[Buddha-l] Pali and Asoka

[Jayarava]

Hi Lance,

Thanks! I have since read relevant parts of the Mahāvamsa which say that Asoka lived in Avanti for a time before becoming king, and Mahinda was born there to a local mother. Avanti is not quite as far afield as Girnar, but is westerly, and although it's purely supposition Mahinda might have had a western dialect as mother tongue. Mightn't he?

Also the last Mauryan king is said to have been assassinated by a general who went on to found the Shunga Dynasty - the Shungas seem to have been Brahmins and to have also come from Avanti. The Shungas could well have carried a Sanskritised prakrit, or indeed a western Prakrit, with them as a court language (and therefore the language of inscriptions). The range was not as great as Asoka of course, and India fragmented until the Guptas...

> In the area we now call India, only one form of written language is 
> generally known.

Is Norman's discussion of this etc in his collected works?

> The proper name of the Pali language is the Maagadha language... This is > a straightforward descendant of the written language of India mentioned 
> above.

Not according to Cardona and Jain who say that Pali is more like Girnar than Patna dialect: they quote a number of morphological features to make it seem plausible. I assume this is a moot point? Would you explain both Girnar and contemporary Pali solely in terms of Sanskritisation of Maaghadhii and vagaries of the written language?

I'm writing an essay on this for my blog - based mainly on Cardona and Jain - and would like to quote your opinion. Is it OK if I use what you've written here? I will look up Norman as well - love reading his stuff anyway even if it is a bit over my head most of the time :-)

Thanks
Jayarava