The Pali Text Society was founded in 1881 by T.W. Rhys Davids "to foster and promote the study of Pali texts". Year 1881 (MDCCCLXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Thomas William Rhys Davids (May 12, 1843 - December 27, 1922) was an British scholar of the Pāli language and founder of the Pali Text Society. ... Pāli is a Middle Indo-Aryan dialect or prakrit. ...

Pali is the language in which the texts of the Theravada school of Buddhism is preserved. The Pali texts are the oldest collection of Buddhist scriptures preserved in the language in which they were written down. Theravada (Pāli: theravāda; Sanskrit: स्थविरवाद sthaviravāda; literally, the Way of the Elders) is the oldest surviving Buddhist school, and for many centuries has been the predominant religion of Sri Lanka (about 70% of the population[1]) and most of continental Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand). ... A statue of the Sakyamuni Buddha in Tawang Gompa, India. ...

The society first compiled, edited, and published Roman script versions of a large corpus of Pali literature, including the Pali Canon, as well as commentarial, exegetical texts, and histories. It publishes translations of many Pali texts. It also publishes ancillary works including dictionaries, concordances, books for students of Pali and a journal. The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world. ... Standard edition of the Thai Pali Canon The Pali Canon is the standard scripture collection of the Theravada Buddhist tradition. ... Exegesis (from the Greek to lead out) involves an extensive and critical interpretation of an authoritative text, especially of a holy scripture, such as of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, the Talmud, the Midrash, the Quran, etc. ...

History

T. W. Rhys Davids was one of three British civil servants who were posted to Sri Lanka, in the 19th century, the others being George Turnour, and Robert Caesar Childers (1838-1876). At this time Buddhism in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) was struggling under the weight of foreign rule and intense missionary activity by Christians. It was an administrative requirement that all civil servants should be familiar with the language, literature, and culture of the land in which they were posted, so the three men studied with several scholar monks where, along with an introduction to Sinhala culture and language, they became interested in Buddhism. Thomas William Rhys Davids (May 12, 1843 - December 27, 1922) was an British scholar of the Pāli language and founder of the Pali Text Society. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Robert Caesar Childers (1838 - July 25, 1876) was a British Orientalist scholar, compiler of the first Pali dictionary. ... This article is about the religous people known as Christians. ...

The Pali Text Society was founded on the model of the Early English Text Society with Rhys Davids counting on support from a lot of European scholars and Sri Lankan scholar monks. The work of bringing out the Roman text editions of the Pali Canon was not financially rewarding, but was achieved with the backing of the Buddhist clergy in Sri Lanka who underwrote the printing costs. The Early English Text Society is an organization to reprint early English texts, especially those only available in manuscript. ...

Childers published the first Pali-English dictionary in 1874. This was superseded in 1925 by the new Dictionary which had largely been compiled by T. W. Rhys Davids over 40 years, but was finished by his student William Stede. Currently another dictionary is being compiled by Margaret Cone, with the first of three volumes (A - Kh) published in 2001. Year 1874 (MDCCCLXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link with display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...

By 1922, when T. W. Rhys Davids died, the Pali Text Society had issued 64 separate texts in 94 volumes extending over 26,000 pages, as well a range of articles by English and European scholars.

Fragile Palm Leaves

In 1994, the Pali Text Society inaugurated the Fragile Palm Leaves project, an attempt to catalogue and preserve Buddhist palm-leaf manuscripts from Southeast Asia. Prior to the introduction of printing presses and Western paper-making technology, texts in Southeast Asia- including the Pali scriptures- were preserved by inscribing writing into specially preserved leaves from palm trees. The leaves were then bound together to create a complete manuscript.

While palm-leaf manuscripts have likely been in use since before the 5th Century CE^[1], existing examples date from the 18th Century and later, with the largest number having been created during the 19th Century.^[2] Because of the materials used and the tropical climate, manuscripts from earlier eras are generally not found intact in palm-leaf form, and many manuscripts have been badly damaged. During the colonial era, many palm-leaf manuscripts were disassembled and destroyed, with individual pages of texts being sold as decorative objets d'art to Western collectors.

The Pali Text Society created the Fragile Palm Leaves project to collect, catalogue, and preserve these artifacts, including scanning them into electronic formats in order to make them available to researchers without threatening their preservation. In 2001, the project was formalised as a non-profit foundation in Thailand as the Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation.

Significant members of the Pali Text society

• Thomas William Rhys Davids (1843-1922). Founder and President 1881-1922.
• Caroline Augusta Foley Rhys Davids (1857-1942). President 1922-1942.
• Isaline Blew Horner OBE (1896-1981). Honorary Secretary 1942-1959; President and Honorary Treasurer, 1959-1981.

Thomas William Rhys Davids (May 12, 1843 - December 27, 1922) was an British scholar of the Pāli language and founder of the Pali Text Society. ... Year 1843 (MDCCCXLIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1881 (MDCCCLXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Caroline Augusta Foley Rhys Davids (1857–1942) was a Pāli language scholar and translator, and from 1922-1942 president of the Pali Text Society which was founded by her husband T.W. Rhys Davids whom she married in 1894. ... 1857 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority, these are Knight Grand Cross or Dame Grand Cross (GBE) Knight Commander... Year 1896 (MDCCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display calendar). ... Year 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 Gregorian calendar). ...

Publications

As of 2006, the list of Pali texts translated by the society is, in their English titles,:

• Apocryphal Birth Stories (2 volumes)
• The Birth Stories of the Ten Bodhisattas
• The Book of Analysis
• The Book of the Discipline (6 volumes)
• The Book of the Gradual Sayings (5 volumes)
• The Book of the Kindred Sayings (5 volumes)
• Buddhaghosuppatti
• The Buddha's Last Days: Buddhaghosa's Commentary on the Mahaaparinibbaana
• Buddhist Legends, a commentery on the Dhammapada (3 volumes)
• Buddhist Psychological Ethics
• The Casket of Medicine
• The Clarifier of the Sweet Meaning
• The Commentary on the Verses of the Theriis
• Compendium of Philosophy
• Conditional Relations (2 volumes)
• Connected Discourses of the Buddha (2 volumes)
• Cuulavamsa Translation
• Darlegung der Bedeutung (only available in German)
• The Debates Commentary
• A Designation of Human Types
• Dialogues of the Buddha (3 volumes)
• Diipavamsa^*
• Discourse on Elements
• Dispeller of Delusion (2 volumes)
• Elders' Verses (2 volumes)
• Epochs of the Conqueror
• The Expositor
• Further Dialogues of the Buddha
• The Great Chronicle of Ceylon
• The Group of Discourses
• The Guide
• The Inception of Discipline
• In Praise of Mount Samanta
• The Itivuttaka
• The Jaataka or Stories of the Buddha's Former Births (6 volumes)
• Jinaalankaara^*
• Kunaala-Jaataka^*
• Mahaavastu (3 volumes, from Sanskrit)
• Manual of a Mystic
• The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha
• Middle Length Sayings (3 volumes)
• Milinda's Questions (2 volumes)
• Minor Anthologies (4 volumes, contains many sshort Pali texts like Dhammapada)
• The Minor Readings and The Illustrator of Ultimate Meaning
• The Path of Discrimination
• The Path of Purity
• Paatimokkha^*
• Peta Stories
• Pitaka Disclosure
• Points of Controversy
• Psalms of the Early Buddhists
• Stances des Theri
• The Summary of the Topics of Abhidhamma and Exposition of the Topics of Abhidhamma,
• The Suutra of Golden Light (from Sanskrit)
• Thuupavamsa^*
• The Teaching of Vimalakiirti (from Tibetan)
• The Udaana
• Udaana Commentary (2 volumes)
• Vimaana Stories
• Vinaya-pi.taka Commentary, Samantapaasaadikaa Baahiranidaana
• Word of the Doctrine (Dhammapada)

These are the titles in English, although the society also produce them in Pali. Some English versions are also available in paperback, and so have a different title. The society publishes a few scriptures from Sanskrit and Tibetan, although these are only available in English.

*Indicates texts where English translations and Pali text have been combined in a single volume.

References

External links

• Pali Text Society Website
• PTS Dictionary Online
• PTS Archives
• Establishing Pali Text Society for Buddhist literature Sri Lanka Daily News