Maharashtra HSC Pali (MSBSHSE) flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Ekaṃ samayaṃ

Stock opening of a Pali sutta meaning 'at one time' or 'once'. It sets the narrative frame and is normally followed by a locative place name with viharati, 'was staying'.

Tena kho pana samayena

Frequent prose transition rendered 'now at that time'. It opens a fresh episode inside a sutta or a Dhammapada commentary story and is followed by a clause in the present tense.

Jātaka narrative structure

Birth-story pattern: an incident in the present prompts the Buddha's tale of a past life, which ends by identifying the Buddha and the other characters in their former rebirths.

Idam avoca Bhagavā

Closing formula of a sutta meaning 'this the Blessed One said'. It introduces 'attamanā te bhikkhū Bhagavato bhāsitaṃ abhinandun ti', the monks' rejoicing at his words.

Dhammapadaṭṭhakathā tale

Commentary story explaining the occasion of a Dhammapada verse: a person's difficulty, the Buddha's visit, the verse spoken, and the hearer's attainment of stream-entry or another stage.

Anuṭṭhubha metre

The commonest Pali metre: four pādas of eight syllables each, used for most Dhammapada verses. Tuṭṭhubha pādas have eleven syllables and jagatī pādas twelve.

Dhammapada collection

Anthology of 423 verses in 26 vaggas within the Khuddaka Nikāya. Each verse is a compact ethical saying on mind, heedfulness, anger, craving or the arahant.

Theragāthā and Therīgāthā

Two Khuddaka Nikāya verse collections attributed to elder monks and to elder nuns. They are the oldest Pali personal lyric poetry, recording renunciation and final liberation.

Manopubbaṅgamā dhammā

First Dhammapada verse: 'mind precedes all phenomena; mind is chief, mind-made'. Speech or action from a corrupt mind brings suffering following like the wheel behind the ox's foot.

Verse particle iva

In Pali verse va or iva means 'like, as' and introduces similes; the metre often shortens iva to va, as in 'chāyā va anapāyinī', 'like a shadow that does not leave'.

Eight Pali cases

Pali nouns inflect for nominative, accusative, instrumental, dative, ablative, genitive, locative and vocative, in singular and plural, in one of three grammatical genders.

Parassapada present endings

Active present endings -mi, -si, -ti, -ma, -tha, -nti. Added to the present stem they yield gacchāmi 'I go', gacchasi, gacchati, gacchāma, gacchatha, gacchanti.

Attanopada present endings

Middle-voice endings -e, -se, -te, -mhe, -vhe, -nte, as in maññe, maññase, maññate. They mark action relating to oneself and contrast with the active parassapada set.

Gerund in -tvā

The absolutive ends in -tvā (gantvā 'having gone', sutvā 'having heard', disvā 'having seen') or, usually after a prefix, in -ya (āgamma, uṭṭhāya). It names an action preceding the main verb.

Locative absolute

A noun or participle in the locative forming a subordinate clause: evaṃ vutte 'when this had been said', imasmiṃ sati 'this being present'. English renders it with 'when', 'while' or 'if'.

Kammadhāraya compound

A Pali compound whose members stand in apposition or a genitive-like relation, the last member fixing gender and sense, as in dhammadesanā 'teaching of the Dhamma'.

Niggahīta sandhi rule

A final niggahīta -ṃ before a consonant becomes the nasal of that consonant's class: taṃ + kāraṇaṃ gives taṅkāraṇaṃ, and taṃ + ca gives tañca.

Instrumental in Marathi

The Pali instrumental in -ena, -āya is rendered in Marathi by -ने or -नी, marking agent or instrument: 'bhikkhunā dinnaṃ' becomes 'भिक्खूने दिलेले', 'given by the monk'.

Locative in -smiṃ

Locative forms in -e, -smiṃ, -asmiṃ, -āyaṃ (Buddhe, Buddhasmiṃ, Sāvatthiyaṃ) mean 'in, at, on, among' and are rendered in Marathi by -त, -येथे or -मध्ये.

Ablative endings

Pali ablatives in -ā, -smā, -mhā and -to mean 'from' and take Marathi -पासून or -हून, as in 'nagarā āgacchati', 'he comes from the city'.

Quotative iti

iti, often fused to -ti after a final vowel, closes quoted speech or marks a name: 'Buddho ti' means 'as the Buddha'. Render it with quotation marks or म्हणून.

Na and mā negation

na, no and 'na … atthi' negate statements ('is not', 'there is not'); mā negates commands, usually with the imperative or aorist, as in mā evaṃ karohi 'do not do that'.

Question-word mapping

Interrogatives predict the answer: kadā 'when' → tadā or ajja; kattha or kuhiṃ 'where' → a locative place; kena 'by what' → instrumental; kasmā 'why' → ablative or a reason clause.

Verb endings identify agent

Since Pali often drops pronouns, the verb ending shows the subject: -mi I, -si you, -ti he, she or it, -ma we, -tha you plural, -nti they.

Pronoun back-reference

In connected Pali, so, sā, taṃ, etaṃ, idaṃ and ayaṃ point back to an earlier noun. Match the pronoun's gender and number to the nearest suitable noun before translating.

High-frequency unseen vocabulary

Core words for unseen passages: hoti and atthi (is, there is), bhavati (becomes), karoti (does), vadati and āha (says), passati (sees), suṇāti (hears), deti (gives), labhati (obtains).

Ca, pi, eva, kho

Particles carry the syntax of unseen prose: ca 'and', pi 'too, even', eva 'just, only', kho weak emphasis usually left untranslated, hi 'for, indeed', pana 'however'.

Three piṭakas

The Pali Canon falls into Vinaya Piṭaka (monastic discipline), Sutta Piṭaka (discourses) and Abhidhamma Piṭaka (systematic doctrine). The Khuddaka Nikāya belongs to the Sutta Piṭaka.

Abhidhamma Piṭaka books

Seven books: Dhammasaṅgaṇī, Vibhaṅga, Dhātukathā, Puggalapaññatti, Kathāvatthu, Yamaka and Paṭṭhāna. The Kathāvatthu is traditionally ascribed to Moggaliputta Tissa at the third council.

Buddhaghosa

Fifth-century CE commentator who wrote the Visuddhimagga and the main aṭṭhakathās, including Sumaṅgalavilāsinī on the Dīgha Nikāya and Papañcasūdanī on the Majjhima Nikāya.

Pali Text Society

Founded in 1881 by T. W. Rhys Davids to publish Roman-script editions and translations of the Pali Canon and its commentaries. Its editions remain the standard reference for Pali texts.

First written Pali canon

Sri Lankan tradition holds that the canon, preserved orally until then, was first committed to writing in the first century BCE under King Vaṭṭagāmaṇī Abhaya, at the fourth council.

Saddanīti

A detailed Pali grammar composed by Aggavaṃsa in twelfth-century Burma. It is the most elaborate of the indigenous Pali grammars, following the earlier Kaccāyana and Moggallāna traditions.