About Pali

Pali is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism, closely related to Sanskrit and the Prakrits of ancient India. It is believed to have originated around the 3rd century BCE and serves as the language of the Tipitaka, the canonical scripture of Theravada Buddhism. Pali has been written in numerous scripts throughout history, including Devanagari, Sinhala, Thai, Burmese, and Khmer.

While Pali has no native speakers as a first language, it remains actively studied by millions of Buddhist monks, scholars, and practitioners across Southeast Asia and worldwide. The Pali Text Society, founded in 1881 in London, has been instrumental in publishing and translating the extensive Pali literary canon. Uniquely, Pali has no single native script of its own and has historically adapted to whatever writing system was used in the region where Buddhism was practiced.