Buddhist Studies

This seminar introduces Pali grammar, paleography, and basic canonical and commentarial genres for those with previous training in Sanskrit. Our focus will be on building reading skills with Roman-script texts as well as Pali manuscripts in several Southeast Asian scripts housed in campus library collections. We will begin with an intensive overview of Pali grammar as we read through the Khuddakapatha, the canonical basis for later collections of protective chants that came to dominate Theravada liturgies. We will then begin to apply our reading skills to the manuscript tradition, including scriptures preserved in the three dominant scripts used for Pali in mainland Southeast Asia: Burmese, Khmer, and Tham. Along the way, we will progress from short canonical discourses to longer narrative and exegetical material preserved in the commentarial tradition, particularly the Dhammapadatthakatha, the fundamental textbook of Pali education across the Theravada world. Prerequisites: One year of Sanskrit or permission of the instructor.