UPMSP High School Pali flashcards

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

Pali aorist augment

The prefix a- marks past tense in many aorist forms: akāsi 'he did', agamāsi 'he went'. The augment is optional in prose but frequent in verse.

Attanopada endings

Middle-voice verb endings: singular -e, -se, -te; plural -mhe, -vhe, -nte. They attach to present, optative, and passive stems, e.g. karīyate 'is done'.

Bahubbīhi compound

An exocentric compound that denotes something possessing the compound's sense: 'sīlavā' from sīla + vant; 'dīghabāhu' means 'one with long arms', not 'long arm'.

Tappurisa compound

A determinative compound in which the first member stands in a case relation to the second, e.g. 'dhammasutta' = 'sutta of the dhamma' (genitive tappurisa).

Kammadhāraya compound

An adjective-in-compound where both members refer to the same thing: 'mahāpurisa' = 'great man'. The compound takes the gender of the final member.

Optative in -eyya

The optative (sattamī) expresses wish, possibility, or polite command: 'bhaveyya' = 'it may be'; 'gaccheyya' = 'he should go'. Formed with -eyya-, -e-, or -o-.

Absolutive -tvā

The gerund in -tvā marks an action completed before the main verb by the same subject: 'gantvā' = 'having gone'. After prefixes, -ya replaces -tvā, e.g. 'āgamma'.

Infinitive in -tuṃ

An indeclinable form expressing purpose: 'dātuṃ' = 'to give, in order to give'. It commonly takes an accusative object and follows verbs of motion or desire.

Pali causative construction

Causatives in -aya-/-e- take a double accusative: 'so dārakaṃ odanaṃ bhojāpeti' = 'he has the boy eat the rice'. The agent of the caused action is accusative.

Pali passive in -ya-

The passive uses -ya- (often -īya-/-iya- after certain roots) with attanopada endings: 'karīyati' = 'is done'. The agent appears in the instrumental case.

Correlative ya- … ta-

Pali relative clauses pair ya- with ta-: 'yo dhammaṃ passati so buddhaṃ passati' = 'one who sees the dhamma sees the Buddha'. The relative clause precedes the main clause.

Sandhi of final -a

Final -a/-ā before a vowel usually becomes -ā-, e.g. 'na + atthi' → 'natthi' (contracted) or 'cattāri + imāni' → 'cattārimāni'. Assimilation is the default rule.

Particle eva

Eva means 'indeed, just, only' and emphasizes the preceding word: 'idāneva' = 'right now'. It is often contracted to 'yeva' or 'ñeva' after vowels and nasals.

Abhidhamma Piṭaka books

The seven Abhidhamma books are Dhammasaṅgaṇī, Vibhaṅga, Dhātukathā, Puggalapaññatti, Kathāvatthu, Yamaka, and Paṭṭhāna. The Paṭṭhāna is the largest and treats conditional relations.

Dhammapada structure

The Dhammapada contains 423 verses arranged in 26 vaggas (chapters). It opens with the manopubbaṅgamā verses on mind as the forerunner of all states.

Jātaka story structure

Each Jātaka has a paccuppannavatthu (present story), atītavatthu (past story), and samodhāna (identification of characters with the Buddha and his disciples). The collection has 547 stories.

Visuddhimagga

Buddhaghosa's 5th-century CE manual of Theravāda doctrine and meditation, structured as sīla, samādhi, and paññā. It is commentarial literature, not part of the canonical Tipiṭaka.

Milindapañha

A dialogue between King Milinda (Menander) and the monk Nāgasena on Buddhist doctrine. It is included in the Khuddaka Nikāya in the Burmese tradition but not in the Sinhalese canon.

Khuddaka Nikāya contents

A miscellaneous collection including Khuddakapāṭha, Dhammapada, Udāna, Itivuttaka, Suttanipāta, Theragāthā, Therīgāthā, Jātaka, Apadāna, Buddhavaṃsa, and Cariyāpiṭaka, among others.

Five Nikāyas

Dīgha (34 long suttas), Majjhima (152 middle-length suttas), Saṃyutta (thematic), Aṅguttara (numbered), and Khuddaka (miscellaneous). Together they form the Sutta Piṭaka.

Light and heavy syllables

A syllable is light when its vowel is short and followed by at most one consonant. It is heavy with a long vowel, a niggahīta, or a short vowel before a consonant cluster.

Gaṇa of three syllables

Pali metre groups syllables into eight gaṇas: ya (⏑––), ra (–⏑–), ta (––⏑), bha (–⏑⏑), ja (⏑–⏑), sa (⏑⏑–), ma (–––), na (⏑⏑⏑).

Siloka metre

Also called anuṭṭhubha: eight syllables per pāda, four pādas per verse. Odd pādas use a pathyā cadence; even pādas take fixed cadences such as ⏑–⏑–.

Tuṭṭhubha and jagatī

Tuṭṭhubha has eleven syllables per pāda and jagatī twelve. Both belong to the fixed-cadence family, with prescribed endings in the second and fourth pādas.

Vaṃsaṭṭhā metre

A metre of thirteen syllables per pāda with the cadence –⏑–⏑–⏑– in final position. It appears in verse passages of the Suttanipāta and later Pali poetry.

Ariyā metre

A moraic metre counting mātrās (light = 1, heavy = 2), with twelve mātrās in the first half and eighteen in the second. It is common in Prakrit and Pali verse.

Vetālīya metre

A moraic metre with fourteen mātrās in the first and third pādas and sixteen in the second and fourth. Odd pādas end in a jagaṇa (⏑–⏑).

Root √kar conjugation

√kar 'to do, make': karoti (does), karonti (they do), akāsi (did), kariyati (is done), kāreti (causes to do), kata (done).

Root √gam conjugation

√gam 'to go': gacchati (goes), agamāsi (went), gato (gone), gantuṃ (to go), gantvā (having gone). Its passive is gamyati or gacchīyati.

Root √dā conjugation

√dā 'to give': dadāti (gives), adāsi (gave), dinna or datta (given), dāna (gift). The past participle dinna is common in prose.

Pali verbal prefixes

Prefixes modify root meaning predictably: pa- (forth), ni- (down, in), vi- (apart), anu- (along), upa- (near), abhi- (toward), pari- (around), sam- (together), ava- (down), ud- (up).

Instrumental case uses

The instrumental marks means, instrument, and accompaniment, often with saha or saddhiṃ: 'sattena' = 'with a being'; 'daṇḍena' = 'with a stick'. It also marks the agent of a passive verb.