Maharashtra HSC Pali (MSBSHSE) cheat sheet

Prescribed Gadya pieces come from three sources: canonical suttas of the four Nikāyas, Jātaka birth stories, and Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā tales built around a single verse.

Canonical frame: 'Ekaṃ samayaṃ Bhagavā Sāvatthiyaṃ viharati Jetavane Anāthapiṇḍikassa ārāme' - 'once the Blessed One was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta's Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika's park'; the locatives give the place, the nominative the agent.

Canonical close: 'Idam avoca Bhagavā; attamanā te bhikkhū Bhagavato bhāsitaṃ abhinandun ti' - 'this the Blessed One said; the monks, delighted, rejoiced at his words'.

Prose connectives and their values: atha kho (then), tena kho pana samayena (now at that time), aparena samayena (after some time), tatra (there, in that matter), tadā (then).

Speech is introduced by 'Bhagavā etad avoca' or '… iti āha'; the quotative iti closes the sentence and usually sandhis to -ti, as in 'abhinandun ti'.

Jātaka plot schema: present-life frame → story of a past life → identification of the characters with the Buddha, Ānanda or Devadatta → moral drawn from the closing verse.

Commentarial prose reuses stock sentences such as 'manussā ujjhāyanti khīyanti vipācenti' ('people complained, criticised and objected'); these recur word for word and are best learned as units.

Frequent prose vocabulary: bhagavā (Blessed One), bhikkhu (monk), sāvako (disciple), devatā (deity), rājā (king), dhītā (daughter), kammaṃ (deed), phalaṃ (fruit), vihāro (monastery).

Dhammapada: 423 verses arranged in 26 vaggas, placed in the Khuddaka Nikāya; most prescribed Padya selections are drawn from it.

Anuṭṭhubha (śiloka) metre: four pādas of eight syllables each, the commonest Pali metre. Tuṭṭhubha pādas carry eleven syllables, jagatī pādas twelve.

Syllable counting is phonetic: a conjunct consonant or a niggahīta before a consonant adds no syllable, while vowels merged by sandhi may reduce the count by one.

Verse openings to know: 'Manopubbaṅgamā dhammā' (Dhp 1), 'Appamādo amatapadaṃ' (Dhp 21), 'Attā hi attano nātho' (Dhp 160), 'Sabbe saṅkhārā aniccā' (Dhp 277).

Verse particles: hi = for, indeed; va/iva = like, as; pi = too, even; ca = and; kho = weak emphasis. Metre often forces elision, e.g. sīlaṃ > sīla'.

Theragāthā and Therīgāthā are the Khuddaka Nikāya collections of awakening-verses of elder monks and elder nuns; the Sutta Nipāta preserves the oldest didactic verse.

In verse, word order is free and the finite verb is often omitted for the metre; supply hoti or atthi when the pāda has no verb.

Verse translation convention: render one target line per pāda, keep the pāda order, and preserve the key simile (e.g. 'like a shadow that never leaves').

Eight cases, two numbers, three genders. Functions: nom. subject; acc. object or goal; instr. 'by, with'; dat. 'for, to'; abl. 'from'; gen. 'of'; loc. 'in, at, when'; voc. address.

Masculine -a stem (Buddha), singular: Buddho, Buddhaṃ, Buddhena, Buddhassa/Buddhāya, Buddhā/Buddhasmā, Buddhassa, Buddhe/Buddhasmiṃ, Buddha. Plural: Buddhā, Buddhe, Buddhehi, Buddhānaṃ, Buddhehi, Buddhānaṃ, Buddhesu, Buddhā.

Feminine -ā stem (kaññā), singular: kaññā, kaññaṃ, kaññāya, kaññāya, kaññāya, kaññāya, kaññāya/kaññāyaṃ, kaññe; plural nominative and accusative both kaññā.

Neuter -a stem (phala), singular: phalaṃ, phalaṃ, phalena, phalassa, phalā, phalassa, phale, phala; plural nominative and accusative both phalāni.

Present active (parassapada) endings: -mi, -si, -ti, -ma, -tha, -nti - gacchāmi, gacchasi, gacchati, gacchāma, gacchatha, gacchanti. Middle (attanopada) endings: -e, -se, -te, -mhe, -vhe, -nte.

Tense and mood formation: future in -ssa- (bhavissati, karissati); aorist in -i/-si/-ā (ahosi, akāsi, agacchi); optative -eyya (bhaveyya, kareyya); imperative bhavatu, karohi, gaccha.

Verbal nouns: infinitive -tuṃ (gantuṃ, sotuṃ); gerund -tvā or -ya (gantvā, sutvā, āgamma); present participle -nta/-māna (gacchanto, gacchamāno); past participle -ta/-ita (gata, kata, suta, ṭhita).

Derivation: passive in -ya- (kariyati, vuccate 'is said'); causative in -e-/-aya- (karoti > kāreti, pacati > pāceti).

Sandhi and compounds: vowel + vowel elides or contracts (na + etaṃ > n'etaṃ; iti + āha > iccāha); final -ṃ assimilates to the next consonant's class (taṃ + ca > tañca). Five compound types: kammadhāraya, dvanda, tatpurisa, bahubbīhi, avyayībhāva.

Case-to-Marathi mapping: nom. → subject, unmarked; acc. → object in -ला (goal of motion -कडे); instr. → -ने/-नी; dat./gen. → -ला or -चा/-ची/-चे; abl. → -पासून/-हून; loc. → -त/-येथे/-मध्ये; voc. → हे/अहो.

Pali is SOV with the finite verb clause-final. Marathi is also SOV, so Pali order can be kept; English requires SVO reordering, with the subject placed before the verb.

Translate outward from the verb: identify the finite verb (usually last, or before iti), then its nominative subject, then accusative objects, then the oblique cases.

Compounds are analysed from the last member backwards: rājaputta 'the king's son' (tatpurisa); dhammadesanā 'teaching of the Dhamma' (kammadhāraya).

Fixed renderings: ekaṃ samayaṃ = once/at one time; bhagavā = the Blessed One; bhante = venerable sir; āvuso = friend; sādhu = good, well done; appamādo = heedfulness; dukkhaṃ = suffering.

Negation: na and no negate statements (na gacchati 'he does not go'); mā is prohibitive with imperative or aorist (mā evaṃ karohi 'do not do that'); 'na … atthi' = 'there is no'.

Quotations: iti, often fused to -ti, closes direct speech and is rendered with inverted commas or म्हणून; after a single word it means 'thus called', as in 'Buddho ti'.

Do not translate proper names: transliterate into Devanagari and keep the spelling constant (Ānanda → आनंद, Sāvatthī → श्रावस्ती, Jetavana → जेतवन, Sāriputta → सारिपुत्त).

Read the frame first: 'ekaṃ samayaṃ … viharati' locates the scene and 'idam avoca … abhinandun ti' closes it; the argument of the passage lies between the two.

Locate the finite verb before anything else: its ending fixes the agent - -mi I, -si you, -ti he/she/it, -ma we, -tha you (plural), -nti they.

Particles carry syntax: ca = and; pi = too, even; eva = just, only; kho = weak emphasis, usually untranslated; hi = for, indeed; pana = but, however; api = even, also; mā = do not.

Pronoun tracking: so/sā/taṃ, etaṃ, idaṃ, ayaṃ point backwards; match gender and number to the nearest suitable preceding noun before assigning a referent.

Question-word mapping: kadā 'when' → tadā/ajja; kattha or kuhiṃ 'where' → locative place; kena 'by what' → instrumental; kasmā 'why' → ablative or a কারণ clause; kati 'how many' → numeral.

Split long compounds at their joints: the final member supplies gender and core meaning, the earlier members restrict it (dhammadesanā = dhamma + desanā; rājaputta = rāja + putta).

High-frequency unseen vocabulary: hoti/atthi (is, there is), bhavati (becomes), karoti (does), vadati/āha (says), passati (sees), suṇāti (hears), deti (gives), gaṇhāti (takes), labhati (obtains), vasati (dwells), jānāti (knows), icchati (wishes).

Numerals and quantifiers: eka, dvi, ti, catu, pañca, cha, satta, aṭṭha, nava, dasa; sataṃ = hundred, sahassaṃ = thousand. Agreement with plural nouns is often loose.

Tipiṭaka structure: Vinaya Piṭaka (5 books - Pārājika, Pācittiya, Mahāvagga, Cullavagga, Parivāra), Sutta Piṭaka (5 nikāyas), Abhidhamma Piṭaka (7 books).

Traditional nikāya counts: Dīgha 34 suttas, Majjhima 152, Saṃyutta 7,762, Aṅguttara 9,557; Khuddaka Nikāya has 15–18 books, including Dhammapada, Udāna, Itivuttaka, Sutta Nipāta, Theragāthā, Therīgāthā, Jātaka, Apadāna, Buddhavamsa.

Abhidhamma's seven books: Dhammasaṅgaṇī, Vibhaṅga, Dhātukathā, Puggalapaññatti, Kathāvatthu, Yamaka, Paṭṭhāna.

Councils: 1st at Rājagaha under Mahākassapa, when Upāli recited the Vinaya and Ānanda the suttas; 2nd at Vesālī a century later over the ten Vajjiputtaka points; 3rd at Pāṭaliputta under Asoka, associated with Moggaliputta Tissa and the Kathāvatthu; 4th in Sri Lanka under Vaṭṭagāmaṇī Abhaya, when the canon was first written on palm leaves.

Commentarial tradition: Buddhaghosa (5th century CE) wrote the Visuddhimagga plus Sumaṅgalavilāsinī (Dīgha), Papañcasūdanī (Majjhima), Sāratthappakāsinī (Saṃyutta), Manorathapūraṇī (Aṅguttara) and Atthasālinī (Dhammasaṅgaṇī); Dhammapāla followed with sub-commentaries.

Grammar tradition: Kaccāyana is the earliest extant Pali grammar, Moggallāna a later reworking, and Aggavaṃsa's Saddanīti (12th century) the most elaborate indigenous grammar.

Pali is a Middle Indo-Aryan language closest to Māgadhī; it has no original script and is written in Devanagari, Sinhala, Burmese, Thai or Roman (PTS) script.

Visuddhimagga ('Path of Purification') arranges doctrine under three heads: sīla (morality), samādhi (concentration), paññā (wisdom).

Modern scholarship: the Pali Text Society was founded in 1881 by T. W. Rhys Davids; the Milindapañha records the dialogue of King Milinda (Menander) with the elder Nāgasena.