Pali Literature and Language c5.14

c5.14

IV. According to the tradition current in Ceylon, Pāli is Māgadhi, Māgadhānirutti, Māgadhikabhāsā, that is to say, the language of the region in which Buddhism had arisen. This is very important, for strengthened by this argument the Buddhistic tradition makes the further claim that the Pāli-Tipiṭaka is composed in the language used by Buddha himself¹ and therefore in contrast to all other collections it alone represents the original canon. For this reason Māgadhi is also called Mūlabhāsā² as the basic language in which the words of Buddha were originally fixed, whereas the other versions are regarded as secondary variations.