Organizer: Harvard Buddhist Studies Forum

Description:

This talk examines the process by which the Sri Lankan Mahāvihāra school formed Buddhist language ideology in the 5th century. At the beginning of the Sanskrit Cosmopolis, which spanned from the 4th to the 13th centuries in South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks such as Buddhaghosa shaped the discourse of Pāli as the best language for transmitting “the word of the Buddha” in the Mahāvihāra school as textual community. Consequently, Pāli, instead of Sanskrit, grew to become the sacred language in both Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia, especially after the 13th century. This talk shows that Buddhaghosa’s linguistic turn contributed to such a paradigm shift in sacred language.

Click here for more information.