Maharashtra HSC Pali (MSBSHSE) key terms

The Middle Indo-Aryan language of the Theravāda Buddhist canon, closely related to Māgadhī. Traditional sources call it the language of the Buddha's teaching; it is no longer a spoken community language but is studied and chanted.

The three collections that make up the Theravāda canon: the Vinaya Piṭaka on monastic discipline, the Sutta Piṭaka of discourses, and the Abhidhamma Piṭaka of systematic doctrine. 'Piṭaka' means basket.

The first basket of the Tipiṭaka, containing rules of monastic discipline, procedures for the Saṅgha, and accounts of how each rule came to be laid down.

The second basket of the Tipiṭaka, a collection of the Buddha's discourses arranged in five nikāyas, from the long Dīgha Nikāya to the miscellaneous Khuddaka Nikāya.

The third basket of the Tipiṭaka, presenting Buddhist doctrine in a systematic, analytical scheme of mental and material phenomena rather than as narratives or instructions.

The fifth and most varied collection of the Sutta Piṭaka, containing short texts such as the Dhammapada, Udāna, Jātaka, Theragāthā and Therīgāthā.

A Pali commentary explaining a canonical text word by word and doctrine by doctrine. The main surviving commentaries are attributed to Buddhaghosa and other fifth-century CE scholars of Sri Lanka.

Buddhaghosa's comprehensive manual of Theravāda doctrine and meditation, organised around the three trainings of moral conduct, concentration and insight. It is a central non-canonical authority in Pali literature.

A Pali chronicle in verse describing the history of Sri Lanka and its Buddhist tradition, traditionally attributed to the monk Mahānāma and continuing earlier material from the Dīpavaṃsa.

A canonical collection of verses attributed to fully ordained Buddhist nuns, expressing their experience of renunciation and liberation; it is one of the earliest bodies of women's religious poetry in India.

An individual discourse attributed to the Buddha or a senior disciple, usually setting out a teaching in prose, often opening with 'Thus have I heard' and sometimes including verse.

A story of one of the Buddha's previous births, in which he appears as a bodhisatta in human or animal form; the tale illustrates a moral quality such as generosity or wisdom.

A Pali prose work recording dialogues between the Greek king Milinda and the monk Nāgasena on Buddhist doctrine; it is noted for its vivid similes and reasoned argument.

A canonical collection of about 423 verses arranged in chapters by theme, each verse expressing a practical teaching on ethics, mind and liberation; it is the most widely translated Pali text.

A stanza of Pali verse recited as a unit. The term also names the verse portions embedded in prose discourses and the verse collections of the canon.

The system of Pali metre, defined by the number of syllables in each quarter of a stanza and the fixed pattern of light and heavy syllables.

The commonest Pali metre, also called siloka, with eight syllables per quarter. Most verses of the Dhammapada and many other canonical texts use it.

A simile or comparison used to make a doctrinal point vivid, as when the mind is compared to water troubled by wind. Pali verse and prose both rely heavily on it.

A case ending in Pali noun and pronoun declension. The tradition counts eight, marking nominative, vocative, accusative, instrumental, dative, ablative, genitive and locative relations.

The semantic role a noun plays in a sentence, such as agent, object or instrument. Pali grammar describes case usage through kāraka categories rather than by case names alone.

The joining or alteration of sounds when words or word elements combine, as when a final vowel meets an initial one; rules of sandhi explain many spellings in connected Pali text.

A compound word formed by combining two or more stems into a single grammatical unit, such as dhammacakka. Pali grammars classify compounds by the relation between their members.

A secondary suffix added to a noun or adjective stem to form a new word, often expressing possession, relation or abstract quality, as in the derivation of many Pali nouns.

A primary suffix added to a verbal root to form nouns and adjectives, such as agent nouns and abstract nouns; also called kicca suffix in Pali grammar.

A verbal root, the basic unit from which Pali verbs and many nouns are derived. Roots are listed in the traditional dhātupāṭha and carry the core meaning of the word family.

A verbal prefix such as pa-, ni-, vi- or sam- which modifies the meaning of a following root or word, often changing direction, intensity or completion.

An indeclinable particle that neither takes case endings nor is derived from a root in the usual way, such as ca, api, eva and pi; its function is syntactic or emphatic.

The grammatical gender of a Pali noun: masculine, feminine or neuter. Gender is a property of the word and determines which set of case endings it takes.

The reordering of a Pali sentence into straightforward prose order, usually placing subject, object and verb in a natural sequence, so that the grammatical relations become clear before translation.

The separation of a written Pali passage into individual words, undoing sandhi and compounds, as a preliminary step in explaining or translating the text.

Translation of a text from one language into another. In Pali studies it usually means rendering Pali into Marathi or English while preserving the sense rather than the word order.

The characteristic that all conditioned things are impermanent, arising and passing away. It is one of the three marks of existence and a frequent theme in unseen Pali passages.

The unsatisfactoriness or suffering inherent in conditioned existence; the first noble truth and one of the three marks of existence, illustrated in Pali texts by birth, ageing and death.

The teaching that no phenomenon, including the person, contains a permanent unchanging self; the third of the three marks of existence and a key topic of Buddhist analysis.

Intentional action of body, speech or mind which produces results for the doer, in this life or a later one. Pali texts stress intention as the defining factor.

The goal of Buddhist practice: the end of craving, hatred and delusion, and release from the round of rebirth. Pali texts describe it as unconditioned and as the highest happiness.

The four noble truths taught in the Buddha's first sermon: suffering, its arising, its cessation and the path leading to its cessation. They form the framework of much Pali doctrine.