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198-411: Śāriputra ( Sanskrit : शारिपुत्र , romanized :  Śāriputra ; Tibetan: ཤཱ་རིའི་བུ་, Pali : Sāriputta , Khmer: សិរីបុត្រ) (lit. "the son of Śāri"); born Upatiṣya (Pali: Upatissa ); was one of the top disciples of the Buddha . He is considered the first of the Buddha's two chief disciples, together with Maudgalyāyana (Pali: Moggallāna ). Śāriputra had a key leadership role in the ministry of

396-478: A 'book of merit' ( Pali : puñña-potthaka , Sanskrit : puṇyapustaka ) was sometimes kept by someone for years and read in the last moments of life. This practice was based on the story of King Duṭṭhagāmaṇi , and was mostly practiced by the royalty and rich during the period of the Mahāvaṁsa chronicle . More recent practice has also been observed, for example, as a form of terminal care . or as part of

594-509: A beneficial and protective force which accumulates as a result of good deeds, acts, or thoughts. Merit-making is important to Buddhist practice: merit brings good and agreeable results, determines the quality of the next life and contributes to a person's growth towards enlightenment . In addition, merit is also shared with a deceased loved one, in order to help the deceased in their new existence. Despite modernization , merit-making remains essential in traditional Buddhist countries and has had

792-471: A bit of merit is no use to him ( Pali : "anumattenāpi puññena attho mayhaṃ na vijjati" ). Some scholars, supporting the transcendency thesis, have interpreted this to mean that merit can only lead to happiness and progress within Saṃsāra , but does not lead to Nirvana, and must in fact be discarded before attaining Nirvana. Marasinghe believes, however, that the word merit in this passage refers to merit in

990-421: A certain wish or intention also affects the meritorious deed, as the power of the merits can be channeled toward a certain purpose. The manner in which people give is also important: whether someone gives respectfully or not, and whether by giving someone is harming anyone. With regard to the size of the gift, a larger gift is usually more meritorious than a smaller one, but purity of mind affects merit more than

1188-567: A community. People were so intent on merit-making and giving, that in some societies, people would even offer themselves and their family to a Buddhist temple, as one high-ranking minister did in the ancient Pagan Kingdom (ninth until fourteenth century Burma). On a similar note, in Sri Lanka, kings and commoners would offer slaves to the temple, and then donate money to pay for their freedom, that way accruing two merits at once. Even more symbolically, kings would sometimes offer their kingdom to

1386-401: A dead language in the most common usage of the term. Pollock's notion of the "death of Sanskrit" remains in this unclear realm between academia and public opinion when he says that "most observers would agree that, in some crucial way, Sanskrit is dead." Merit (Buddhism) Merit ( Sanskrit : puṇya ; Pali : puñña ) is a concept considered fundamental to Buddhist ethics . It is

1584-570: A distinction is made between worldly ( Pali : lokīya ) and transcendental ( Pali : lokuttara ) merit, in which only transcendental merit leads to liberation. The Thai scholar and monastic Phra Payutto believes that merit and kusala are both used to describe the 'cleanliness of the mind' ( RTGS :  khwam sa-at mot chot ). But whereas merit aims for the 'beautiful and praiseworthy' ( RTGS :  suai-ngam na chuenchom ) aspect of such cleanliness, with worldly benefits such as wealth, praise and happiness; kusala aims for

1782-433: A focus on Indian philosophies and Sanskrit. Though written in a number of different scripts, the dominant language of Hindu texts has been Sanskrit. It or a hybrid form of Sanskrit became the preferred language of Mahayana Buddhism scholarship; for example, one of the early and influential Buddhist philosophers, Nagarjuna (~200 CE), used Classical Sanskrit as the language for his texts. According to Renou, Sanskrit had

1980-538: A happy or a miserable successor. And so, without any definite belief as to how, or in what realm of the universe he will re-arise as that successor to his present self, the pious Buddhist, no less than his pious brethren of other creeds, goes on giving money and effort, time and thought to good works, cheerfully believing that nothing of it can possibly forgo its effect, but that it is all a piling up of merit or creative potency, to result, somewhere, somewhere, somehow, in future happiness—happiness which, though he be altruistic

2178-511: A human, the gift yields more fruits than if the recipient is an animal, but a gift to a sāmaṇera (a young monk), a monk, many monks, and the Buddha yield even more fruits, in ascending order. If the giver is motivated by greed or other defilements of the mind , the merit gained will be much less than if the giver is motivated by loving-kindness or other noble intentions. Even the intention of going to heaven, though in itself not considered wrong,

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2376-581: A language competed with numerous, less exact vernacular Indian languages called Prakritic languages ( prākṛta - ). The term prakrta literally means "original, natural, normal, artless", states Franklin Southworth . The relationship between Prakrit and Sanskrit is found in Indian texts dated to the 1st millennium CE. Patañjali acknowledged that Prakrit is the first language, one instinctively adopted by every child with all its imperfections and later leads to

2574-447: A leadership role in the Sangha , doing tasks like looking after monks, giving them objects of meditation, and clarifying points of doctrine. He was the first disciple the Buddha allowed to ordain other monks. Śāriputra died shortly before the Buddha in his hometown and was cremated. According to Buddhist texts, his relics were then enshrined at Jetavana Monastery. Archaeological findings from

2772-643: A limited role in the Theravada tradition (formerly known as the Hinayana) but the Prakrit works that have survived are of doubtful authenticity. Some of the canonical fragments of the early Buddhist traditions, discovered in the 20th century, suggest the early Buddhist traditions used an imperfect and reasonably good Sanskrit, sometimes with a Pali syntax, states Renou. The Mahāsāṃghika and Mahavastu, in their late Hinayana forms, used hybrid Sanskrit for their literature. Sanskrit

2970-454: A natural part of the earliest Vedic language, and that these developed in the centuries after the composition had been completed, and as a gradual unconscious process during the oral transmission by generations of reciters. The primary source for this argument is internal evidence of the text which betrays an instability of the phenomenon of retroflexion, with the same phrases having sandhi-induced retroflexion in some parts but not other. This

3168-479: A negative evidence to Pollock's hypothesis, but it is not positive evidence. A closer look at Sanskrit in the Indian history after the 12th century suggests that Sanskrit survived despite the odds. According to Hanneder, On a more public level the statement that Sanskrit is a dead language is misleading, for Sanskrit is quite obviously not as dead as other dead languages and the fact that it is spoken, written and read will probably convince most people that it cannot be

3366-413: A next age. This story has led to several cults and practices, and affected some Buddhist countries up until early modern times. It has been interpreted by scholars as a narrative to physically connect Gautama Buddha with the next Buddha Maitreya, through the body of Mahākāśyapa and Gautama Buddha's robe, which covered Mahākāśyapa's remains. In Chan Buddhism, this account was less emphasized, but Mahākāśyapa

3564-546: A pan-Indo-Aryan accessibility to information and knowledge in the ancient and medieval times, in contrast to the Prakrit languages which were understood just regionally. It created a cultural bond across the subcontinent. As local languages and dialects evolved and diversified, Sanskrit served as the common language. It connected scholars from distant parts of South Asia such as Tamil Nadu and Kashmir, states Deshpande, as well as those from different fields of studies, though there must have been differences in its pronunciation given

3762-573: A refined and standardized grammatical form that emerged in the mid-1st millennium BCE and was codified in the most comprehensive of ancient grammars, the Aṣṭādhyāyī ('Eight chapters') of Pāṇini . The greatest dramatist in Sanskrit, Kālidāsa , wrote in classical Sanskrit, and the foundations of modern arithmetic were first described in classical Sanskrit. The two major Sanskrit epics, the Mahābhārata and

3960-415: A relative to ordain as a monk. Young people often temporary ordain as monks, because they believe this will not only yield fruits of merit for themselves, but also for their parents who have allowed them to ordain. In China, Thailand and India, it used to be common to offer land or the first harvest to a monastery. Also, more socially oriented activities such as building a hospital or bridge, or giving to

4158-534: A restrained language from which archaisms and unnecessary formal alternatives were excluded". The Classical form of the language simplified the sandhi rules but retained various aspects of the Vedic language, while adding rigor and flexibilities, so that it had sufficient means to express thoughts as well as being "capable of responding to the future increasing demands of an infinitely diversified literature", according to Renou. Pāṇini included numerous "optional rules" beyond

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4356-504: A significant impact on the rural economies in these countries. Merit is connected with the notions of purity and goodness. Before Buddhism, merit was used with regard to ancestor worship , but in Buddhism it gained a more general ethical meaning. Merit is a force that results from good deeds done; it is capable of attracting good circumstances in a person's life, as well as improving the person's mind and inner well-being. Moreover, it affects

4554-439: A similar phonetic structure to Tamil. Hock et al. quoting George Hart state that there was influence of Old Tamil on Sanskrit. Hart compared Old Tamil and Classical Sanskrit to arrive at a conclusion that there was a common language from which these features both derived – "that both Tamil and Sanskrit derived their shared conventions, metres, and techniques from a common source, for it is clear that neither borrowed directly from

4752-419: A sort of eldest son of the Buddha, as well as being the leader in the subsequent First Council. He is depicted as hesitatingly allowing Ānanda to participate in the council, and chastising him afterwards for a number of offenses the latter was regarded to have committed. Mahākāśyapa's life as described in the early Buddhist texts has been considerably studied by scholars, who have been skeptical about his role in

4950-461: A sort of spiritual currency or bookkeeping system. Though objections have been made against this metaphor , it is not new. Similar comparisons have been made in the Milinda Pañhā , and in seventeenth-century China. Moreover, Schopen has shown that Buddhism has had strong connections with the mercantile class, and Rotman thinks that a mercantile ethos may have informed Buddhist texts such as

5148-657: A spiritual practice. But using wealth in unrighteous ways, or hoarding it instead of sharing and giving it, is condemned extensively. Taṇhā (thirst, desire, greed, craving) is what keeps a person wandering in Saṃsāra (the cycle of rebirth) , instead of becoming liberated. It is the attachment to wealth that is an obstacle on the spiritual path, not wealth per se. Stories illustrating these themes in vernacular Buddhist literature, have profoundly influenced popular culture in Buddhist countries. Several scholars have described merit as

5346-446: A stage in a cumulative force of tremendous power. He and his works stand in a mutual relation, somewhat like that of child to parent in the case of past works, of parent to child in the case of future works. Now no normal mother is indifferent as to whether or how she is carrying out her creative potency. Nor can any normal Buddhist not care whether his acts, wrought up hourly in their effect into his present and future character, are making

5544-413: A teacher, Maudgalyayana is known for his psychic powers, and he is often depicted using these in his teaching methods. In many early Buddhist canons, Maudgalyāyana is instrumental in re-uniting the monastic community after Devadatta causes a schism. Furthermore, Maudgalyāyana is connected with accounts about the making of the first Buddha image. Maudgalyāyana dies at the age of eighty-four, killed through

5742-426: A temple, which, returned the gift immediately, together with some Dhamma teaching. Also in Sri Lanka, King Mahakuli Mahatissa disguised himself as a peasant and started to earn his living working on a paddy field, so he would be able to gain more merit by working himself to obtain resources to give to Buddhist monks. In some cases, merit-making was even continued after a person's death: in ancient Thai tradition, it

5940-443: A view on the next life and liberation. Among lay people, women tend to engage in merit-making more than men, and this may be a way for them to enhance empowerment . Very often, merit-making is done as a group, and it is believed that such shared merit-making will cause people to be born together in next lives. This belief holds for families, friends, communities and even the country as a whole. In some cases, merit-making took

6138-505: A while, they come into contact with the Buddhist teaching through verses that have become widely known in the Buddhist world. Eventually they meet the Buddha himself and ordain as monks under him. Maudgalyāyana attains enlightenment shortly after that. Maudgalyayana and Śāriputra have a deep spiritual friendship. They are depicted in Buddhist art as the two disciples that accompany the Buddha, and they have complementing roles as teachers. As

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6336-572: A yearly festival ( RTGS :  Thet Mahachat ) is held focused on the Vessantara Jātaka , a story of a previous life of the Buddha which is held sacred. This festival, seven centuries old, played a major role in legitimating kingship in Thai society. ( see § Kingship , below ) Making merit is the central theme of the festival. Since the period of Rama IV , however, the festival has become less popular. Many countries also celebrate

6534-692: Is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages . It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late Bronze Age . Sanskrit is the sacred language of Hinduism , the language of classical Hindu philosophy , and of historical texts of Buddhism and Jainism . It was a link language in ancient and medieval South Asia, and upon transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia, East Asia and Central Asia in

6732-422: Is a common idea found in Buddhist texts and Buddhist societies, and explains why people are different and lead different lives in many ways. Karma is self-regulatory and natural: it operates without divine intervention and human intention is fundamental to it. Internally, merit makes the mind happy and virtuous. Externally, present good circumstances, such as a long life, health and wealth, as well as

6930-449: Is a widespread custom of transferring merit to one's deceased relatives, of which the origin is still a matter of scholarly debate. Merit has been that important in Buddhist societies, that kingship was often legitimated through it, and still is. In modern society, merit-making has been criticized as materialist , but merit-making is still ubiquitous in many societies. Examples of the impact of beliefs about merit-making can be seen in

7128-508: Is akin to that of Latin and Ancient Greek in Europe. Sanskrit has significantly influenced most modern languages of the Indian subcontinent , particularly the languages of the northern, western, central and eastern Indian subcontinent. Sanskrit declined starting about and after the 13th century. This coincides with the beginning of Islamic invasions of South Asia to create, and thereafter expand

7326-493: Is also considered a form of saving, considering there is a rebirth in which people receive back what they have given. As for virtue, this comprises three out of eight aspects of the Noble Eightfold Path , the path central in the Buddhist teaching: right speech , right action and right livelihood . Being the main criterion for moral behaviour in Buddhism, virtue is mostly about the undertaking of five precepts , although

7524-651: Is also known, which is different from merit in some details. The most fruitful form of merit-making is those good deeds done with regard to the Triple Gem , that is, the Buddha , his teachings, the Dhamma ( Sanskrit: Dharma ), and the Sangha . In Buddhist societies, a great variety of practices involving merit-making has grown throughout the centuries, sometimes involving great self-sacrifice. Merit has become part of rituals , daily and weekly practice , and festivals . In addition, there

7722-532: Is also part of the Buddhist path, cultivated through loving-kindness and the other sublime attitudes ( Pali : brahamavihāra ). In post-canonical and vernacular Pāli literature, such as the Jātaka stories of the Buddha's previous lives, the Avadānas and Anisaṃsa texts, as well as in many Mahāyāna texts, merit is the main concept. It is regarded as something which can be accumulated throughout different lifetimes in

7920-508: Is associated with goodness and purity of mind. In traditional Buddhist societies, it is believed that merit is more sustainable than that of magical rites , spirit worship or worldly power. The way merit works, is that acts of merit bring good and agreeable results, whereas demeritorious acts bring bad and disagreeable results. A mixture of the two generates mixed results in a person's life. This karmic correspondence ( Pali : kamma-sarikkhatā ) or "automatic cosmic reaction" (Brokaw)

8118-560: Is believed to have the power to see the truth. Upāli ( Sanskrit and Pāli ) was, according to early Buddhist texts , mainly responsible for the reciting and reviewing monastic discipline ( Pāli and Sanskrit : vinaya ) on the First Buddhist Council . Upāli was born as a low-caste barber. He met the Buddha when still a child, and later, when the Sakya princes received ordination , he did so as well. He was, in fact, ordained before

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8316-447: Is common, especially those meritorious deeds which are connected to monks and temples. In this regard, there is a saying in Burma, "Your hands are always close to offering donations". Contrary to popular conceptions, merit-making is done by both monastics and laypeople alike. Buddhist monks or lay Buddhists earn merit through mindfulness , meditation, chanting and other rituals. Giving

8514-585: Is compared with a seed planted in fertile ground which reaps more and better fruits than in infertile ground. The Sangha is described as a field of merit, mostly because the members of the Sangha follow the Noble Eightfold Path . But in many texts, the Buddha and the Dhamma, and their representations, are also described as fields of merit. For example, Mahāyāna tradition considers production and reverence of Dharma texts very meritorious—this tradition, sometimes referred to as

8712-412: Is described as the way in which a Bodhisattva prevents "suffering in all evil destinies ". These ten wholesome ways are: These ten actions are described as akusala ('unwholesome'; Sanskrit : akuśala ), and when abstaining from them it is called kusala ('wholesome'; Sanskrit : kuśala ). Moreover, kusala and akusala are depicted as having 'roots' ( mūla ). Akusalamūla are

8910-452: Is found in the writing of Bharata Muni , the author of the ancient Natya Shastra text. The early Jain scholar Namisādhu acknowledged the difference, but disagreed that the Prakrit language was a corruption of Sanskrit. Namisādhu stated that the Prakrit language was the pūrvam ('came before, origin') and that it came naturally to children, while Sanskrit was a refinement of Prakrit through "purification by grammar". Sanskrit belongs to

9108-552: Is generally considered fundamental to Buddhist ethics , in nearly all Buddhist traditions. Merit-making is very important to Buddhist practice in Buddhist societies. Merit is a "beneficial and protective force which extends over a long period of time" (B.J. Terwiel)—and is the effect of good deeds ( Pali : kamma , Sanskrit : karma ) done through physical action, words, or thought. As its Pāli language (the language of Theravada Buddhism, as practiced in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, etc.) definition indicates, this force

9306-455: Is going on pilgrimage , which is mostly common in Tibet and Japan. This practice is highly regarded and considered very meritorious. In several Buddhist countries, it has been common to record merits done. In China, it was common for many centuries to keep record of someone's meritorious deeds in 'merit ledgers' ( pinyin : gōngguò gé ). Although a belief in merit and retribution had preceded

9504-569: Is mentioned in numerous Buddhist texts, from the early period onward. Accounts about Rāhula indicate a mutual impact between Prince Siddhārtha's life and those of his family members. According to the Pāli tradition , Rāhula is born on the day of Prince Siddhārta's renunciation , and is therefore named Rāhula , meaning a fetter on the path to enlightenment . According to the Mūlasarvāstivāda tradition, and numerous other later sources , however, Rāhula

9702-410: Is not seen as lofty as the intention to want to develop and purify the mind. If the recipient is spiritually "not worthy of the gift", the gift will still be meritorious provided the giver's intention is good, and this is also valid the other way around. Good thoughts must also be maintained after the good deed is done, as regretting the gift will also decrease the merit. Whether the giver pronounces

9900-550: Is often praised by the Buddha for these matters. He functions as a foil to the Buddha, however, in that he still has worldly attachments and is not yet enlightened, as opposed to the Buddha. In the Sanskrit textual traditions , Ānanda is widely considered the patriarch of the Dhamma, who stands in a spiritual lineage, receiving the teaching from Mahākassapa and passing them on to his own pupils. Ānanda has been honored by bhikkhunis since early medieval times for his merits in establishing

10098-623: Is only conceived on the day of Prince Siddhārtha, and is born six years later, when Prince Siddhārtha becomes enlightened as the Buddha . This long gestation period is explained by bad karma from previous lives of both Yaśodharā and of Rāhula himself, although more naturalistic reasons are also given. As a result of the late birth, Yaśodharā needs to prove that Rāhula is really Prince Siddhārtha's son, which she eventually does successfully by an act of truth . Historian Wolfgang Schumann  [ de ] has argued that Prince Siddhārtha conceived Rāhula and waited for his birth, to be able to leave

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10296-524: Is rare in the later version of the language. The Homerian Greek, like Ṛg-vedic Sanskrit, deploys simile extensively, but they are structurally very different. The early Vedic form of the Sanskrit language was far less homogenous compared to the Classical Sanskrit as defined by grammarians by about the mid-1st millennium BCE. According to Richard Gombrich—an Indologist and a scholar of Sanskrit, Pāli and Buddhist Studies—the archaic Vedic Sanskrit found in

10494-468: Is reborn in a happy destination, however, one can only stay there as long as merits last. Thus, it is stated in the Tipiṭaka that people cannot take anything with them when they die, except for whatever merit and demerit they have done, which will affect their future. Merit can be accumulated in different quantities, and stored up, but also has an impermanent character: it can run out. Summarising from

10692-479: Is taken along with evidence of controversy, for example, in passages of the Aitareya-Āraṇyaka (700 BCE), which features a discussion on whether retroflexion is valid in particular cases. The Ṛg-veda is a collection of books, created by multiple authors. These authors represented different generations, and the mandalas 2 to 7 are the oldest while the mandalas 1 and 10 are relatively the youngest. Yet,

10890-548: Is the fundamental way of making merit for many laypeople, as monks are not allowed to cook by themselves. Monastics in their turn practice themselves to be a good field of merit and make merit by teaching the donors. Merit-making has thus created a symbiotic relationship between laypeople and Sangha, and the Sangha is obligated to be accessible to laypeople, for them to make merit. Giving can be done in several ways. Some laypeople offer food, others offer robes and supplies, and others fund ceremonies, build monasteries or persuade

11088-580: Is the predominant language of one of the largest collection of historic manuscripts. The earliest known inscriptions in Sanskrit are from the 1st century BCE, such as the Ayodhya Inscription of Dhana and Ghosundi-Hathibada (Chittorgarh) . Though developed and nurtured by scholars of orthodox schools of Hinduism, Sanskrit has been the language for some of the key literary works and theology of heterodox schools of Indian philosophies such as Buddhism and Jainism. The structure and capabilities of

11286-535: Is therefore and thus far responsible. C. A. F. Rhys Davids , A Study of the Buddhist Norm The ten bases of merit are very popular in Buddhist countries. In China, other similar lists are also well-known. In Thai Buddhism , the word "merit" ( RTGS :  bun ) is often combined with "to do, to make" ( RTGS :  tham ), and this expression is frequently used, especially in relation to giving. In Buddhist societies, such merit-making

11484-416: Is used in merit transfer ceremonies, for example. Merit is not only a concept, but also a way of living. The Pāli canon identifies three bases of merit ( puññakiriyā-vatthu ), in order of difficulty: In Buddhist texts and practice, giving is considered the easiest of the three bases of merit. It helps to overcome selfishness and stills the mind; it prepares the mind for the practice of virtue. It

11682-526: The Bhagavata Purana , the Panchatantra and many other texts are all in the Sanskrit language. The Classical Sanskrit with its exacting grammar was thus the language of the Indian scholars and the educated classes, while others communicated with approximate or ungrammatical variants of it as well as other natural Indian languages. Sanskrit, as the learned language of Ancient India, thus existed alongside

11880-614: The Mañjuśrī-mūla-kalpa ; there still are in the Burmese tradition), sixteen (in Chinese and Tibetan texts) and then eighteen disciples (in Chinese texts). There is also a Chinese tradition with five hundred disciples. Sanskrit language Sanskrit ( / ˈ s æ n s k r ɪ t / ; attributively 𑀲𑀁𑀲𑁆𑀓𑀾𑀢𑀁 , संस्कृत- , saṃskṛta- ; nominally संस्कृतम् , saṃskṛtam , IPA: [ˈsɐ̃skr̩tɐm] )

12078-568: The Dalai Lama , the Sanskrit language is a parent language that is at the foundation of many modern languages of India and the one that promoted Indian thought to other distant countries. In Tibetan Buddhism, states the Dalai Lama, Sanskrit language has been a revered one and called legjar lhai-ka or "elegant language of the gods". It has been the means of transmitting the "profound wisdom of Buddhist philosophy" to Tibet. The Sanskrit language created

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12276-459: The Dharmaguptaka school. In the nineteenth century, relics were found attributed to him, which have been widely venerated. Mahā Kāśyapa or Mahākāśyapa ( Pali : Mahākassapa ) is regarded in Buddhism as an enlightened disciple , being foremost in ascetic practice . Mahākāśyapa assumed leadership of the monastic community following the paranirvāṇa (death) of the Buddha, presiding over

12474-485: The Divyāvadāna . Gombrich objects to calling merit-making "dry metaphysical mercantilism ", but he does speculate on a historical relation between the concept of merit and the monetisation of ancient India's economy. Two practices mentioned in the list of meritorious acts have been studied quite extensively by scholars: dedicating (or transferring) merit to others, and rejoicing in others' merits. Transferring merit

12672-462: The First Buddhist Council . He was considered to be the first patriarch in a number of early Buddhist schools and continued to have an important role as patriarch in the Chan and Zen tradition. In Buddhist texts, he assumed many identities, that of a renunciant saint, a lawgiver, an anti-establishment figure, but also a "guarantor of future justice" in the time of Maitreya—he has been described as "both

12870-613: The Indo-European family of languages . It is one of the three earliest ancient documented languages that arose from a common root language now referred to as Proto-Indo-European : Other Indo-European languages distantly related to Sanskrit include archaic and Classical Latin ( c. 600 BCE–100 CE, Italic languages ), Gothic (archaic Germanic language , c.  350 CE ), Old Norse ( c. 200 CE and after), Old Avestan ( c.  late 2nd millennium BCE ) and Younger Avestan ( c. 900 BCE). The closest ancient relatives of Vedic Sanskrit in

13068-633: The Phu Mi Bun rebellions which took place in the last centuries, as well as in the revival of certain forms of merit-making, such as the much discussed merit release . Puñña literally translates as 'merit, meritorious action, virtue '. It is glossed by the Theravāda Commentator Dhammapāla as " santanaṃ punāti visodheti ", meaning 'it cleans or purifies the life-continuity'. Its opposites are apuñña (demerit) or pāpa ('infertile, barren, harmful, bringing ill fortune'), of which

13266-696: The Rigveda had already evolved in the Vedic period, as evidenced in the later Vedic literature. Gombrich posits that the language in the early Upanishads of Hinduism and the late Vedic literature approaches Classical Sanskrit, while the archaic Vedic Sanskrit had by the Buddha 's time become unintelligible to all except ancient Indian sages. The formalization of the Saṃskṛta language is credited to Pāṇini , along with Patañjali's Mahābhāṣya and Katyayana's commentary that preceded Patañjali's work. Panini composed Aṣṭādhyāyī ('Eight-Chapter Grammar'), which became

13464-532: The Rigveda , a collection of 1,028 hymns composed between 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE by Indo-Aryan tribes migrating east from the mountains of what is today northern Afghanistan across northern Pakistan and into northwestern India. Vedic Sanskrit interacted with the preexisting ancient languages of the subcontinent, absorbing names of newly encountered plants and animals; in addition, the ancient Dravidian languages influenced Sanskrit's phonology and syntax. Sanskrit can also more narrowly refer to Classical Sanskrit ,

13662-526: The Rāmāyaṇa , however, were composed in a range of oral storytelling registers called Epic Sanskrit which was used in northern India between 400 BCE and 300 CE, and roughly contemporary with classical Sanskrit. In the following centuries, Sanskrit became tradition-bound, stopped being learned as a first language, and ultimately stopped developing as a living language. The hymns of the Rigveda are notably similar to

13860-639: The eight precepts may be kept now and then. The five precepts are part of many Buddhist ceremonies , and are also considered a merit itself, helping the practitioner to become strong and healthy. The benefits of practicing the three bases of merits are also summarised as three forms of happiness ( Pali : sampatti )—happiness as a human being, happiness in heaven, and happiness in Nirvana . When people die, what world they will be reborn into depends on how intense they practice these three bases of merit. It is, however, only mental development that can take someone to

14058-406: The sandhi rules, both internal and external. Quite many words found in the early Vedic Sanskrit language are never found in late Vedic Sanskrit or Classical Sanskrit literature, while some words have different and new meanings in Classical Sanskrit when contextually compared to the early Vedic Sanskrit literature. Arthur Macdonell was among the early colonial era scholars who summarized some of

14256-500: The verbal adjective sáṃskṛta- is a compound word consisting of sáṃ ('together, good, well, perfected') and kṛta - ('made, formed, work'). It connotes a work that has been "well prepared, pure and perfect, polished, sacred". According to Biderman, the perfection contextually being referred to in the etymological origins of the word is its tonal—rather than semantic—qualities. Sound and oral transmission were highly valued qualities in ancient India, and its sages refined

14454-549: The "cult of the book" ( Gregory Schopen ), stimulated the development of print technology in China . In other traditions a Buddha image is also considered a field of merit, and any good deed involving a Buddha image is considered very meritorious. A meritorious deed will also be very valuable (and sometimes viewed in terms of a field of merit) if performed to repay gratitude to someone (such as parents), or performed out of compassion for those who suffer. Deeds of merit done towards

14652-573: The 'power of blessed substances' ( Standard Tibetan : rdzas ) . These are considered an addition to the traditional list and can help protect against calamities or other negative events caused by bad karma. A number of scholars have criticized the concepts of merit and karma as amoral, egoist and calculative, citing its quantitative nature and emphasis on personal benefits in observing morality. Other scholars have pointed out that in Buddhist ethics egoism and altruism may not be as strictly separated as in western thought, personal benefit and that of

14850-440: The 'purity' ( RTGS :  borisut ) aspect of cleanliness, with enlightenment as its benefit. Phra Payutto does add that both need to be accumulated on the Buddhist path. In making this comparison, he says this only holds for worldly merit, not for transcendental merit. Collins equates transcendental merit with kusala . In the earlier Pāli texts, kusala was much more commonly used than puñña , puñña mostly being used in

15048-414: The 13th century, a premier center of Sanskrit literary creativity, Sanskrit literature there disappeared, perhaps in the "fires that periodically engulfed the capital of Kashmir" or the "Mongol invasion of 1320" states Pollock. The Sanskrit literature which was once widely disseminated out of the northwest regions of the subcontinent, stopped after the 12th century. As Hindu kingdoms fell in the eastern and

15246-546: The 1800s suggest his relics may have been redistributed across the Indian subcontinent by subsequent kings. Śāriputra is regarded as an important and wise disciple of the Buddha, particularly in Theravada Buddhism where he is given a status close to a second Buddha. In Buddhist art , he is often depicted alongside the Buddha, usually to his right. He was known for his strict adherence to the Buddhist monastic rules , as well as for his wisdom and teaching ability, giving him

15444-521: The 7th century where he established a major center of learning and language translation under the patronage of Emperor Taizong. By the early 1st millennium CE, Sanskrit had spread Buddhist and Hindu ideas to Southeast Asia, parts of the East Asia and the Central Asia. It was accepted as a language of high culture and the preferred language by some of the local ruling elites in these regions. According to

15642-731: The Buddha and is considered in many Buddhist schools to have been important in the development of the Buddhist Abhidharma . He appears in several Mahayana sutras , and in some sutras, is used as a counterpoint to represent the Hinayana school of Buddhism. For example, the Heart Sutra , widely considered to be of utmost centrality to the Mahayana worldview and practice, is framed as an extended discourse delivered to Śāriputra. The sutra consists of radical reinterpretation of early Buddhist thought in

15840-612: The Buddha and the laypeople, as well as the Saṅgha (monastic community). He accompanies the Buddha for the rest of his life, acting not only as an assistant, but also a secretary and a mouthpiece. Scholars are skeptical about the historicity of many events in Ānanda's life, especially the First Council, and consensus about this has yet to be established. A traditional account can be drawn from early texts, commentaries , and post-canonical chronicles . Ānanda has an important role in establishing

16038-549: The Buddha would normally emphasise ethics . The fact that an enlightened person is neutral in terms of karma, does not mean he is ethically neutral. Indeed, the Buddha is quoted in the Tipiṭaka as saying he is foremost in 'higher morality' ( adhisīla ). Keown attempts to overcome this problem by proposing that enlightened people are beyond the accumulative experience of good deeds (merit, puñña ), since they are already perfected. They therefore do not need to accumulate goodness and

16236-482: The Buddha's chief patron. In the Theravada tradition he is Anāthapiṇḍika's younger brother. In the northern Buddhist tradition he is Anāthapiṇḍika's nephew. Subhūti became a monk after hearing the Buddha teach at the dedication ceremony of Jetavana Monastery . After being ordained Subhūti went into the forest and became an arahant meditating on loving-kindness (Pali: mettā ). It is said that due to his mastery of loving-kindness meditation, any gift offered to him bore

16434-414: The Buddha. Anuruddha (Pl.) or Aniruddha (Sk.) was a top master of clairvoyance and the practice of the four foundations of mindfulness ( satipatthana ). Aniruddha was a cousin of Shakyamuni Buddha. He and Ananda became monks at the same time. He was foremost in divine insight. He lost his sight because he swore not to sleep after getting criticized by Lord Buddha . And later he got another pair of eyes that

16632-440: The Buddha. Although the texts do not agree on most things about Ānanda's early life, they do agree that Ānanda is ordained as a monk and that Puṇṇa Mantānīputta (Sanskrit: Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra ) becomes his teacher. Twenty years in the Buddha's ministry, Ānanda becomes the attendant of the Buddha, when the Buddha selects him for this job. Ānanda performs his duties with great devotion and care, and acts as an intermediary between

16830-417: The Buddha. He often had disputes with Ānanda , the attendant of the Buddha, due to their different dispositions and views. Despite his ascetic, strict and stern reputation, he paid an interest in community matters and teaching, and was known for his compassion for the poor, which sometimes caused him to be depicted as an anti-establishment figure. He had a prominent role in the cremation of the Buddha, acting as

17028-424: The Buddhist community should take his teaching and discipline as their refuge, and that the Buddha will not appoint a new leader. The final period of the Buddha's life also shows that Ānanda is still very much attached to the Buddha's person, and he witnesses the Buddha's passing with great sorrow. Shortly after the Buddha's death, the First Council is convened, and Ānanda manages to attain enlightenment just before

17226-419: The Buddhist text Milinda Pañhā , some scholars conclude that merit is inherently stronger than demerit. Moreover, many merits together have the power to prevent demerits from having an effect, by pushing them "to the back of the queue" ( Richard Gombrich ), though demerits can never be undone. All these benefits of merit ( Pali : ānisaṁsa ; Sanskrit : ānuśaṁsa ), whether internal or external, are

17424-425: The Classical Sanskrit language launched ancient Indian speculations about "the nature and function of language", what is the relationship between words and their meanings in the context of a community of speakers, whether this relationship is objective or subjective, discovered or is created, how individuals learn and relate to the world around them through language, and about the limits of language? They speculated on

17622-521: The Dravidian languages borrowed from Sanskrit vocabulary, but they have also affected Sanskrit on deeper levels of structure, "for instance in the domain of phonology where Indo-Aryan retroflexes have been attributed to Dravidian influence". Similarly, Ferenc Ruzca states that all the major shifts in Indo-Aryan phonetics over two millennia can be attributed to the constant influence of a Dravidian language with

17820-513: The Dravidian words and forms, without modifying the word order; but the same thing is not possible in rendering a Persian or English sentence into a non-Indo-Aryan language. Shulman mentions that "Dravidian nonfinite verbal forms (called vinaiyeccam in Tamil) shaped the usage of the Sanskrit nonfinite verbs (originally derived from inflected forms of action nouns in Vedic). This particularly salient case of

18018-400: The First Council, Upāli received the important role of reciting the vinaya , for which he is mostly known. Scholars have analyzed Upāli's role and that of other disciples in the early texts, and it has been suggested that his role in the texts was emphasized during a period of compiling that stressed monastic discipline, during which Mahākassapa ( Sanskrit : Mahākāśyapa ) and Upāli became

18216-469: The Indo-Aryan language underwent rapid linguistic change and morphed into the Vedic Sanskrit language. The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit . The earliest attested Sanskrit text is the Rigveda , a Hindu scripture from the mid- to late-second millennium BCE. No written records from such an early period survive, if any ever existed, but scholars are generally confident that

18414-507: The Indo-European languages are the Nuristani languages found in the remote Hindu Kush region of northeastern Afghanistan and northwestern Himalayas, as well as the extinct Avestan and Old Persian – both are Iranian languages . Sanskrit belongs to the satem group of the Indo-European languages. Colonial era scholars familiar with Latin and Greek were struck by the resemblance of

18612-521: The Muslim rule in the form of Sultanates, and later the Mughal Empire . Sheldon Pollock characterises the decline of Sanskrit as a long-term "cultural, social, and political change". He dismisses the idea that Sanskrit declined due to "struggle with barbarous invaders", and emphasises factors such as the increasing attractiveness of vernacular language for literary expression. With the fall of Kashmir around

18810-489: The Muslim rulers. Hindu rulers such as Shivaji of the Maratha Empire , reversed the process, by re-adopting Sanskrit and re-asserting their socio-linguistic identity. After Islamic rule disintegrated in South Asia and the colonial rule era began, Sanskrit re-emerged but in the form of a "ghostly existence" in regions such as Bengal. This decline was the result of "political institutions and civic ethos" that did not support

19008-550: The Sangha as a whole ( Pali : saṅghadāna ) yield greater fruits than deeds done towards one particular recipient ( Pali : pāṭipuggalikā dakkhiṇā ) or deeds done with favoritism. Indeed, saṅghadāna yields even more fruits than deeds of merit to the person of the Buddha himself. Thus the Buddhist's view of his present activities has a wider basis, they being but one group of incidents in an indefinitely prolonged past, present and future series. They are, as has been said, no mere train of witnesses for or against him, but

19206-488: The Saṃskṛta language, both in its vocabulary and grammar, to the classical languages of Europe. In The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World , Mallory and Adams illustrate the resemblance with the following examples of cognate forms (with the addition of Old English for further comparison): The correspondences suggest some common root, and historical links between some of

19404-616: The South India, such as the great Vijayanagara Empire , so did Sanskrit. There were exceptions and short periods of imperial support for Sanskrit, mostly concentrated during the reign of the tolerant Mughal emperor Akbar . Muslim rulers patronized the Middle Eastern language and scripts found in Persia and Arabia, and the Indians linguistically adapted to this Persianization to gain employment with

19602-581: The Teachings' and 'Straightening one's own views' are part of 'Mental development'. Thus, in Theravāda Buddhism, merit is always accrued through morally (good) actions. Such good deeds are also highly valued in the other two Buddhist schools, that is Mahāyāna (China, Japan, etc.) and Vajrayāna (Tibet, Nepal, etc.). In some forms of Mahāyāna or Vajrayāna it is believed, however, that even more merit will accrue from certain ritual actions, sometimes called

19800-532: The Tipiṭaka, Keown believes that only this passage is not enough to base the transcendency thesis on. In the Pāli Canon, an enlightened person is said to be neutral in terms of karma, that is, the person no longer generates karma, merit, or demerit. Some scholars have interpreted this to mean that an enlightened person attains a state where distinctions between good and evil no longer exist. Other scholars have criticized this as making little sense, considering how

19998-447: The Vedic Sanskrit in these books of the Ṛg-veda "hardly presents any dialectical diversity", states Louis Renou – an Indologist known for his scholarship of the Sanskrit literature and the Ṛg-veda in particular. According to Renou, this implies that the Vedic Sanskrit language had a "set linguistic pattern" by the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Beyond the Ṛg-veda, the ancient literature in Vedic Sanskrit that has survived into

20196-451: The Vedic Sanskrit's bahulam framework, to respect liberty and creativity so that individual writers separated by geography or time would have the choice to express facts and their views in their own way, where tradition followed competitive forms of the Sanskrit language. The phonetic differences between Vedic Sanskrit and Classical Sanskrit, as discerned from the current state of the surviving literature, are negligible when compared to

20394-435: The activities of lay merit-making associations. The association of wealth with merits done has deeply affected many Buddhist countries. The relation between giving and wealth is ubiquitous in vernacular Pāli literature, and many stories of exemplary donors exist, such as the stories of Anāthapiṇḍika and Jōtika. In Buddhism, by emphasizing the usage of wealth for generosity, accumulating wealth for giving purposes thus became

20592-403: The aim in merit-making, and are often subject of Dharma teachings and texts. Thus, merit is the foundation of heavenly bliss in the future, and in some countries merit was also considered to contribute to the good fortune of the country. Because merit is understood to have these many beneficial effects, it is sometimes compared with cool water, which is poured or which is bathed in. This symbol

20790-627: The aims of monks and laypeople cannot be that easily separated. This transcendency thesis has also been applied to scriptural interpretation. When discussing the path to the attainment of Nirvana, in some passages in the Tipiṭaka merit is rejected. For example, in the Padhāna Sutta, the Bodhisatta (the Buddha Gotama to be) is tempted by Māra to give up his self-torture practices to do meritorious acts instead. The Bodhisatta replies that even

20988-455: The alphabet, the structure of words, and its exacting grammar into a "collection of sounds, a kind of sublime musical mold" as an integral language they called Saṃskṛta . From the late Vedic period onwards, state Annette Wilke and Oliver Moebus, resonating sound and its musical foundations attracted an "exceptionally large amount of linguistic, philosophical and religious literature" in India. Sound

21186-403: The anchorite and the friend of mankind, even of the outcast". In canonical Buddhist texts in several traditions, Mahākāśyapa was born as Pippali in a brahmin family, and entered an arranged marriage with a woman named Bhadda Kapilani . Both of them aspired to lead a celibate life, however, and they decided not to consummate their marriage. Having grown weary of the agricultural profession and

21384-409: The best memory. Most of the texts of the early Buddhist Sutta-Piṭaka ( Pāli ; Sanskrit : Sūtra-Piṭaka ) are attributed to his recollection of the Buddha's teachings during the First Buddhist Council . For that reason, he is known as the "Treasurer of the Dhamma", with Dhamma ( Sanskrit : Dharma ) referring to the Buddha's teaching. In Early Buddhist Texts , Ānanda is the first cousin of

21582-440: The capacity to understand the old Prakrit languages such as Ardhamagadhi . A section of European scholars state that Sanskrit was never a spoken language. However, evidences shows that Sanskrit was a spoken language, essential for oral tradition that preserved the vast number of Sanskrit manuscripts from ancient India. The textual evidence in the works of Yaksa, Panini, and Patanajali affirms that Classical Sanskrit in their era

21780-454: The character and abilities someone is born with, arise from merits done in the past and vice versa, with demerits. The merits and demerits a person has done may take a while to bear fruit. Merit or demerit may cause a good or bad future respectively, including in the next lives to come. A bad destination after rebirth may be caused by demerit, but merely a lack of merit may also lead a person to be born in an unhappy destination. When someone

21978-517: The close relationship between the Indo-Iranian tongues and the Baltic and Slavic languages , vocabulary exchange with the non-Indo-European Uralic languages , and the nature of the attested Indo-European words for flora and fauna. The pre-history of Indo-Aryan languages which preceded Vedic Sanskrit is unclear and various hypotheses place it over a fairly wide limit. According to Thomas Burrow, based on

22176-609: The context of a speech or language, is found in verses 5.28.17–19 of the Ramayana . Outside the learned sphere of written Classical Sanskrit, vernacular colloquial dialects ( Prakrits ) continued to evolve. Sanskrit co-existed with numerous other Prakrit languages of ancient India. The Prakrit languages of India also have ancient roots and some Sanskrit scholars have called these Apabhramsa , literally 'spoiled'. The Vedic literature includes words whose phonetic equivalent are not found in other Indo-European languages but which are found in

22374-687: The context of the practice of giving. In a widely quoted theory, Melford Spiro and Winston King have distinguished two forms of Buddhism found in traditional Buddhist societies, "kammatic Buddhism" focused on activities such as merit-making, and "nibbanic Buddhism" which focuses on the liberation from suffering and rebirth. In this theory, called the "transcendency thesis" (Keown), Buddhism has two quite separate aims, which are pursued by separate groups, that is, laypeople (kammatic) and monks (nibbanic). This view has, however, been downplayed or criticized by many other scholars, who believe that kammatic practices are in many ways connected to nibbanic practices, and

22572-509: The council starts, which is a requirement. He has a historical role during the council as the living memory of the Buddha, reciting many of the Buddha's discourses and checking them for accuracy. During the same council, however, he is chastised by Mahākassapa (Sanskrit: Mahākāśyapa ) and the rest of the Saṅgha for allowing women to be ordained and failing to understand or respect the Buddha at several crucial moments. Ānanda continues to teach until

22770-437: The cremation, his role toward Ānanda and the historical validity of the council itself. A number of scholars have hypothesized that the accounts have later been embellished to emphasize the values of the Buddhist establishment Mahākāśyapa stood for, emphasizing monastic discipline , brahmin and ascetic values, as opposed to the values of Ānanda and other disciples. Regardless, it is clear that Mahākāśyapa had an important role in

22968-639: The crystallization of Classical Sanskrit. As in this period the Indo-Aryan tribes had not yet made contact with the inhabitants of the South of the subcontinent, this suggests a significant presence of Dravidian speakers in North India (the central Gangetic plain and the classical Madhyadeśa) who were instrumental in this substratal influence on Sanskrit. Extant manuscripts in Sanskrit number over 30 million, one hundred times those in Greek and Latin combined, constituting

23166-512: The damage it did, they both left the lay life behind to become mendicants. Pippali later met the Buddha, under whom he was ordained as a monk , named Kāśyapa , but later called Mahākāśyapa to distinguish him from other disciples. Mahākāśyapa became an important disciple of the Buddha, to the extent that the Buddha exchanged his robe with him, which was a symbol of the transmittance of the Buddhist teaching . He became foremost in ascetic practices and attained enlightenment shortly after meeting

23364-748: The detail. Through these ledgers it was believed someone could offset bad karma. In the fourth century CE , the Baopuzi , and in the twelfth century the Treatise On the Response of the Tao and the Ledger of Merit and Demerit of the Taiwei Immortal introduced the basics of the system of merit ledgers. In the fourteenth century CE, the Tao master Zhao Yizhen recommended the use of

23562-467: The detailed and sophisticated treatise then transmitted it through his students. Modern scholarship generally accepts that he knew of a form of writing, based on references to words such as Lipi ('script') and lipikara ('scribe') in section 3.2 of the Aṣṭādhyāyī . The Classical Sanskrit language formalized by Pāṇini, states Renou, is "not an impoverished language", rather it is "a controlled and

23760-467: The differences between the Vedic and Classical Sanskrit. Louis Renou published in 1956, in French, a more extensive discussion of the similarities, the differences and the evolution of the Vedic Sanskrit within the Vedic period and then to the Classical Sanskrit along with his views on the history. This work has been translated by Jagbans Balbir. The earliest known use of the word Saṃskṛta (Sanskrit), in

23958-456: The distant major ancient languages of the world. The Indo-Aryan migrations theory explains the common features shared by Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages by proposing that the original speakers of what became Sanskrit arrived in South Asia from a region of common origin, somewhere north-west of the Indus region , during the early 2nd millennium BCE. Evidence for such a theory includes

24156-478: The donors who provided gifts for the sacrifice. In Buddhism, it was the Buddhist monk who assumed this role, considered qualified to receive generosity from devotees and thereby generating merit for them. He came to be described as āhuneyyo ('worthy of offering'), by analogy with the Brahmanical term āhavanīya ('worthy of sacrifice', used in offerings to the ritual fire); and as dakkhiṇeyyo ('qualified to accept

24354-456: The early days of the Buddhist community after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa , to help establish a stable monastic tradition. He effectively became the leader for the first twenty years after the Buddha, as he had become the most influential figure in the monastic community. For this reason, he was regarded by many early Buddhist schools as a sort of first patriarch, and was seen to have started a lineage of patriarchs of Buddhism. This further amplified

24552-483: The early medieval era, it became a language of religion and high culture , and of the political elites in some of these regions. As a result, Sanskrit had a lasting impact on the languages of South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, especially in their formal and learned vocabularies. Sanskrit generally connotes several Old Indo-Aryan language varieties. The most archaic of these is the Vedic Sanskrit found in

24750-593: The efforts of a rival sect. This violent death is described in Buddhist scriptures as a result of Maudgalyāyana's karma of having killed his own parents in a previous life. Through post-canonical texts, Maudgalyāyana became known for his filial piety through a popular account of him transferring his merits to his mother. This led to a tradition in many Buddhist countries known as the ghost festival , during which people dedicate their merits to their ancestors. Maudgalyāyana has also traditionally been associated with meditation and sometimes Abhidharma texts, as well as

24948-491: The end of his life, passing on his spiritual heritage to his pupils Sāṇavāsī (Sanskrit: Śāṇakavāsī ) and Majjhantika (Sanskrit: Madhyāntika ), among others, who later assume a leading role in the Second and Third Councils . Ānanda dies in 463 BCE, and stūpas (monuments) are erected at the river where he dies. Ānanda is one of the most loved figures in Buddhism. Ānanda is known for his memory, erudition and compassion, and

25146-476: The entire Mahayana worldview. Pūrṇa Maitrāyaniputra (Sk.) or Puṇṇa Mantānīputta (Pl.). He was also called Purna for short. He was the greatest teacher of the Law out of all the disciples. He was the top master of preaching. Kātyāyana or Mahākātyāyana (Sk.) or Mahākaccāna (Pl.). He understood Shakyamuni Buddha's lecture the best. Although he had only five master in the rural areas, he was permitted to learn Vinaya by

25344-451: The experience of the consequences of the action. He further points out that in the Pāli suttas (discourses) mental development ( bhāvanā ) practices such as meditation are also included in the path of merit. It is unlikely that in the Tipiṭaka meditation would be regarded as an indirect path or obstacle to Nirvana, and there are passages that directly relate merit to Nirvana. Sometimes

25542-543: The first language of the respective speakers. The Sanskrit language brought Indo-Aryan speaking people together, particularly its elite scholars. Some of these scholars of Indian history regionally produced vernacularized Sanskrit to reach wider audiences, as evidenced by texts discovered in Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. Once the audience became familiar with the easier to understand vernacularized version of Sanskrit, those interested could graduate from colloquial Sanskrit to

25740-418: The focus on the pitṛ did not really change. In Buddhism, the idea of an eternal heaven was rejected, but it was believed that merit could help achieve a rebirth in a temporary heaven. Merit was no longer merely a product of ritual , but was invested with an ethical meaning and role. In the Tipiṭaka ( Sanskrit : Tripitaka ; the Buddhist scriptures), the importance of merit is often stressed. Merit

25938-436: The form of a community-wide competition, in which different donors tried to outdo each other to prove their generosity and social status. This was the case during merit-making festivals in nineteenth-century Thailand. In modern Thailand, businesses and politicians often make merit to improve their public image and increase confidence among customers or voters. In Burma, lay devotees form associations to engage in merit-making as

26136-412: The foundation of Vyākaraṇa, a Vedānga . The Aṣṭādhyāyī was not the first description of Sanskrit grammar, but it is the earliest that has survived in full, and the culmination of a long grammatical tradition that Fortson says, is "one of the intellectual wonders of the ancient world". Pāṇini cites ten scholars on the phonological and grammatical aspects of the Sanskrit language before him, as well as

26334-471: The gift's size. It is therefore recommended to give as much as you can afford, no more and no less. Such care in choosing whom to give to and how to give, is called being 'skilled in merit' ( Pali : puññassa kovidā ). A teaching that exists in both Mahāyāna sūtras and Theravādin suttas is the teaching on the Ten Wholesome Ways of Action ( Pali : kusaladhamma ). In Mahāyāna, this teaching

26532-537: The gods Varuna, Mitra, Indra, and Nasatya found in the earliest layers of the Vedic literature. O Bṛhaspati, when in giving names they first set forth the beginning of Language, Their most excellent and spotless secret was laid bare through love, When the wise ones formed Language with their mind, purifying it like grain with a winnowing fan, Then friends knew friendships – an auspicious mark placed on their language. — Rigveda 10.71.1–4 Translated by Roger Woodard The Vedic Sanskrit found in

26730-585: The greatest merit for the donor, thus earning him the title of foremost in being "worthy of gifts". Subhūti is a major figure in Mahayana Buddhism and is one of the central figures in Prajñāpāramitā sutras. For instance, the Diamond Sutra is framed as a question-and-answer between the Buddha and Subhūti, resulting in the latter's deepened insight into emptiness , a core philosophical component underlying

26928-745: The highest heavenly worlds, or to Nirvana. Post-canonical texts and commentaries such as the Dhammasaṅganī and Atthasālinī , elaborating on the three bases of merit, state that lay devotees can make merit by performing ten deeds. Seven items are then added to the previous three: These ten, the Commentator Buddhaghosa says, all fit within the three first bases of merit: 'Giving' includes 'Transferring merit to others' and 'Rejoicing in others' merit' by extension, whereas 'Virtue' includes 'Honouring others' and 'Offering service'. The remaining items 'Listening to Teachings', 'Instructing others in

27126-431: The historic Sanskrit literary culture and the failure of new Sanskrit literature to assimilate into the changing cultural and political environment. Sheldon Pollock states that in some crucial way, "Sanskrit is dead ". After the 12th century, the Sanskrit literary works were reduced to "reinscription and restatements" of ideas already explored, and any creativity was restricted to hymns and verses. This contrasted with

27324-421: The idea of him being the primary heir and elder son of the Buddha, which came to be symbolized by the robe Mahākāśyapa had received. In many post-canonical texts, Mahākāśyapa decided at the end of his life to enter a state of meditation and suspended animation , which was believed to cause his physical remains to stay intact in a cave under a mountain called Kukkuṭapāda , until the coming of Maitreya Buddha in

27522-478: The intense change that must have occurred in the pre-Vedic period between the Proto-Indo-Aryan language and Vedic Sanskrit. The noticeable differences between the Vedic and the Classical Sanskrit include the much-expanded grammar and grammatical categories as well as the differences in the accent, the semantics and the syntax. There are also some differences between how some of the nouns and verbs end, as well as

27720-432: The largest cultural heritage that any civilization has produced prior to the invention of the printing press. — Foreword of Sanskrit Computational Linguistics (2009), Gérard Huet, Amba Kulkarni and Peter Scharf Sanskrit has been the predominant language of Hindu texts encompassing a rich tradition of philosophical and religious texts, as well as poetry, music, drama , scientific , technical and others. It

27918-434: The ledgers to examine oneself, to bring emotion in harmony with reason. From the fourth to the sixteenth centuries, many types of ledgers were produced by Buddhist and Tao schools, and the usage of the ledgers grew widespread. The practice of recording merits has survived in China and Japan until the present day. In Theravāda countries, for example in Burma and Sri Lanka, similar customs have been observed. In Sri Lanka,

28116-493: The light of emptiness . Buddhist texts relate that Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana were childhood friends who became spiritual wanderers in their youth. After having searched for spiritual truth for a while, they came into contact with the teachings of the Buddha and ordained as monks under him, after which the Buddha declared the friends his two chief disciples. Śāriputra was said to have attained enlightenment as an arhat two weeks after ordaining. As chief disciple Śāriputra assumed

28314-412: The linguistic expression and sets the standard for the Sanskrit language. Pāṇini made use of a technical metalanguage consisting of a syntax, morphology and lexicon. This metalanguage is organised according to a series of meta-rules, some of which are explicitly stated while others can be deduced. Despite differences in the analysis from that of modern linguistics, Pāṇini's work has been found valuable and

28512-503: The literary works. The Indian tradition, states Winternitz , has favored the learning and the usage of multiple languages from the ancient times. Sanskrit was a spoken language in the educated and the elite classes, but it was also a language that must have been understood in a wider circle of society because the widely popular folk epics and stories such as the Ramayana , the Mahabharata ,

28710-492: The merit ledgers by many centuries, during the Ming dynasty , through the ledgers a practice of systematic merit accumulation was established for the first time. The merit ledgers were lists of good deeds and bad deeds, organized in the form of a calendar for users to calculate to what extent they had been practicing good deeds and avoiding bad deeds every day. The ledgers also listed the exact retributions of every number of deeds done, to

28908-501: The modern age include the Samaveda , Yajurveda , Atharvaveda , along with the embedded and layered Vedic texts such as the Brahmanas , Aranyakas , and the early Upanishads . These Vedic documents reflect the dialects of Sanskrit found in the various parts of the northwestern, northern, and eastern Indian subcontinent. According to Michael Witzel, Vedic Sanskrit was a spoken language of

29106-513: The monk, whereas the Brahmanical yajña only emphasized offerings to the Brahmin priest. That is not to say that such offerings were not important in early Buddhism : giving to the Sangha was the first Buddhist activity which allowed for community participation, and preceded the first rituals in Buddhism. The main concept of the field of merit is that good deeds done towards some recipients accrue more merit than good deeds to other recipients. This

29304-429: The more advanced Classical Sanskrit. Rituals and the rites-of-passage ceremonies have been and continue to be the other occasions where a wide spectrum of people hear Sanskrit, and occasionally join in to speak some Sanskrit words such as namah . Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini , around the fourth century BCE. Its position in the cultures of Greater India

29502-401: The most advanced analysis of linguistics until the twentieth century. Pāṇini's comprehensive and scientific theory of grammar is conventionally taken to mark the start of Classical Sanskrit. His systematic treatise inspired and made Sanskrit the preeminent Indian language of learning and literature for two millennia. It is unclear whether Pāṇini himself wrote his treatise or he orally created

29700-593: The most archaic poems of the Iranian and Greek language families, the Gathas of old Avestan and Iliad of Homer . As the Rigveda was orally transmitted by methods of memorisation of exceptional complexity, rigour and fidelity, as a single text without variant readings, its preserved archaic syntax and morphology are of vital importance in the reconstruction of the common ancestor language Proto-Indo-European . Sanskrit does not have an attested native script: from around

29898-433: The most important disciples. Later, Upāli and his pupils became known as vinayadharas ( Pāli ; 'custodians of the vinaya'), who preserved the monastic discipline after the Buddha's parinibbāna ( Sanskrit : parinirvāṇa ; passing into final Nirvana). This lineage became an important part of the identity of Ceylonese and Burmese Buddhism. In China, the 7th-century Vinaya school referred to Upāli as their patriarch and it

30096-409: The negatives akusala and pāpa have almost the same meaning, there are some differences between the positives, kusala and puñña . According to P. D. Premasiri , Kusala is used to describe a more direct path to Nirvana than puñña . Damien Keown , however, believes they are merely different angles of the same concept: kusala refers to the moral status of an action, whereas puñña refers to

30294-399: The next life, but also in adjacent lives after that. Wealth, lifespan, and position are all contingent on merit. In Buddhist texts further details are given in what way and to what extent a meritorious deed will bring results: this depends on the spiritual quality of the recipient, the spiritual attitude of the giver, the manner in which one gives and the object given. If the recipient is

30492-549: The next lives to come, as well as the destination a person is reborn. The opposite of merit is demerit ( papa ), and it is believed that merit is able to weaken demerit. Indeed, merit has even been connected to the path to Nirvana itself, but many scholars say that this refers only to some types of merit. Merit can be gained in a number of ways, such as giving , virtue and mental development . In addition, there are many forms of merit-making described in ancient Buddhist texts . A similar concept of kusala ( Sanskrit: kusala )

30690-583: The numbers are thought to signify a wish to be aligned with the prestige of the language. Sanskrit has been taught in traditional gurukulas since ancient times; it is widely taught today at the secondary school level. The oldest Sanskrit college is the Benares Sanskrit College founded in 1791 during East India Company rule . Sanskrit continues to be widely used as a ceremonial and ritual language in Hindu and Buddhist hymns and chants . In Sanskrit,

30888-482: The nun's order. In recent times, the composer Richard Wagner wrote a draft for a libretto about Ānanda, which was made into the opera Wagner Dream by Jonathan Harvey in 2007. In the Pāli text Udāna , a similar list is mentioned, but these are eleven not ten disciples, and five in the list are different. Although in the early Sanskrit and Chinese texts, there are only four enlightened disciples, in later tradition there are eight enlightened disciples (found in

31086-401: The offering'), by analogy with the Brahmanical dakśiṇā , the sacrificial offering itself. The Sangha (monastic community) was also described as 'field of merit' ( Pali : puññakkhetta ; Sanskrit : puṇyakṣetra ). The difference with the Brahmanical tradition was, according to Marasinghe, that Buddhism did recognize other ways of generating merit apart from offerings to

31284-403: The oral transmission of the texts is reliable: they are ceremonial literature, where the exact phonetic expression and its preservation were a part of the historic tradition. However some scholars have suggested that the original Ṛg-veda differed in some fundamental ways in phonology compared to the sole surviving version available to us. In particular that retroflex consonants did not exist as

31482-403: The order of bhikkhunis , when he requests the Buddha on behalf of the latter's foster-mother Mahāpajāpati Gotamī (Sanskrit: Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī ) to allow her to be ordained. Ānanda also accompanies the Buddha in the last year of his life, and therefore is witness to many tenets and principles that the Buddha conveys and establishes before his death, including the well-known principle that

31680-415: The other becoming one as the practitioner progresses on the spiritual path. Buddhist ethics is informed by Buddhist metaphysics, notably, the not-self doctrine , and therefore some western ethical concepts may not apply. Besides, as Keown notices, moral action would not be possible if it was not preceded by moral concern for others, as is illustrated by the example of the Buddha himself. Such moral concern

31878-431: The other." Reinöhl further states that there is a symmetric relationship between Dravidian languages like Kannada or Tamil, with Indo-Aryan languages like Bengali or Hindi, whereas the same relationship is not found for non-Indo-Aryan languages, for example, Persian or English: A sentence in a Dravidian language like Tamil or Kannada becomes ordinarily good Bengali or Hindi by substituting Bengali or Hindi equivalents for

32076-425: The palace with the king and queen's permission, but Orientalist Noël Péri considered it more likely that Rāhula was born after Prince Siddhārtha left his palace. Between seven and fifteen years after Rāhula is born, the Buddha returns to Kapilavastu, where Yaśodharā has Rāhula ask the Buddha for the throne of the Śākya clan. The Buddha responds by having Rāhula ordain as the first Buddhist novice monk . He teaches

32274-743: The poor are included in the Tipiṭaka, and by many Buddhists considered meritorious. In fieldwork studies done by researchers, devotees appreciated the merits of becoming ordained and supporting the building of a temple the most. Fisher found that building a temple was considered a great merit by devotees, because they believed they would in that way have part in all the wisdom which would be taught at that temple. People may pursue merit-making for different reasons, as Buddhist orthodoxy allows for various ideals, this-worldly or ultimate. Although many scholars have pointed out that devotees often aim for this-worldly benefits in merit-making, it has also been pointed out that in old age, people tend to make merit with

32472-414: The possible influence of Dravidian on Sanskrit is only one of many items of syntactic assimilation, not least among them the large repertoire of morphological modality and aspect that, once one knows to look for it, can be found everywhere in classical and postclassical Sanskrit". The main influence of Dravidian on Sanskrit is found to have been concentrated in the timespan between the late Vedic period and

32670-458: The pre-Buddhist Brahmanical sense, connected with rituals and sacrifice, and the lay life. Another example often quoted in this context is the simile of the raft , which states that both dhamma and adhamma should be let go of in order to attain liberation. Whereas the term adhamma in the text clearly refers to evil views, the meaning of dhamma is subject to different interpretations. Considering that no other similar passage can be found in

32868-439: The previous 1,500 years when "great experiments in moral and aesthetic imagination" marked the Indian scholarship using Classical Sanskrit, states Pollock. Scholars maintain that the Sanskrit language did not die, but rather only declined. Jurgen Hanneder disagrees with Pollock, finding his arguments elegant but "often arbitrary". According to Hanneder, a decline or regional absence of creative and innovative literature constitutes

33066-435: The princes, putting humility before caste. Having been ordained, Upāli learnt both Buddhist doctrine ( Pali : Dhamma ; Sanskrit : Dharma ) and vinaya . His preceptor was Kappitaka. Upāli became known for his mastery and strictness of vinaya , and was consulted often about vinaya matters. A notable case he decided about was that of the monk Ajjuka, who was accused of partisanship in a conflict about real estate. During

33264-480: The problems of interpretation and misunderstanding. The purifying structure of the Sanskrit language removes these imperfections. The early Sanskrit grammarian Daṇḍin states, for example, that much in the Prakrit languages is etymologically rooted in Sanskrit, but involves "loss of sounds" and corruptions that result from a "disregard of the grammar". Daṇḍin acknowledged that there are words and confusing structures in Prakrit that thrive independent of Sanskrit. This view

33462-514: The process of attaining Buddhahood , and is also instrumental in attaining it. The Bodhisatta intent on accomplishing Buddhahood and bringing other beings across the ocean of suffering, must do so by accumulating all sorts of merits, in this context also called perfections ( Pali : pāramī ; Sanskrit : pāramitā ). This form of merit-making is always led by a vow for enlightenment ( Pali : panidhāna ; Sanskrit : praṇidhāna ), and an intention to enlighten others as well, as well as

33660-536: The regional Prakrit languages, which makes it likely that the interaction, the sharing of words and ideas began early in the Indian history. As the Indian thought diversified and challenged earlier beliefs of Hinduism, particularly in the form of Buddhism and Jainism , the Prakrit languages such as Pali in Theravada Buddhism and Ardhamagadhi in Jainism competed with Sanskrit in the ancient times. However, states Paul Dundas , these ancient Prakrit languages had "roughly

33858-490: The relationship between various Indo-European languages, the origin of all these languages may possibly be in what is now Central or Eastern Europe, while the Indo-Iranian group possibly arose in Central Russia. The Iranian and Indo-Aryan branches separated quite early. It is the Indo-Aryan branch that moved into eastern Iran and then south into South Asia in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Once in ancient India,

34056-399: The resulting happiness anymore. They no longer need to strive for a happy rebirth in the next life, because they have gone beyond rebirth. Their enlightenment is, however, an ethical perfection as well, though this is solely described as kusala , not as puñña . In pre-Buddhist Brahmanism , Brahmin priests used to perform yajña s (sacrifices) and thereby generating merit for

34254-558: The role of language, the ontological status of painting word-images through sound, and the need for rules so that it can serve as a means for a community of speakers, separated by geography or time, to share and understand profound ideas from each other. These speculations became particularly important to the Mīmāṃsā and the Nyaya schools of Hindu philosophy, and later to Vedanta and Mahayana Buddhism, states Frits Staal —a scholar of Linguistics with

34452-399: The roots of evil in the mind (the defilements ), whereas the kusalamūla are roots connected with good qualities of the mind. Both of them are called roots because they are qualities that can be cultivated and grown in the mind. Puñña and pāpa are close in meaning to kusala and akusala . Both pairs are used for distinguishing between ethically right and wrong. However, even though

34650-491: The same relationship to Sanskrit as medieval Italian does to Latin". The Indian tradition states that the Buddha and the Mahavira preferred the Prakrit language so that everyone could understand it. However, scholars such as Dundas have questioned this hypothesis. They state that there is no evidence for this and whatever evidence is available suggests that by the start of the common era, hardly anybody other than learned monks had

34848-551: The semi-nomadic Aryans . The Vedic Sanskrit language or a closely related Indo-European variant was recognized beyond ancient India as evidenced by the " Mitanni Treaty" between the ancient Hittite and Mitanni people, carved into a rock, in a region that now includes parts of Syria and Turkey. Parts of this treaty, such as the names of the Mitanni princes and technical terms related to horse training, for reasons not understood, are in early forms of Vedic Sanskrit. The treaty also invokes

35046-594: The social structures such as the role of the poet and the priests, the patronage economy, the phrasal equations, and some of the poetic metres. While there are similarities, state Jamison and Brereton, there are also differences between Vedic Sanskrit, the Old Avestan, and the Mycenaean Greek literature. For example, unlike the Sanskrit similes in the Ṛg-veda, the Old Avestan Gathas lack simile entirely, and it

35244-477: The term pāpa has become most common. The term merit , originally a Christian term , has in the latter part of the twentieth century gradually been used as a translation of the Buddhist term puṇya or puñña . The Buddhist term has, however, more of an impermanent character than the English translation implies, and the Buddhist term does not imply a sense of deserving . Before the arising of Buddhism, merit

35442-649: The title "General of the Dharma" (Sanskrit: Dharmasenapati ; Pali: Dhammasenāpati ). Śāriputra is considered the disciple of the Buddha who was foremost in wisdom . His female counterpart was Khema . Maudgalyāyana ( Pali : Moggallāna ), also known as Mahāmaudgalyāyana or by his birth name Kolita, was one of the Buddha's closest disciples. He is considered the second of the Buddha's two foremost male disciples, together with Śāriputra . Traditional accounts relate that Maudgalyāyana and Śāriputra become spiritual wanderers in their youth. After having searched for spiritual truth for

35640-456: The transferring of merits to all living beings to that effect. Another aspect of meritorious acts, emphasised more in later literature, is the idea that a single meritorious act done will reap many fruits, as, for example, expressed in the Vimānavatthu . Not only is the quality of people's next rebirth affected by their merits, but also the circumstances in which they are reborn; not only in

35838-641: The turn of the 1st-millennium CE, it has been written in various Brahmic scripts , and in the modern era most commonly in Devanagari . Sanskrit's status, function, and place in India's cultural heritage are recognized by its inclusion in the Constitution of India 's Eighth Schedule languages . However, despite attempts at revival, there are no first-language speakers of Sanskrit in India. In each of India's recent decennial censuses, several thousand citizens have reported Sanskrit to be their mother tongue, but

36036-408: The variants in the usage of Sanskrit in different regions of India. The ten Vedic scholars he quotes are Āpiśali, Kaśyapa , Gārgya, Gālava, Cakravarmaṇa, Bhāradvāja , Śākaṭāyana, Śākalya, Senaka and Sphoṭāyana. In the Aṣṭādhyāyī , language is observed in a manner that has no parallel among Greek or Latin grammarians. Pāṇini's grammar, according to Renou and Filliozat, is a classic that defines

36234-564: The vernacular Prakrits. Many Sanskrit dramas indicate that the language coexisted with the vernacular Prakrits. The cities of Varanasi , Paithan , Pune and Kanchipuram were centers of classical Sanskrit learning and public debates until the arrival of the colonial era. According to Lamotte , Sanskrit became the dominant literary and inscriptional language because of its precision in communication. It was, states Lamotte, an ideal instrument for presenting ideas, and as knowledge in Sanskrit multiplied, so did its spread and influence. Sanskrit

36432-426: The while, is yet more a future asset of his, than of some one in whom he naturally is less interested than in his present self. He believes that, because of what he is now doing, some one now in process of mental creation by him, and to all intents and purposes his future " self," will one day taste less or more of life's trials. To that embryonic character he is inextricably bound ever making or marring it, and for it he

36630-493: The yearly Kaṭhina , when they offer robes, money and other requisites to the Sangha as a way to make merit. In Burma, the two yearly Light Festivals are typically occasions to make merit, as gifts are given to elders, and robes are sewn for the Sangha. In South Korea, a Buddha Day ( Korean : seog-ga-tan-sin-il ) is held, on which Buddhists pray and offer alms . Other kinds of occasions of merit-making are also upheld. A special form of merit-making less frequently engaged in

36828-412: The young novice about truth , self-reflection, and not-self , eventually leading to Rāhula's enlightenment. Although early accounts state that Rāhula dies before the Buddha does, later tradition has it that Rāhula is one of the disciples that outlives the Buddha, guarding the Buddha's Dispensation until the rising of the next Buddha . Rāhula is known in Buddhist texts for his eagerness for learning, and

37026-497: The Ṛg-veda is distinctly more archaic than other Vedic texts, and in many respects, the Rigvedic language is notably more similar to those found in the archaic texts of Old Avestan Zoroastrian Gathas and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey . According to Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton – Indologists known for their translation of the Ṛg-veda – the Vedic Sanskrit literature "clearly inherited" from Indo-Iranian and Indo-European times

37224-408: Was a spoken language ( bhasha ) used by the cultured and educated. Some sutras expound upon the variant forms of spoken Sanskrit versus written Sanskrit. Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang mentioned in his memoir that official philosophical debates in India were held in Sanskrit, not in the vernacular language of that region. According to Sanskrit linguist professor Madhav Deshpande, Sanskrit

37422-427: Was a spoken language in a colloquial form by the mid-1st millennium BCE which coexisted with a more formal, grammatically correct form of literary Sanskrit. This, states Deshpande, is true for modern languages where colloquial incorrect approximations and dialects of a language are spoken and understood, along with more "refined, sophisticated and grammatically accurate" forms of the same language being found in

37620-472: Was adopted voluntarily as a vehicle of high culture, arts, and profound ideas. Pollock disagrees with Lamotte, but concurs that Sanskrit's influence grew into what he terms a "Sanskrit Cosmopolis" over a region that included all of South Asia and much of southeast Asia. The Sanskrit language cosmopolis thrived beyond India between 300 and 1300 CE. Today, it is believed that Kashmiri is the closest language to Sanskrit. Reinöhl mentions that not only have

37818-674: Was also the language of some of the oldest surviving, authoritative and much followed philosophical works of Jainism such as the Tattvartha Sutra by Umaswati . The Sanskrit language has been one of the major means for the transmission of knowledge and ideas in Asian history. Indian texts in Sanskrit were already in China by 402 CE, carried by the influential Buddhist pilgrim Faxian who translated them into Chinese by 418 CE. Xuanzang , another Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, learnt Sanskrit in India and carried 657 Sanskrit texts to China in

38016-466: Was believed that one of their founders was a reincarnation of him. The technical conversations about vinaya between the Buddha and Upāli were recorded in the Pāli and Sarvāstivāda traditions, and have been suggested as an important subject of study for modern-day ethics in American Buddhism . Rāhula ( Pāli and Sanskrit) was the only son of Siddhārtha Gautama, and his wife, princess Yaśodharā. He

38214-466: Was commonly used in the context of Brahmanical sacrifice, and it was believed that merit accrued through such sacrifice would bring the devotee to an eternal heaven of the 'fathers' ( Sanskrit : pitṛ, pitara ) . Later, in the period of the Upanishads , a concept of rebirth was established and it was believed that life in heaven was determined by the merit accumulated in previous lives, but

38412-500: Was considered meritorious for people to dedicate their corpses to feed the wild animals after death. Many devout Buddhists observe regular "rest days" ( Pali : uposatha ) by keeping five precepts, listening to teachings, practicing meditation and living at the temple. Besides these weekly observances, ceremonies and festivities are yearly held and are often occasions to make merit, and are sometimes believed to yield greater merits than other, ordinary days. In Thailand and Laos,

38610-410: Was honored by novice monks and nuns throughout Buddhist history. His accounts have led to a perspective in Buddhism of seeing children as hindrances to the spiritual life on the one hand, and as people with potential for enlightenment on the other hand. Ānanda was the primary attendant of the Buddha and one of his ten principal disciples . Among the Buddha's many disciples, Ānanda stood out for having

38808-426: Was one of the ten principal disciples of the Buddha . In Theravada Buddhism he is considered the disciple who was foremost in being " worthy of gifts " (Pali: dakkhiṇeyyānaṃ ) and "living remote and in peace" (Pali: araṇavihārīnaṃ aggo ). In Mahayana Buddhism, he is considered foremost in understanding emptiness (Sanskrit: Śūnyatā ). Subhūti was born into a wealthy family and was a relative of Anāthapiṇḍika ,

39006-465: Was seen to have received a special mind-to-mind transmission from Gautama Buddha outside of orthodox scripture, which became essential to the identity of Chan. Again, the robe was an important symbol in this transmission. Apart from having a role in texts and lineage, Mahākāśyapa has often been depicted in Buddhist art as a symbol of reassurance and hope for the future of Buddhism. Subhūti ( Pali : Subhūti; Chinese : 須菩提/须菩提 ; pinyin : Xūpútí )

39204-442: Was visualized as "pervading all creation", another representation of the world itself; the "mysterious magnum" of Hindu thought. The search for perfection in thought and the goal of liberation were among the dimensions of sacred sound, and the common thread that wove all ideas and inspirations together became the quest for what the ancient Indians believed to be a perfect language, the "phonocentric episteme" of Sanskrit. Sanskrit as

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