Pali language study resources

In two earlier posts I provided links to various online Myanmar language study resouces for beginner and advanced learners. This present post provides a list of study resources for beginner Pali language students.

1. Eisel Mazard's excellent collection "Resources for learning Pali" contains pdf versions of key self-study texts, such as Lila de Silva's Pali Primer, which is most commonly recommended as the point of departure for brand new students.

2. The Bodhi Monastery website contains MP3s of Bhikkhu Bodhi's "A Course in the Pali Language". To follow this audio course you will need a copy of James W. Gair and W. S. Karunatillake's A New Course in Reading Pali: Entering the Word of the Buddha.

3. The Yahoo! Pali Group, which provides a forum of ongoing discussion of Pali related issues.

4. The Access to Insight's Pali resources page.

gaing

In his 1975 text Sangha and State in Burma, Michael Mendelson argues for translating the Myanmar term gaing into English as "sect", as explained in the quote below from page 86.

"Sect is being used here as an approximate, if slightly unsatisfactory, substitute for the word gaing (Burmese). Spiro (1970: 315-320) suggests "branch" as a gloss for the term gaing. A gaing, from the Pali term gana (a chapter of monks), is, sociologically speaking, a group of taiks who recognize the somewhat charismatic leadership of a sayadaw who is considered the leader. It may at first have practices or beliefs (such as ordination rites, unique textual interpretations) no different from other established sects, but it may develop such differentiating characteristics and become both a self-defined and lay-defined sect, or what is known in Pali as a nikaya. Lay definition be a wealthy lay supporter (taga) usually precedes self definition. The difficulty is that the Burmese word gaing (collection, assemblage) is used by informants to cover both the Pali gana and nikaya. The problems involved with these terms are discussed in the Introduction. A further difficulty is that gaing can also have messianic overtones (Mendelson 1961a, b, 1963b, c)."

Michael Aung-Thwin, however, prefers the term "order" rather than "sect", as he argues in the quote below, taken from page 18 of his December 2009 paper "Of Monarchs, Monks and Men: Religion and the State in Myanmar."

"The Shwegyin considers itself stricter in discipline that the Thudhamma, the Maha Dwaya considers itself stricter that the Shwegyin, while the former's own offshoots consider themselves stricter that it. But in fact, all of these Orders are distinguished from one another more by the degree of adherence to the Vinaya--such as whether or not to wear sandals, or use umbrellas when going on their daily rounds for food--than by any substantive philosophical or doctrinal differences, hence my use of the term "Order" rather than "Sect."

kusala and kuthou

In a previous post I highlighted Gustaaf Houtman's explanation of the "Pali Trap", a concept which he uses to explain the tendency of anthropologists and other scholars to translate Myanmarised Pali terms according to their canonical Pali definitions rather than according to colloquial Myanmar usage.  Quoted below is a good example of such a "terminological shift" of a Pali word adopted into Myanmar, taken from Melford Spiro's Buddhism and Society: A great tradition and its Burmese vicissitudes, p. 97.

"In nibbanic Buddhism, it will be recalled, there is a distinction between kusala, good action, and puñña, merit acquired by such action.  Throughout the Therevada world, however, one or the other of these semantically distinctive lexemes--puñña and kusala--has been dropped and its meaning assimilated to that of the remaining lexeme.  "Merit" and "good," distinctive concepts in nibbanic Buddhism, have been fused into a semantically undifferentiated concept which is rendered by one lexeme alone.  Thus, in Ceylon and Thailand, kusala has been dropped in favor of puñña (Sinhalese, pin; Thai, boon), while in Burma puñña has been dropped in favour of kusala (Burmese, ku.thou)."

This "terminological shift" has led to the common Myanmar phrase "ကုသိုလ်ရတယ်" (kuthou-ya-day), meaning to "get merit" (as a result of doing a meritorious act). By contrast, as I understand it, according to canonical usage, one would "do" a kusala act and "get" puñña.

Myanmarised Pali

Those familiar with conventional Romanised Pali and Mon/Myanmar script Pali will have already noticed the difference in spelling/pronunciation between the two. There are a small set of standard conversions between these scripts, which can be quickly memorised. Eisel Mazard, who provides some very useful online resources for learning Pali, has prepared a helpful chart on "How the Burmese pronounce Pali", which I have pasted below for quick reference.



The letters on the left of each pointing hand are the standard Romanised Pali form. The letters to the right of each pointing hand represent the Myanmar pronunciation of the same letter. The Myanmar letter above each couplet is the letter used when writing in Mon/Myanmar script. However, I'm not entirely sure about Eisel Mazard's use of "sh" for the pronunciation of ဆ​, which I would think should be written out as "hs" instead. Also, for သ​, the pronunciation "th" (as in သီလာ = thila, morals/precepts) should be added.

The Pali Trap

In his 1990 study Traditions of Buddhist Practice in Burma, Gustaaf Houtman provides some helpful notes on the use of Pali loanwords in contemporary Myanmar language.

Houtman warns against falling into the 'Pali Trap'. By this he means:

the unquestioned acceptance of the meanings of particular Pali loanwords in the vernacular context as being of the same order as that attributed to it in the Buddhological and Indological literature or, indeed, in the work of other anthropologists. [p.21]

He goes on:

This 'Pali trap' of habitual use of romanised Pali for Pali loanwords in the vernacular as pursued in most prominent works on Buddhism in Thailand and Burma (e.g. Spiro and Tambiah) is problematic. It is doubtful that even terms such as tha-tha-na, the way used in Burmese, correspond in all contexts to what we reconstruct as being the scriptural/commentarial 'Pali' meanings we attribute to P. sasana. [p.74-75]

And finally:

we must get away from the 'Pali trap' which misleads people into believing that Pali loanwords have 'universal' meanings even across vernaculars. The anthropologist's treatment of Pali loanwords in the vernacular is symptomatic of their textual orientation; they have used the Indologist's romanised spelling in preference to treating the words as part of the vernacular language. Unfamiliarity with context has been sacrificed for familiarity with text. [p.253]