Language Teaching Programs

Learning a new language undoubtedly make you connect and communicate with new people. Pali and Sanskrit Cultural Exchange Centre offers Pali, Sanskrit, Tibetan and English language programs as communicative languages essential in Buddhist studies. Pali is the language of most complete collection of early Buddhist texts (Tripitaka) presently belong to Pali tradition or ‘Theravada’ tradition. Sanskrit is an ancient classical language from which almost every philosophical text starting from Veda were compiled and written in ancient India. Sanskrit has been the source of later languages and literature in India. Pali was to develop from Sanskrit. Pali was taken as the means for exposition of Buddhistic ideas and most of the Buddhist literature is written in Pali.

Additionally, many significant Buddhist texts, particularly those belonging to the Mahayana tradition, were originally composed in Sanskrit, including the Dhammapada, Divyāvadāna, and various Mahayana sutras like the ‘Vimalakirti Sutra’ and the ‘Nirvana Sutra’. ‘Diamond Sutra’, ‘Vimalakirti Sutra’ and ‘Prajnaparamita Sutra’ are some of the other important sutras originally written in Sanskrit in Mahayana Buddhism. Further, many Mahayana Buddhist texts which were written originally in Sanskrit are surviving as Tibetan translations since they were lost and destroyed due to invasions and destruction of the temples.

Therefore, it is clear that in order to get a comprehensive knowledge in different Buddhist traditions learning Pali, Sanskrit and Tibetan is essential.