Theravāda Tradition: A Historical and Doctrinal Study

(1) Show how the attitude of Theravāda towards the Pāli language differs from the attitude towards language in early Buddhism.

According to Theravād a tradition, Pāli language is Magadhībhāsā, spoken by the Buddha himself and becomes as the sacred language of Theravāda tradition while Sanskrit is the language of Sarvasati tradition. It should be noted that there were Tipiṭaka in other forms of language when Ven Mahinda brought Pāli Tipiṭaka to Srilanka.
There is no reference to the term Pāli language in the Pāli Canon. The name of Pāli language became prominent during the Anurādha period (4th 5th A.D) in order to confirm Theravāda language of Buddhism. The Buddha preached Dhamma in various languages to various group of people from the various nation states. In this regard, the Araṇavibhaṅga Sutta of M.N is very important to prove it.
This particular Sutta mentioned that the Buddha at least knew seven languages of dialects. The Pāli term Patta used to the bowl is one of the languages of people in the 6th B.C. For example, seven terms such as Pātī, Patta, Vitta, Sarāva, Dhāropa, Poṇa and Pisīlava were used by the Buddha for the bowl. According to A.N, there were 16 Janapadas (countries) in northern India. Each of these states has its own language. It is called Janapada-Nirutti, the language of each of states.
In the Araṇavibhaṅga Sutta, with regard to usage of language, the Buddha advised us to avoid two extremes: not to keep colloquial vocabulary (Janapada-niruttiṃ nābhiniveseyya), not to reject or despise conventional usage of language (Samañaṃ nātidhāveyya). Therefore, sometimes, the Buddha himself used the dialects. It is logical that the language of Theravāda Tipiṭaka is one of the oldest languages.
The Pāli Tiṭaka is one the Tipiṭakas which carry the teachings of Buddha in it. Tipiṭaka is common to all Buddhist schools because there are various forms of Tipiṭaka such as Parakarit, Sanskrit.
According to Cūḷavagga of Vinayapiṭaka, there were tow monks from Brahman caste during the time of Buddha. They requested the Buddha to give permission to translate the entire words of the Buddha in to Sanskrit language. But the Buddha refused and allowed to use their own languages (Sakasakabhāsāya) in order to maintain His teachings for along time. Therefore, during the time of Buddha, monks would have studied the words of Buddha in their own languages.
The teachings of Buddha were memorized by the His distinguished disciples orally from generation to generation. It was believed that the teachings of Buddha were approved and accepted by three Buddhist Councils, according to Theravāda tradition. In order to preserve well the Buddha’s words (Tipiṭaka) brought by Thera Mahinda to Srilanka, were written on palm leaves in the first Century A.D, in Srilanka.
After development of Pāli Canon, Post Canonical literatures such as Nettipakaraṇa, Peṭakopadesa and Milindapañhā, belong to Theravāda tradition. In terms of Commentarial literatures, it was very necessary to prepare better Commentaries. So Buddhadatta, Buddhaghosa, ĀcariryaDhammapāla, finally decided to come to Srilanka to study Sinhala Commentaries during the 5th century A.D. They edited and translated from Sinhala language to Pāli. Time passed by, the Pāli Canon has been written, elaborated, on its Commentaries and sub-commentaries and so on, in order to clearly understand the teachings of Buddha in various ways.

(Words 520) Shortly Answered by Ashinsutacaralankara