Páli

Páli, the sacred language of the Buddhists (see INDIA, Vol. VI. p. 102). Páli ceased to be a living language of India when Buddhism was rooted out of it; it was carried by the fugitive Buddhists to other countries, especially Ceylon, Burma, and Siam; but in these countries, too, it had to give way before the native tongues, in which the later Buddhist literature was composed. See the Páli grammars of Minayeff (St Petersburg, 1872; Eng. trans. Maulmain, 1882), Kuhn (1875), and Müller (1885); Childers's Páli Dictionary (1875), and Frankfurter's Páli Handbook (1882).