Difference Between Sanskrit and Pali
Sanskrit vs. Pali
Sanskrit is a classical language which flourished in India thousands of years ago but has lost its glory in modern times. Pali is also an ancient language that has been widely used in the Buddhist scriptures. The Sanskrit language is much older than Pali.
Sanskrit had been a language that was in vogue from the Vedic period. Sanskrit had a great influence on religion and literature. Sanskrit was part of the cultural tradition. Sanskrit, which is considered an Indo-Aryan language, was the liturgical language of Jainism, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
Pali is considered a Prakrit language or a middle Indo-Aryan language. Though the Pali and Sanskrit language are known to be closely related, Pali is not considered to be a descendant of the Sanskrit language.
The Pali language is considered to be a composite language having several dialects and most likely is based on the language that Buddha taught in which is generally considered to be a Magadhi dialect. However, the scholars are divided on the origin of the language.
When comparing the two languages, Pali is considered to be simple. Both the Sanskrit and Pali languages have basically the same vocabulary. The grammar is also considered to be similar, but Pali has a simplified grammar.
In the case of vowels and diphthongs, the Sanskrit “ava” and “aya” is reduced in Pali to “o” and “e.” For example Sanskrit “dhārayati” is written as “dhāreti” in Pali and Sanskrit “avatāra” is written as “otāra.”
The Sanskrit “avi” is reduced to “e” in the Pali language. For example, “sthavira” in Sanskrit is written as “thera” in the Pali language.
Summary:
1. The Sanskrit language is much older than Pali.
2. Sanskrit is a classical language which flourished in India thousands of years ago but has lost its glory in modern times.
3. Pali is also an ancient language that has been widely used in the Buddhist scriptures.
4. When comparing the two languages, Pali is considered to be simple.
5. Sanskrit, which is considered an Indo-Aryan language, was the liturgical language of Jainism, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
6. Pali is considered a Prakrit language or a Middle Indo-Aryan language.
7. Both the Sanskrit and Pali languages have basically the same vocabulary. The grammar is also considered to be similar, but Pali has a simplified grammar.
8. Sanskrit had been a language that was in vogue from the Vedic period. It had a great influence on religion and literature and also was part of the cultural tradition.
Rating: 9 May publish. (Verified technical terms except for the foreign words.)
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This is totally wrong, if you have common sense Pali must be the oldest language. Reason is, it is very clear all written languages come after a dialectical language. The reason you can’t find the age of ‘Pali’ language is just because it was not written in any old books. If you compare the two languages, you can clearly see all ‘Pali’ words are in ‘Sanskrit’ language. ‘Sanskrit’ was developed from ‘Pali’ for the rich people to enjoy the literature. It’s very clearly in Buddha’s teaching when some monks ask to write down Buddha’s teaching in ‘Sanskrit’ he told them not to do, because it will destroy the content, simply because ‘Sanskrit’ is an extracted language and doesn’t have the basic qualities of a proper understandable language. The words in Pali have a very special quality that is the sound it self explain the quality of what it refer. This is exactly same as the normal English and the English of people like ‘William Shakespeare’, they just shapes the language by destroying the simple but valuable qualities.
Very very true.Sanskrit brahmins language.
@wsdesa…✅
Yes you are correct and that is the home truth. It is visible in both languages that the Sanskrit words have no original sense at all. Sanskrit has formed from pali by stupidly defacing original pali words. Sanskrit is totally unusable language roughly fabricated from pali. You can see every pali word has its original pure meaning and smooth pronunciation which can sound even without tooth. Pali is the eternal language use in heavens and brahmas in higher planes of gods… Languages of all Buddhas speaking is Pali. ☝️
Lord Buddha preached in the language which was wildly spoken by people.Sanskri was spoken by very few.others were prohibited to hear sanskrit while chanting.Moreover when vedic Ariyan entered India the natives spoke a language.What is that one? That should be the oldest.
Sanskrit absorbed it’s diction from all the languages of the Sub-continent to link and codify the rituals. It was after Panini standardized Sanskrit grammar, Sanskrit became the widely used language in it oral form.
Sanskrit was never used by masses in India.It was manipulated by immigrant aryans and was made complicated to make it language of worship so that general lower varna people can not understand it.Sankrit is not orinal Aryan language.They may be speaking some other language before they manipulated Pali to create sanskrit and made it sacred only to be used by brahmins(aryans) for himes and mantras.They forbade general public from learning sanskrit.I think sanskrit was created after people were divided in to 4 varna.
You are absolutely right sir, pali language and literature was destroyed purposefully. The reason why nalanda University library’s were burnt (3) time by different Kings. 1st by white huns 2nd by gouda(sena Kings) of bengal, 3rd by bakhtiyar khilji after completing expedition of bengal ruled by Hindu sena Kings.
i do agree wid u…..
You said it all brother there is no written rock inscription which is older than (rudradamam saka king) inscription of 150 AD and much before that many edicts written in palli by Maurya kings. This Sanskrit is definitely a foreign language.
You r right …. But I see they did not correct their answer …. That pali is older…. Well m from Indian Punjab and I see our punjabi is directly come from pali…..
Very very true.Sanskrit is brahmins language.
It is true that Pali language is much older than Sanskrit. There are genuine evidences in favour of Pali where as there are no such evidence in favour of Sanskrit.
Scriptures on ancient monuments, Stambhlekh, Silalekh, Bhittilekh, Guhalekh etc. where all the oldest texts are written in Pali language only. Sanskrit is forcefully added at some places at a very later stage under Pali text, that too after 185 BC after tratorship of Pushyamitra Shunt with his noble king who had full faith on such a sick person,
Even not a single monument was created by the people using Sanskrit language.
Everybody knows that languages are developed in a long time and in early stages these are in Very primitive stage and at later stages grammar and vocabulary rich sofisticated language is developed. Sanskrit is developed from Pali language and as such Pali is older than Sanskrit. Lot of coins(Karsapan) were found in various excavations are also strong evidence in favour of Pali language bring the older language.
I think foregoing evidences are much more sufficient to prove that Pali language is much older than Sanskrit. Merely saying or fraudulently righting in any book that Sanskrit is crore years old can not be believed by anybody else as now almost every literate person know when papers and ink are invented.
It is true that Pali language is much older than Sanskrit. There are genuine evidences in favour of Pali where as there are no such evidence in favour of Sanskrit.
Scriptures on ancient monuments, Stambhlekh, Silalekh, Bhittilekh, Guhalekh etc. where all the oldest texts are written in Pali language only. Sanskrit is forcefully added at some places at a very later stage under Pali text, that too after 185 BC after tratorship of Pushyamitra Shung with his noble king who had full faith on such a sick person,
Even not a single monument was created by the people using Sanskrit language.
Everybody knows that languages are developed in a long time and in early stages these are in Very primitive stage and at later stages grammar and vocabulary rich sofisticated language is developed. Sanskrit is developed from Pali language and as such Pali is older than Sanskrit. Lot of coins(Karsapan) were found in various excavations are also strong evidence in favour of Pali language bring the older language.
I think foregoing evidences are much more sufficient to prove that Pali language is much older than Sanskrit. Merely saying or fraudulently righting in any book that Sanskrit is crore years old can not be believed by anybody else as now almost every literate person know when papers and ink are invented.
sorry for my english.
sanskrit was the language only used by rulers(kshatriya) & schoolers(brahmins).
obviously it’s a written language
(devnagari script).
let common people’s(baishya, shudra, other non-aryan) spoken language is X. then Pali is the sanskritized version of X.
just like our spoken languages(Hindi-Urdu, Bangla, Tamil etc).
they are persianized, Arabized, Anglicized by infiltration of loanwords.
Pls don’t tell people lie I am a child but I know which language is more older Pali is more older than Sanskrit I had Heard From my gurus
Very interesting article and comments. If anyone here is very familiar with Pali, maybe you can help me.
I was wondering about the word metta and its meaning in Pali. I often see it written as “Mettā “. Is this the correct form and what would be a good translation for it? Thank you!
“Mehta” in Pali means something like “wisdom, intelligence, intellect”. the word appears in the name of many SouthEast Asian buddhist temples and such; Wat Khmer Metta for example.
Mettā means ‘loving-kindness’. It is the first of the Brahmaviharas (divine abodes where the Buddha resides). The other three being Karunā (compassion), Muditā (Joy) and Upekkhā (equanimity).
Metta means high degree of friendship developed through compassion towards every living being.
As far as some text refers pali and prakrit existed long before and these dialects were used by common people. Sanskrit has been derived from these at a much later stage.
Pali is derived from sanskrit and simplified to use by the local people. Bramhins, Kings , learned people and disciples(students) of gurukul has knowledge of using sanskrit, because they were learning sanskrit . Because sanskrit is difficult to pronounce by everyone it lost his popularity among common people and it has stayed in the hands of ruling people.
Sanskrit is very older more than 3500 BC, because the vedic literature and scriptures written far far before to this time.
Pali is contemporary of King Ashokas time. Those days it was using by the most of the people of central india.
Sankrit and Pali words are very closer. But the later is very easy to pronounce and speak.
No, Pali wasn’t derived from Sanskrit. Sanskrit has letters, with their phonetic sounds much harder to pronounce, which makes it much more recent.
Sanskrit was developed out of spite by the Brahmins in order to counter Prakrit (or Pali for that matter). They needed a weapon, and weapon it was, for it destroyed the original language.
Hi bagati
I agree with your comment on Sanskrit and Pali, and disagree with all the others.
Pali/Prakrit is much older than Sanskrit. In fact, the very meaning of the word “Prakrit” is “original”, or “natural”, and “Sanskrit” means “refined” or “modified”. So Sanskrit is just a corruption of Pali/Prakrit, which was created by the brahmins.
“According to the Prākrṭa Prakāśa, an ancient Prakrit grammar, “prākṛtam is the prakṛti (source) – and the language that gave birth to, Saṃskṛtam, and is therefore called prākṛtam.” The same definition is also given by the Prakrit grammarian Acharya Hemachandra in his grammar of Prakrit.” Prakrit – Wikipedia
Prakrut/ Prakrit was spoken by all citizen in daily life. Linguistically the prefix ‘Pra’means primary, first whereas ‘San’ – a prefix used in Sanskrit, sanskar means application of additional rules, modification of existing situation. So vedik ppl did some “Sanskar” on original language Prakrut & transformed into Sanskrit.
So Prakrut (it’s dialect Pali) is the oldest and original language. Sanskrit was developed much later. Not only this, Writing Script was developed by Buddhist.
I think Pali was never existed before the Buddha.Do a little think.There were many languages of Prakrit and Sanskrit(I’m not sure sanskrit was spoken or not)in India at that time.
But as you know,Sanskrit was spoken by few people.So the Lord had to choose not speaking Sanskrit when he preach dhamma to people cause most of his followers were not Sanskrit speaker.Then there were many kinds of Prakrit languages.Why did the Lord choose to speak Pali?But the Lord chose Pali.Because there were no Pali native speaker.The Buddha created the Pali languang which can be easily understanded by all Sanskrit speaker and Prakrit speaker.And He made his Sangha Order used that language as common language within the Order.
Pali was oldest as compare to prakrit and sanskrit, Pali literature found after buddha period while as sanskrit language which in kalidas period and all the literature of kalidas in sanskrit language which is of latest time which is of after Crist while as Buddha period of literature is before Crist.
Pali was oldest as compare to prakrit and sanskrit, Pali literature found after buddha period while as sanskrit language which in kalidas period and all the literature of kalidas in sanskrit language which is of latest time which is of after Crist while as Buddha period of literature is before Crist.
Pali/Prakrit is much older than Sanskrit. In fact, the very meaning of the word “Prakrit” is “original”, or “natural”, and “Sanskrit” means “refined” or “modified”. So Sanskrit is just a corruption of Pali/Prakrit, which was created by the brahmins.
“According to the Prākrṭa Prakāśa, an ancient Prakrit grammar, “prākṛtam is the prakṛti (source) – and the language that gave birth to, Saṃskṛtam, and is therefore called prākṛtam.” The same definition is also given by the Prakrit grammarian Acharya Hemachandra in his grammar of Prakrit.” Prakrit – Wikipedia
Seething Neo-buddhists in the comments
Pali is too much older than sanskrit.Sanskrit Devnagri lipi came India 6 to 10 century AD.
Pali is much older than sankrit . Sankrit is made from doing sanskar on pali or prakrit .