali Canon and non-canonical texts, and include several examples of the Ye dhamma hetu verse. The oldest surviving Pali manuscript was discovered in Nepal dating to the 9th century. It is in the form of four palm-leaf folios, using a transitional script deriving from the Gupta script to scribe a fragment of the Cullavagga . The oldest known manuscripts from Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia date to

3465-484: The 11th century, a so-called "Pali renaissance" began in the vicinity of Pagan , gradually spreading to the rest of mainland Southeast Asia as royal dynasties sponsored monastic lineages derived from the Mahavihara of Anuradhapura . This era was also characterized by the adoption of Sanskrit conventions and poetic forms (such as kavya ) that had not been features of earlier Pali literature. This process began as early as

3564-791: The 13th–15th century, with few surviving examples. Very few manuscripts older than 400 years have survived, and complete manuscripts of the four Nikayas are only available in examples from the 17th century and later. Pali was first mentioned in Western literature in Simon de la Loubère 's descriptions of his travels in the kingdom of Siam. An early grammar and dictionary was published by Methodist missionary Benjamin Clough in 1824, and an initial study published by Eugène Burnouf and Christian Lassen in 1826 ( Essai sur le Pali, ou Langue sacrée de la presqu'île au-delà du Gange ). The first modern Pali-English dictionary

3663-418: The 5th century CE Buddhist commentator Buddhaghosa to have been colonised by the king Mandhātā with settlers from a place he retroactively referred to as pubba Videha ("old Videha"). The Prākrit name Videha , meaning "without walls or ramparts," was an epithet used in the sense of "destroyers of walls and ramparts". Despite being an Indo-Aryan people, the Vaidehas were not fully Brahmanised, lived in

3762-611: The 5th century, but intensified early in the second millennium as Pali texts on poetics and composition modeled on Sanskrit forms began to grow in popularity. One milestone of this period was the publication of the Subodhalankara during the 14th century, a work attributed to Sangharakkhita Mahāsāmi and modeled on the Sanskrit Kavyadarsa . Peter Masefield devoted considerable research to a form of Pali known as Indochinese Pali or 'Kham Pali'. Up until now, this has been considered

3861-414: The Assembly. The Council also received envoys of other states and took important decisions in the name of the Assembly, which had to approve them. An unusual custom of the Vaidehas was that every one of their villages and towns had a dancing girl of courtesan, and Videha had a troop composed of panegyrists, music instrument players, and those dancing girls who were considered to be the most beautiful. At

3960-528: The Athenian and Theban republics. As a prominent member of the Vajjika League, the Videha republic was also threatened by Ajātasattu, and it therefore fought on the side of the other confederate tribes of the league against Magadha. The military forces of the Vajjika League were initially too strong for Ajātasattu to be successful against them, and it required him having recourse to diplomacy and intrigues over

4059-422: The Buddha used during his life. In the 19th century, the British Orientalist Robert Caesar Childers argued that the true or geographical name of the Pali language was Magadhi Prakrit , and that because pāḷi means "line, row, series", the early Buddhists extended the meaning of the term to mean "a series of books", so pāḷibhāsā means "language of the texts". However, modern scholarship has regarded Pali as

Meiktila - Misplaced Pages Continue

4158-430: The Indo-Aryan but non-Vedic cultural region of Greater Magadha located to the east of the Gaṅgā- Yamunā confluence along with the similarly Greater Magadhan non-Vedic Indo-Aryan Kāśya and Kauśalya tribes, with whom they had close cultural relations from early times, and along with whom the Vaidehas would be continually mentioned in ancient South Asian literature. Brahmanical literature therefore grouped them along with

4257-468: The Licchavi republic and the Vajjika League; Bimbisāra had chosen Vehalla as his successor following Ajātasattu's falling out of his favour after the latter had been caught conspiring against him, and the Licchavikas had attempted to place Vehalla on the throne of Magadha after Ajātasattu's usurpation and had allowed Vehalla to use their capital Vesālī as base for his revolt. After the failure of this rebellion, Vehalla sought refuge at his grandfather's place in

4356-400: The Licchavika and Vajjika capital of Vesālī, following which Ajātasattu repeatedly attempted to negotiate with the Licchavikas-Vajjikas. After Ajātasattu's repeated negotiation attempts ended in failure, he declared war on the Vajjika League in 484 BCE. Tensions between Licchavi and Magadha were exacerbated by the handling of the joint Māgadhī-Licchavika border post of Koṭigāma on the Gaṅgā by

4455-404: The Licchavika-led Vajjika League who would regularly collect all valuables from Koṭigāma and leave none to the Māgadhīs. Therefore Ajātasattu decided to destroy the Vajjika League in retaliation, but also because, as an ambitious empire-builder whose mother Vāsavī was Licchavika princess of Vaidehī descent, he was interested in the territory of the former Mahā-Videha kingdom which by then was part of

4554-419: The Licchavikas and the Mallakas , and Videha maintained limited autonomy within the league concerning its domestic administration under the supervision of Licchavi, who fully controlled Vaideha foreign policy. The Videha republic's relations with other members of the Vajjika League, such as the Malla republics, were good, although occasional quarrels arose between the various member states of the league. During

4653-469: The Licchavikas joined them in moving to Vesālī, and therefore became members of the Licchavi ruling aristocratic Assembly. Vaideha politicians also moved to Vesālī and obtained high posts there, such as the Vaideha minister Sakala who had to flee from his colleagues' jealousy and moved to Vesālī where he became a prominent citizen and was elected Nāyaka ; Sakala had two sons, Gopāla and Siṃha, who both married Vesālia women, and Siṃha's daughter Vāsavī married

4752-414: The Licchavikas, the republican Vaideha gaṇasaṅgha ( aristocratic oligarchic republic ) had their own ruling Assembly. The Vaidehas, like their Licchavika, Mallaka, Nāyika confederates within the Vajjika League, were a kṣatriya tribe, and the Vaidehas' Assembly was largely constituted of the heads of the kṣatriya clans of the tribe, although it was smaller than the Licchavika Assembly and

4851-404: The Licchavikas, who led the Vajjika League which the Vaidehas were part of, with their southern neighbour, the kingdom of Magadha , were initially good, and the wife of the Māgadhī king Bimbisāra was the Vesālia princess Vāsavī, who was the daughter of the Licchavika Nāyaka Sakala's son Siṃha. There were nevertheless occasional tensions between Licchavi and Magadha, such as the competition at

4950-428: The Mallaka capital of Kusinārā over acquiring the relics of the Buddha after his death. In another case, the Licchavikas once invaded Māgadhī territory from across the Gaṅgā , and at some point the relations between Magadha and Licchavi permanently deteriorated as result of a grave offence committed by the Licchavikas towards the Māgadhī king Bimbisāra. The hostilities between Licchavi and Magadha continued under

5049-427: The Māgadhī king Bimbisāra . The Licchavikas themselves henceforth became the leading power within the territory of the former Mahā-Videha kingdom, with the Licchavika Assembly holding the sovereign and supreme rights over this territory while the Videha republic was ruled by an Assembly of the kṣatriya s residing in and around Mithilā, and which governed in the name of the Licchavika Assembly. The Videha republic

SECTION 50

#1732851356190

5148-450: The Pali language as " Magadhan " or the "language of Magadha". This identification first appears in the commentaries, and may have been an attempt by Buddhists to associate themselves more closely with the Maurya Empire . However, only some of the Buddha's teachings were delivered in the historical territory of Magadha kingdom . Scholars consider it likely that he taught in several closely related dialects of Middle Indo-Aryan, which had

5247-445: The Prakrits." According to K. R. Norman , differences between different texts within the canon suggest that it contains material from more than a single dialect. He also suggests it is likely that the viharas in North India had separate collections of material, preserved in the local dialect. In the early period it is likely that no degree of translation was necessary in communicating this material to other areas. Around

5346-467: The Sinhala commentarial tradition that had been preserved and expanded in Sri Lanka since the 3rd century BCE. With only a few possible exceptions, the entire corpus of Pali texts known today is believed to derive from the Anuradhapura Maha Viharaya in Sri Lanka. While literary evidence exists of Theravadins in mainland India surviving into the 13th century, no Pali texts specifically attributable to this tradition have been recovered. Some texts (such as

5445-399: The Sri Lankan tradition and then spread to other Theravada regions, some texts may have other origins. The Milinda Panha may have originated in northern India before being translated from Sanskrit or Gandhari Prakrit . There are also a number of texts that are believed to have been composed in Pali in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burma but were not widely circulated. This regional Pali literature

5544-422: The UK; incongruously, the citizens of the UK were not nearly so robust in Sanskrit and Prakrit language studies as Germany, Russia, and even Denmark . Even without the inspiration of colonial holdings such as the former British occupation of Sri Lanka and Burma, institutions such as the Danish Royal Library have built up major collections of Pali manuscripts, and major traditions of Pali studies. Pali literature

5643-480: The Vaideha Assembly (called rājā s, meaning "ruler"), similarly to how membership to the Licchavika Assembly functioned. Like the Licchavika Assembly, the Vaideha Assembly possessed a santhāgāra as meeting place, although it normally met only once a year. The Gaṇa Mukhya ("Head of the Republic") was a consul rājā chosen by the citizen body, and who maintained the old title of Videha or Vedeha ("Lord of Videha"). The position of Gaṇa Mukhya

5742-470: The Vaidehī princess Sītā . The narrative of these epics is based on the monarchical period of Videha. There were 52 Janaka (kings) ruled Videha dynasty of Mithila- During this period of fall of Videha dynasty, the famous republic of Licchavi was rising in Vaishali and Mithila region came under control of Licchavi clan of Vajji confederacy in around eight century BCE. Pali Pāli ( / ˈ p ɑː l i / ), also known as Pali-Magadhi ,

5841-439: The Vajjika League. Ajātasattu's hostility towards the Vajjika League was also the result of the differing forms of political organisation between Magadha and the Vajjika League, with the former being monarchical and the latter being republican, not unlike the opposition of the ancient Greek kingdom of Sparta to the democratic form of government in Athens , and the hostilities between the ancient Macedonian king Philip II to

5940-562: The available sources suggest that Pali is not equatable with that language. Modern scholars generally regard Pali to have originated from a western dialect, rather than an eastern one. Pali has some commonalities with both the western Ashokan Edicts at Girnar in Saurashtra , and the Central-Western Prakrit found in the eastern Hathigumpha inscription . These similarities lead scholars to associate Pali with this region of western India. Nonetheless, Pali does retain some eastern features that have been referred to as Māgadhisms . Pāḷi, as

6039-418: The bite of snakes. Many people in Theravada cultures still believe that taking a vow in Pali has a special significance, and, as one example of the supernatural power assigned to chanting in the language, the recitation of the vows of Aṅgulimāla are believed to alleviate the pain of childbirth in Sri Lanka. In Thailand, the chanting of a portion of the Abhidhammapiṭaka is believed to be beneficial to

SECTION 60

#1732851356190

6138-423: The death of the Buddha, Pali may have evolved among Buddhists out of the language of the Buddha as a new artificial language. R. C. Childers, who held to the theory that Pali was Old Magadhi, wrote: "Had Gautama never preached, it is unlikely that Magadhese would have been distinguished from the many other vernaculars of Hindustan, except perhaps by an inherent grace and strength which make it a sort of Tuscan among

6237-441: The early grammarians because it was understood to have been purely a literary language. In works of Sanskrit poetics such as Daṇḍin 's Kavyadarsha , it is also known by the name of Bhūtabhāṣā , an epithet which can be interpreted as 'dead language' (i.e., with no surviving speakers), or bhūta means past and bhāṣā means language i.e. 'a language spoken in the past'. Evidence which lends support to this interpretation

6336-424: The eastern Gangetic plain in the Greater Magadha cultural region. The Mahā-Videha ("greater Videha") kingdom, located between the Sadānirā river in the west, the Kauśikī river in the east, the Gaṅgā river in the south, and the Himālaya mountains in the north, was founded around 800 BCE, according to the Mahāgovinda Sutta by the king Reṇu with the help of his steward, Mahāgovinda Jotipāla, and claimed by

6435-410: The epithet in consequence of the perfection of its grammatical structure". There is persistent confusion as to the relation of Pāḷi to the vernacular spoken in the ancient kingdom of Magadha , which was located in modern-day Bihar . Beginning in the Theravada commentaries, Pali was identified with ' Magadhi ', the language of the kingdom of Magadha, and this was taken to also be the language that

6534-461: The heads of non- kṣatriya clans were allowed to join it: brāhmaṇa s were either allowed to become members of the Assembly or, as brāhmaṇa heads of families, were able to influence it; since Mithilā was a centre of trade, wealthy merchants also either were members of the Assembly or were able to influence it. Of the 84,000 to 100,000 population of Videha, the 6,000 heads of the kṣatriya clans were automatically accorded membership within

6633-402: The king Para Āṭnāra, who was a descendant of the Kauśalya king Hiraṇyanābha, ruled over both Mahā-Videha and Kosala. This monarchical period of the Vaidehas lasted between 150 and 200 years, and the maximum estimated number of Vaideha kings during this phase amounts to eight. Shortly before or during the lifetime of the Buddha , around the 7th or 6th century BCE, the Licchavi tribe invaded

6732-416: The lake. Meiktila has a hot semi-arid climate ( Köppen BSh ), marginally too dry to qualify as a tropical savanna climate ( Aw ). Temperatures are hot throughout the year, and the months before the monsoon (March to May) are sweltering, with average maxima around 36 °C (96.8 °F). There is a winter dry season (November–April) and a summer wet season (May–October); however the wet season rainfall

6831-408: The language and its literature, including the Maha Bodhi Society founded by Anagarika Dhammapala . In Europe, the Pali Text Society has been a major force in promoting the study of Pali by Western scholars since its founding in 1881. Based in the United Kingdom, the society publishes romanized Pali editions, along with many English translations of these sources. In 1869, the first Pali Dictionary

6930-454: The language underwent a small degree of Sanskritisation (i.e., MIA bamhana > brahmana, tta > tva in some cases). Bhikkhu Bodhi , summarizing the current state of scholarship, states that the language is "closely related to the language (or, more likely, the various regional dialects) that the Buddha himself spoke". He goes on to write: Scholars regard this language as a hybrid showing features of several Prakrit dialects used around

7029-458: The life of the Buddha , Videha abandoned Brahmanism and embraced Buddhism . After the death of the Buddha, the Licchavikas, the Mallakas, and the Sakyas claimed shares of his relics while the Vaidehas and the Nāyikas did not appear among the list of states claiming a share because they were dependencies of the Licchavikas without their own sovereignty, and therefore could not put forth their own claim while Licchavi could. The relations of

7128-711: The monastic ordination died out in Sri Lanka, many texts were lost also. Therefore the Sri Lankan Pali canon had been translated first into Indo-Chinese Pali, and then back again into Pali. Despite an expansion of the number and influence of Mahavihara-derived monastics, this resurgence of Pali study resulted in no production of any new surviving literary works in Pali. During this era, correspondences between royal courts in Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia were conducted in Pali, and grammars aimed at speakers of Sinhala, Burmese, and other languages were produced. The emergence of

7227-403: The most selective. Meiktila is home to two Myanmar Air Force air bases: 20°53′N 95°53′E  /  20.883°N 95.883°E  / 20.883; 95.883 Videha Videha ( Prākrit : 𑀯𑀺𑀤𑁂𑀳 Videha ; Pāli : Videha ; Sanskrit : Videha ) was an ancient Indo-Aryan tribe of north-eastern Indian subcontinent whose existence is attested during

7326-566: The name whose Sanskrit form was Videgha . The capital of the Vaidehas was the city of Mithilā , whose name was derived from that of the Vaideha king Mithi . According to Vayu Purana , the capital city of Videha is referred as Jayantapura which was founded by the King Nimi . Similarly in Bal Kand of Valmiki Ramayana, the city is referred as Vaijanta . The Vaidehas were an Indo-Aryan tribe in

7425-512: The natural language, the root language of all beings. Comparable to Ancient Egyptian , Latin or Hebrew in the mystic traditions of the West , Pali recitations were often thought to have a supernatural power (which could be attributed to their meaning, the character of the reciter, or the qualities of the language itself), and in the early strata of Buddhist literature we can already see Pali dhāraṇī s used as charms, as, for example, against

7524-401: The recently departed, and this ceremony routinely occupies as much as seven working days. There is nothing in the latter text that relates to this subject, and the origins of the custom are unclear. Pali died out as a literary language in mainland India in the fourteenth century but survived elsewhere until the eighteenth. Today Pali is studied mainly to gain access to Buddhist scriptures, and

7623-517: The republic under the administration of the Licchavikas. This Council was similar to that of the Licchavikas, being composed of members elected from within the Assembly, but was smaller and might have been composed of four rājā s, consisting of the Gaṇa Mukhya and three councillor rājā s, who were in charge of the public administration of the republic and recommended measures of importance to

7722-452: The rising power of Magadha to the south of the Gaṅgā, the Licchavikas established their republic in the southern part of the former Mahā-Videha kingdom's territory and moved their political centre to Vesālī , while the new Videha republic centred around Mithilā existed in a limited territory covering only the northern part of Mahā-Videha. Many members of the Vaideha aristocracy who had submitted to

7821-401: The rule of Ajātasattu , who was Bimbisāra's son with another Licchavika princess, Vāsavī, after he had killed Bimbisāra and usurped the throne of Magadha. Eventually Licchavi supported a revolt against Ajātasattu by his younger step-brother and the governor of Aṅga , Vehalla, who was the son of Bimbisāra by another Licchavika wife of his, Cellanā, a daughter of Ceḍaga , who was the head of both

7920-466: The short variants occur only in closed syllables, the long variants occur only in open syllables. Short and long e and o are therefore not distinct phonemes. e and o are long in an open syllable: at the end of a syllable as in [ne-tum̩] เนตุํ 'to lead' or [so-tum̩] โสตุํ 'to hear'. They are short in a closed syllable: when followed by a consonant with which they make a syllable as in [upek-khā] 'indifference' or [sot-thi] 'safety'. e appears for

8019-609: The span of a decade to finally defeat the Vajjika League by 468 BCE and annex its territories, including Videha, to the kingdom of Magadha. Mention of the Vaidehas end after the Māgadhī conquest, and Kauṭilya and Pāṇini did not mention them as an independent polity, but instead included them as part of Vṛji (the country of Mahā-Videha, which by then was known by the name of the Vajjika League). The kings of Videha were titled Videha or Vedeha , meaning "Lord of Videha." Like

8118-506: The state level, a beauty competition was held to choose who was the most beautiful woman of the whole state. This woman, who possessed talents and traits such as significant beauty, charm, and was accomplished in dance and music, was not allowed to lead a normal married life, and she was instead chosen to be the Nagaravadhu ("courtesan of the republic"), and spent her life as a public woman with political influence. One such courtesan of Videha

8217-555: The subtle nuances of that thought-world. According to A. K. Warder , the Pali language is a Prakrit language used in a region of Western India . Warder associates Pali with the Indian realm ( janapada ) of Avanti , where the Sthavira nikāya was centered. Following the initial split in the Buddhist community , the Sthavira nikāya became influential in Western and South India while

8316-479: The term 'Pali' as the name of the language of the Theravada canon also occurred during this era. While Pali is generally recognized as an ancient language, no epigraphical or manuscript evidence has survived from the earliest eras. The earliest samples of Pali discovered are inscriptions believed to date from 5th to 8th century located in mainland Southeast Asia, specifically central Siam and lower Burma . These inscriptions typically consist of short excerpts from

8415-490: The territory of the Mahā-Videha kingdom and temporarily occupied the Vaideha capital of Mithilā, from where they could best administer the territory of Mahā-Videha. The consequence of the occupation of Videha by the republican Licchavikas was that the Licchavikas relatively peacefully overthrew the already weakened Vaideha monarchical system and Janaka's dynasty, and replaced them by a gaṇasaṅgha republican system. Facing

8514-429: The third century BCE, subjected to a partial process of Sanskritization. While the language is not identical to what Buddha himself would have spoken, it belongs to the same broad language family as those he might have used and originates from the same conceptual matrix. This language thus reflects the thought-world that the Buddha inherited from the wider Indian culture into which he was born, so that its words capture

8613-425: The time of Ashoka there had been more linguistic divergence, and an attempt was made to assemble all the material. It is possible that a language quite close to the Pali of the canon emerged as a result of this process as a compromise of the various dialects in which the earliest material had been preserved, and this language functioned as a lingua franca among Eastern Buddhists from then on. Following this period,

8712-446: The words of the Buddha and his immediate disciples by the Theravada tradition. Extra-canonical texts can be divided into several categories: Other types of texts present in Pali literature include works on grammar and poetics, medical texts, astrological and divination texts, cosmologies, and anthologies or collections of material from the canonical literature. While the majority of works in Pali are believed to have originated with

8811-563: Was Piṅgalā, who was mentioned in the Bhaviṣyata Purāṇa , which is a later text. Beginning with the Gupta period, the names Mithilā and Tirabhukti replaced that of Videha as the appellation of the whole former territory of the Mahā-Videha kingdom . Videha and Mithilā appear in the later Itihasa texts such as the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata , with the protagonist of the former being

8910-469: Was accessible only to a kṣatriya who had the support of his clan and of influential people, and criteria for his election included personal leadership, strength, eloquence, and popularity. Like the Licchavika Gaṇa Mukhya , the Gaṇa Mukhya of Videha shared his power with a body of four public officers, consisting of the Gaṇa Mukhya himself, as well as a uparājā ("Viceroy"),

9009-557: Was located along the foothills of the Himalaya mountains, in what are now the Tarāī region and the south-eastern parts of Nepal including the lower hill ranges, as well as the northern part of what in present time is the Indian state of Bihār . The Malla republics were the neighbours of Videha to the west of the Sadānirā during the republican period. The name Videha is the Prākrit version of

9108-600: Was not exclusively used to convey the teachings of the Buddha, as can be deduced from the existence of a number of secular texts, such as books of medical science/instruction, in Pali. However, scholarly interest in the language has been focused upon religious and philosophical literature, because of the unique window it opens on one phase in the development of Buddhism . Vowels may be divided in two different ways: Long and short vowels are only contrastive in open syllables; in closed syllables, all vowels are always short. Short and long e and o are in complementary distribution:

9207-421: Was not shared in the early Buddhist traditions, in which words were only conventional and mutable signs. This view of language naturally extended to Pali and may have contributed to its usage (as an approximation or standardization of local Middle Indic dialects) in place of Sanskrit. However, by the time of the compilation of the Pali commentaries (4th or 5th century), Pali was described by the anonymous authors as

9306-560: Was one of the leading patrons of the new doctrine of Brahman and whose purohita Yājñavalkya was a disciple of the Kuru-Pāñcāla Vedic sage Uddālaka Āruṇi . Janaka and Yājñavalkya together provided spiritual and intellectual leadership to the paṇḍita s of the Uttarapatha . And although Mahā-Videha had not previously been included among the four ancient holy lands of Bhāratavarṣa , it came to acquire sanctity because

9405-570: Was prominently used by Jain scholars and is preserved in the Jain Agamas. Ardhamagadhi Prakrit differs from later Magadhi Prakrit in similar ways to Pali, and was often believed to be connected with Pali on the basis of the belief that Pali recorded the speech of the Buddha in an early Magadhi dialect. Magadhi Prakrit was a Middle Indic language spoken in present-day Bihar, and eastern Uttar Pradesh. Its use later expanded southeast to include some regions of modern-day Bengal, Odisha, and Assam, and it

9504-565: Was published by Robert Childers in 1872 and 1875. Following the foundation of the Pali Text Society , English Pali studies grew rapidly and Childer's dictionary became outdated. Planning for a new dictionary began in the early 1900s, but delays (including the outbreak of World War I) meant that work was not completed until 1925. T. W. Rhys Davids in his book Buddhist India , and Wilhelm Geiger in his book Pāli Literature and Language , suggested that Pali may have originated as

9603-574: Was published using the research of Robert Caesar Childers, one of the founding members of the Pali Text Society. It was the first Pali translated text in English and was published in 1872. Childers' dictionary later received the Volney Prize in 1876. The Pali Text Society was founded in part to compensate for the very low level of funds allocated to Indology in late 19th-century England and the rest of

9702-481: Was thus under significant influence of Licchavi, and it joined the latter as one of the two most important members of the Vajjika League , which was a temporary league led by Licchavi, with the Vaideha rājā s holding an undetermined number out of the nine non-Licchavika seats of the eighteen-member Vajjika Council. Despite being a prominent member of the Vajjika League, Videha was a minor power within it compared to

9801-431: Was used in some Prakrit dramas to represent vernacular dialogue. Preserved examples of Magadhi Prakrit are from several centuries after the theorized lifetime of the Buddha, and include inscriptions attributed to Asoka Maurya . Differences observed between preserved examples of Magadhi Prakrit and Pali lead scholars to conclude that Pali represented a development of a northwestern dialect of Middle Indic, rather than being

#189810