The Pali Text Society's Pali-English Dictionary

e) What are the critics to remember? To find fault with the interpretation of one or the other word is alright,
but it must be remembered that, within a few years--which are nothing compared with the life--study
required for this purpose--not a few score or a few hundreds of words had to be examined in every detail,
but many thousands. Any criticism shows just what the editor himself has felt all along: how much is to be
done yet, and how important for Indological studies is the study of Pali. Many mistakes and misprints have
to be taken with good grace: they are unavoidable; and I may add as an example that Professor Konow's S,
in spite of very careful work, contain one mistake (or misprint) on almost every page, while the proportion
of them in Kern's 315 pages of Toevoegselen is four on every page! We are all human. The discovery of
faults teaches us one thing: to try to do better.
5. ISSUES INVOLVED IN THE PaLI DICTIONARY.
It would easily fill a separate volume, if I were to discuss fully all the issues dependent on the new
Dictionary, and its bearing on all parts of Buddhist studies. I confine myself to mentioning only a few that
are outstanding.
(a) Through a full list of references to nearly every word we are now able to establish better readings than
has been possible up to now. The Pali Dictionary is indispensable to any editor of new texts.
(b) Through sifting the vocabulary we can distinguish several strata of tradition, in place as well as in time.
(c) The relation of Classical Pali to Vedic and other stages of Sanskrit is becoming clearer, as also is the
position of Epic Pali to Singhalese and Tamil. A good example of the former is offered by the relation of
ava_ to o_. With regard to the term "Vedic" a word of warning has to be uttered. There is an older stratum
of direct Vedic connection in the four Nikayas; nevertheless in the majority of cases the term is misleading,
as we here have to deal with late Pali words which have been reintroduced from Classical Sanskrit a la
Renaissance.
It was Rhys Davids'wish, however, that I should use the term "Vedic," whenever a word dated back to that
period. -- On the subject in general and the linguistic character of Pali see Childers, Introduction, pp. xiv,
xv (with note 1); R. O. Franke, Pali and Sanskrit, Strassburg 1902, especially chapters VII. to XII.Thus
some very old (Vedic) words are not found in Classical Pali, but occur later in the Epics (the Va__sas), e. g.
sarameya "dog," although Vedic, is only found in Mhbv; sunu, as frequent as putra in Rigveda, occurs only
in Mhvs, whereas putta is the regular Pali word. These examples may be increased by hundreds from the
Va__sas. There are many more than Rhys Davids assumed on p. vi of preface to Pali Dictionary.
(d) The peculiar interrelation between Buddhist Pali and Buddhist Sanskrit can now be stated with greater
accuracy.
(e) Through a tabulation of all parallel passages, given in the Pali Dictionary, we are now able to compose a
complete concordance.
(f) From many characteristics, as pointed out in the Pali Dictionary, we can state with certainty that Pali
was a natural dialect, i. e. the language of the people. We can now group the canonical books according to
their literary value and origin.Therefore we can never have a "standardized" Pali in the sense in which we
are used to "Sanskrit." Among the many signs of popular language (mentioned elsewhere, e. g. Childers
introduction) I may also point to the many onomatopoetic words (see note on gala), and the widespread
habit of the reduplicative compounds (see my article "Reduplikationskomposita im Pali," Zeitschr. f.
Buddhismus vi., 1925, pp. 89--94).
(g) It will now be possible to write the history of terms.We have material enough to treat philosophical
terms (like citta, dhamma, mano, vinnana, sankhara) historically, as well as others of folkloristic
importance (e. g. deva, yakkha, vimana). Light will be thrown on the question of the Mahapurisalakkhanas,