"Buddha" before the Pali Canon?

[Allen W Thrasher]

Anand Sharan said,

"What language Buddha spoke while giving his sermons, has certainly
came as
a surprise to me. He wandered for twelve years in Magadh .... His
sermons were for common masses which spoke Magadhi (Magahi ) then, and
now . I have mentioned in one of the postings earlier, various
dialacts spoken in that area. No one knows Pali there . Ashoka's
edicts are also in Magadhi ."

I think we should guard against the assumption that the "languages"
or "dialects" were necessarily so distinct that the Buddha could not
preach in his own language, whatever that may have been, and be
understood by audiences that spoke another one.

Also he may have used interpreters.

Some foreigners have suspected that S.Asians are voluble in part to
make themselves understood over linguistic boundaries, so that
repetition will turn partial comprehension into completer
comprehension.

I think there would be much material giving parallels in the lives of
medieval and early modern Christian saints.  One reads much about
their preaching in various countries away from their birthplace and
about their theological studies but little about their learning the
current vernaculars.  (One does learn about systematic language study
in the period of the post-da Gama missions.) Now obviously if one was
born in Italy or Ireland or Germany one would have to learn say
Hungarian to preach to Hungarians without an interpreter.  But would
an Italian sit down and study Portuguese or vice versa, or a Dutchman
German and v.v.  in 1400 or just "pick it up?"   Would they as it were
preach in their native language bending it in the direction of the
local one? Or did they just use interpreters so routinely it
frequently went without saying in the texts?  Certainly it is possible
for a preacher to have a major effect on his listeners while using an
interpreter, e.g. Billy Graham in our own day. To look into the
original hagiographic sources with this in mind to find more material
would be a useful task.

Allen Thrasher




Allen W. Thrasher, Ph.D.

Senior Reference Librarian       101 Indendence Ave., SE
Southern Asia Section               LJ-150
Asian Division                            Washington, DC 20540-4810
Library of Congress                     U.S.A.
tel. 202-707-3732                       fax 202-707-1724
Email: athr at loc.gov

The opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of the
Library of Congress.