UPMSP Intermediate Pali flashcards

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

Pali script

Pali is a language, not a script; its texts are written in Brahmi, Devanagari, Sinhala, Burmese, Thai, Khmer, or Roman IAST depending on region and edition.

IAST diacritics

Roman transliteration marks long vowels with macrons (ā, ī, ū), retroflex consonants with underdots (ṭ, ḍ, ṇ, ṣ), and nasal/aspirate sounds with ṃ, ḥ, ṅ, ñ.

Eight Pali cases

Paṭhamā (nominative), ālapana (vocative), dutiyā (accusative), tatiyā (instrumental), catutthī (dative), pañcamī (ablative), chaṭṭhī (genitive), sattamī (locative).

Sandhi: niggahīta to m

Final ṃ becomes m before a following vowel: etaṃ + eva = etam eva; idaṃ + api = idam api. This is the most common sandhi rule tested in prose passages.

Tipiṭaka structure

The Pali Canon has three baskets: Vinaya Piṭaka (monastic discipline), Sutta Piṭaka (five Nikāyas of discourses), and Abhidhamma Piṭaka (seven systematic treatises).

Five Nikāyas

Dīgha (34 long suttas), Majjhima (152 middle suttas), Saṃyutta (connected), Aṅguttara (numerical), and Khuddaka (mixed small texts such as Dhammapada and Therīgāthā).

Buddhaghosa

Fifth-century CE commentator who wrote the Visuddhimagga and major aṭṭhakathās: Sumaṅgalavilāsinī on Dīgha, Papañcasūdanī on Majjhima, Samantapāsādikā on Vinaya, Atthasālinī on Dhammasaṅgaṇī.

Aluvihāra writing tradition

The Mahāvaṃsa tradition records that the Pali Canon was first committed to writing in Sri Lanka at Aluvihāra in the first century BCE under King Vaṭṭagāmaṇī Abhaya.

Milindapañha

Post-canonical Pali dialogue between King Milinda (Menander) and Elder Nāgasena; famous for the chariot simile showing that 'chariot' and 'person' are conventional designations, not fixed selves.

Visuddhimagga outline

Buddhaghosa's manual in 23 chapters: sīla (1–2), samādhi including 40 meditation objects (3–13), and paññā with dependent origination (14–23).

Locative absolute

A noun in the locative case plus a participle, meaning 'when/while/after…': sāvake sannipatite = 'when the disciples had assembled'. Common in narrative prose.

Evam me sutaṃ

'Thus have I heard' - the standard opening formula of a sutta, spoken by Ānanda, marking the setting of the discourse that follows.

Pali past participle

Formed with -ta or -na (kata, gata, vutta, diṭṭha); it is passive or intransitive and often rendered 'having been done' or 'gone', carrying much narrative meaning.

Idaṃ vuccati

'This is called' - a definitional formula; the phrase following it gives the technical meaning the text is teaching, so translate it fully rather than summarising.

Siloka metre

The most common canonical verse metre: four lines of eight syllables each (anuṭṭhubha), with cadence rules on syllables 5–7 and vipulā variants in lines 2 and 4.

Verse word order

Pali verse word order is free and metre-driven; resolve compounds first, then find the verb, which may be omitted entirely (ellipsis of hoti or atthi).

Padattha and attha

Two levels of verse explanation: padattha is the literal word meaning; attha is the intended doctrinal meaning, which the answer must then apply to practice.

Dhammapada opening verses

Verses 1–2 state that mind (mano) precedes all mental states; a person who speaks or acts with a pure mind is followed by happiness as a shadow that never leaves.

Sutta Nipāta

Early verse collection in the Khuddaka Nikāya containing the Aṭṭhakavagga and Pārāyanavagga; includes the Ratana Sutta and Metta Sutta, both widely prescribed.

Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta

Majjhima Nikāya 10, on the four foundations of mindfulness: contemplation of body, feelings, mind, and mind-objects; a core prescribed canonical text.

Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta

Saṃyutta Nikāya 56.11, the first sermon at Sarnath, setting out the Four Noble Truths and the Middle Way between sensual indulgence and self-mortification.

Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta

Saṃyutta Nikāya 22.59, the second sermon, applying the three characteristics to the five aggregates: form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are not self.

Four Noble Truths

Dukkha, its arising (taṇhā), its cessation (nibbāna), and the path leading to cessation (the Noble Eightfold Path); the framework of the first sermon.

Noble Eightfold Path

Right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration (sammādiṭṭhi through sammāsamādhi); the fourth truth, grouped as sīla, samādhi, paññā.

Three characteristics

Anicca (impermanence), dukkha (unsatisfactoriness), and anattā (non-self); the Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta applies them to each of the five aggregates.

Five aggregates

Rūpa (form), vedanā (feeling), saññā (perception), saṅkhāra (formations), viññāṇa (consciousness); khandha means heap, and none is a permanent self.

Dependent origination

Twelve links from avijjā to jarāmaraṇa, expressed as 'imasmiṃ sati idaṃ hoti' (when this is, that is); it explains arising and cessation without a creator or fixed soul.

Four Brahmavihāras

Mettā (loving-kindness), karuṇā (compassion), muditā (sympathetic joy), and upekkhā (equanimity); cultivated as boundless attitudes and central to Visuddhimagga chapter 9.

Present tense endings

-mi, -si, -ti in the singular and -ma, -tha, -nti in the plural: gacchāmi, gacchasi, gacchati, gacchāma, gacchatha, gacchanti.

Optative endings

-eyyaṃ, -eyyāsi, -eyya, -eyyāma, -eyyātha, -eyyuṃ; used for wishes, polite requests, and conditions, as in siyā ('may be').

Future and aorist

Future inserts -ssa- before endings (gacchissāmi, bhavissati); aorist uses -i/-si/-ā with root changes (agacchi, ahosi, akāsi) for past events.

Causative and passive

Causative adds -e-/-aya- (karoti → kāreti, 'causes to do'); passive adds -ya- (karīyati, vuccati, 'is done/is said'). Both are frequent in commentarial Pali.