Tagged: Aśoka
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Cousins - The Early Development of Buddhist Literature and Language in India (2013)
1L.S. Cousins re-examines the early development of Buddhist literature, arguing that the Pali Canon was first systematically written down not in Ceylon, but on the Indian mainland around the first century B.C. before being imported to the island. This written canon was based on a largely non-sectarian oral tradition of chanted texts (*bhāṇaka* tradition) that had been developing since the Buddha's time (c. 400 BCE), and its initial contents included the four main Nikāyas, Vinaya, Abhidhamma, and several Khuddakanikāya texts. The language used was not a spoken dialect but an evolving written lingua franca, which Cousins terms 'Old Pali,' derived from a post-Asokan epigraphic Prakrit. This written language subsequently underwent a process of Sanskritization, becoming 'Hybrid Pali,' before being standardized into the classical Pali we know today by commentators around the fourth or fifth century A.D., who consistently referred to it as Māgadhī.
Norman - A Philological Approach To Buddhism (1997)
2A philological approach to Buddhism involves a critical analysis of the language in early scriptures to understand not just *what* they mean, but *how* and *why*, thereby correcting long-standing mistranslations of core concepts like *nibbāna* and the four noble truths. This method reveals early Buddhism's origins within a broader *śramana* movement that shared terminology with Jainism and reacted against Brahmanism, and it traces the evolution of the Buddha's teachings from an oral tradition—marked by mnemonic structures like repetition and lists—to a written one that introduced new scribal errors. Philology demonstrates that the Pāli canon was translated from earlier eastern dialects, retaining traces of "Māgadhisms" before being standardised and later partially Sanskritised, a process that created its own set of incorrect back-formations like *bodhisattva*. This linguistic investigation also provides a more accurate historical context, showing that Emperor Aśoka's *dhamma* was a universal moral code rather than Buddhist doctrine, and clarifies the gradual, complex formation of the canon and the vital role of commentaries in preserving alternative traditions and interpretations.