<p>Use commentary to translate it:</p>

<p>Ānāpānassatikathā in <a href="http://www.tipitaka.org/romn/cscd/e0101n.mul8.xml" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.tipitaka.org/romn/cscd/e0101n.mul8.xml</a></p>

<p>For the concentration meditation parts (first 4 parts form 16 parts):</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Herein a monk — having gone to the wilderness, to the shade of a tree,
  or to a bodily seclusion building — sits down folding his legs
  crosswise, holding his body erect and setting mindfulness to the fore
  [lit: breathes at nose tip]. Always mindful, he breathes in; mindful
  he breathes out.</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>"When he breathing in long, he contemplates 'I breathing in long';
  Or when he breathing out long, he contemplates 'I breathing out
  long'.</li>
  <li>When he breathing in short, he contemplates 'I breathing in short';
  Or when he breathing out short, he contemplates 'I breathing out
  short'.</li>
  <li>He trains himself 'I am breathing in and sensitively contemplating
  the entire breath in'. Or he trains himself 'I am breathing out and
  sensitively contemplating the entire breath out'.</li>
  <li>He trains himself 'I am breathing gentle breath in'. Or he trains
  himself 'I am breathing gentle breath in'.</li>
  </ol>
</blockquote>

<p>cr. <a href="http://tipitaka.wikia.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://tipitaka.wikia.com</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-30T15:59:09.010Z
2017-08-30T16:32:12.253Z
2017-08-30T16:32:12.253Z
Bonn
<p>The Anapanasati Sutta in Pali is here: <a href="https://suttacentral.net/pi/mn118" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://suttacentral.net/pi/mn118</a></p>

<p>It appears there is no Pali script, per the comment made to the question:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Emperor Ashoka erected a number of pillars with his edicts in at least
  three regional Prakrit languages in Brahmi script, all of which
  are quite similar to Pali. Historically, the first written record of
  the Pali canon is believed to have been composed in Sri Lanka, based
  on a prior oral tradition. As per the Mahavamsa (the chronicle of Sri
  Lanka), due to a major famine in the country Buddhist monks wrote down
  the Pali canon during the time of King Vattagamini in 100 BC. The
  transmission of written Pali has retained a universal system of
  alphabetic values, but has expressed those values in a stunning
  variety of actual scripts. In Sri Lanka, Pali texts were recorded in
  Sinhala script. Other local scripts, most prominently Khmer, Burmese,
  and in modern times Thai (since 1893), Devanāgarī and Mon script (Mon
  State, Burma) have been used to record Pali. Since the 19th century,
  Pali has also been written in the Roman script. An alternate scheme
  devised by Frans Velthuis, called the Velthuis scheme (see § Text in
  ASCII) allows for typing without diacritics using plain ASCII methods,
  but is arguably less readable than the standard IAST system, which
  uses diacritical marks.</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pali#Writing" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pali#Writing</a></p>
</blockquote>

<hr>

<blockquote>
  <p>‘Pāli’ is not a language, it is the name of the mūla (source)
  Tripiṭaka text, as distinguished from its commentary, which is called
  Aṭṭhakathā - this distinction between Pāli and Aṭṭhakathā only makes
  sense in the commentarial tradition - it was not (and should not be)
  used as the name of the language.</p>
  
  <p>The language of the Theravāda tripiṭaka is actually an artificially
  standardized (sanskritized) form of the original buddhist canon, which
  was written in the early Kharoṣṭhī script (only fragments of which
  survive today). Kharoṣṭhī was greatly unsuitable for writing sanskrit,
  and that is why sanskrit words written in Kharoṣṭhī appears like
  another language altogether (which is broadly called Middle-Indic, but
  is known by specific modern names like Pāli &amp; Gāndhārī based on the
  script they are written in).</p>
  
  <p>The oldest script in use was Kharoṣṭhī. The second-oldest script was
  Brāhmī. Sanskrit was written initially in Kharoṣṭhī (which did not
  distinguish between long and short vowels, conjunt consonants and
  simple consonants etc). So it became very difficult to read texts
  written in this script, even today western scholars are breaking their
  heads over whether Kharoṣṭhī texts are really in sanskrit or some new
  language (which in 1946 some have named as Gāndhāri, although such an
  independent language was never recognized at any point of time in BCE
  India). Anyways an improved script arose which was called Brāhmī
  (which did distinguish between short and long vowels) but still did
  not enable writing conjunct consonants properly (and scholars have
  named this language an early version of Pāli, which again was never
  known by that name in ancient India). With the passage of a few
  centuries, Brahmi was perfected for sanskrit, but the old ways of
  writing (which we call Gāndhāri &amp; Pāli today) did not die out, they
  kept evolving into what became independent languages called the
  prākṛta languages (or prākrits)</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-script-of-pali-language" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-script-of-pali-language</a></p>
</blockquote>

<hr>

<blockquote>
  <p>The Kharosthi script, also spelled Kharoshthi or Kharoṣṭhī, is an
  ancient script used in ancient Gandhara and ancient India
  (primarily modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan) to write the Gandhari
  Prakrit and Sanskrit. It was popular in Central Asia as well. An
  abugida, it was in use from the middle of the 3rd century BCE until it
  died out in its homeland around the 3rd century CE. It was also in
  use in Bactria, the Kushan Empire, Sogdia and along the Silk Road,
  where there is some evidence it may have survived until the 7th
  century in the remote way stations of Khotan and Niya. </p>
  
  <p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharosthi" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharosthi</a></p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-31T19:30:18.790Z
Oh, wow. Interesting, so there's no actual written text script for Pali. It's an oral language only, written in other languages' text.
J du Preez
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-31T19:54:56.707Z
thanks. it looks like that is the case. it was new news to me, also, regards
Dhamma Dhatu
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-30T20:15:15.003Z
2017-08-30T20:15:15.003Z
Dhamma Dhatu
<p>Does anyone know how Anapanasati is written in Pali script? I failed to find a dictionary online that could give the correct script form.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<anapanasati><pali>
Anapanasati in Pali script
# Anapanasati in Pali script

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-08-30)

Does anyone know how Anapanasati is written in Pali script? I failed to find a dictionary online that could give the correct script form.

Thanks!

**Tags:** anapanasati, pali


---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2017-08-30. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

The Anapanasati Sutta in Pali is here: <https://suttacentral.net/pi/mn118>

It appears there is no Pali script, per the comment made to the question:

> Emperor Ashoka erected a number of pillars with his edicts in at least
> three regional Prakrit languages in Brahmi script, all of which
> are quite similar to Pali. Historically, the first written record of
> the Pali canon is believed to have been composed in Sri Lanka, based
> on a prior oral tradition. As per the Mahavamsa (the chronicle of Sri
> Lanka), due to a major famine in the country Buddhist monks wrote down
> the Pali canon during the time of King Vattagamini in 100 BC. The
> transmission of written Pali has retained a universal system of
> alphabetic values, but has expressed those values in a stunning
> variety of actual scripts. In Sri Lanka, Pali texts were recorded in
> Sinhala script. Other local scripts, most prominently Khmer, Burmese,
> and in modern times Thai (since 1893), Devanāgarī and Mon script (Mon
> State, Burma) have been used to record Pali. Since the 19th century,
> Pali has also been written in the Roman script. An alternate scheme
> devised by Frans Velthuis, called the Velthuis scheme (see § Text in
> ASCII) allows for typing without diacritics using plain ASCII methods,
> but is arguably less readable than the standard IAST system, which
> uses diacritical marks.
>
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pali#Writing>

---

> ‘Pāli’ is not a language, it is the name of the mūla (source)
> Tripiṭaka text, as distinguished from its commentary, which is called
> Aṭṭhakathā - this distinction between Pāli and Aṭṭhakathā only makes
> sense in the commentarial tradition - it was not (and should not be)
> used as the name of the language.
>
> The language of the Theravāda tripiṭaka is actually an artificially
> standardized (sanskritized) form of the original buddhist canon, which
> was written in the early Kharoṣṭhī script (only fragments of which
> survive today). Kharoṣṭhī was greatly unsuitable for writing sanskrit,
> and that is why sanskrit words written in Kharoṣṭhī appears like
> another language altogether (which is broadly called Middle-Indic, but
> is known by specific modern names like Pāli & Gāndhārī based on the
> script they are written in).
>
> The oldest script in use was Kharoṣṭhī. The second-oldest script was
> Brāhmī. Sanskrit was written initially in Kharoṣṭhī (which did not
> distinguish between long and short vowels, conjunt consonants and
> simple consonants etc). So it became very difficult to read texts
> written in this script, even today western scholars are breaking their
> heads over whether Kharoṣṭhī texts are really in sanskrit or some new
> language (which in 1946 some have named as Gāndhāri, although such an
> independent language was never recognized at any point of time in BCE
> India). Anyways an improved script arose which was called Brāhmī
> (which did distinguish between short and long vowels) but still did
> not enable writing conjunct consonants properly (and scholars have
> named this language an early version of Pāli, which again was never
> known by that name in ancient India). With the passage of a few
> centuries, Brahmi was perfected for sanskrit, but the old ways of
> writing (which we call Gāndhāri & Pāli today) did not die out, they
> kept evolving into what became independent languages called the
> prākṛta languages (or prākrits)
>
> <https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-script-of-pali-language>

---

> The Kharosthi script, also spelled Kharoshthi or Kharoṣṭhī, is an
> ancient script used in ancient Gandhara and ancient India
> (primarily modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan) to write the Gandhari
> Prakrit and Sanskrit. It was popular in Central Asia as well. An
> abugida, it was in use from the middle of the 3rd century BCE until it
> died out in its homeland around the 3rd century CE. It was also in
> use in Bactria, the Kushan Empire, Sogdia and along the Silk Road,
> where there is some evidence it may have survived until the 7th
> century in the remote way stations of Khotan and Niya.
>
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharosthi>

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Oh, wow. Interesting, so there's no actual written text script for Pali. It's an oral language only, written in other languages' text.  
> **username_2**: thanks. it looks like that is the case. it was new news to me, also, regards  

---

### Answer by username_1 on 2017-08-30. Score: 0

Use commentary to translate it:

Ānāpānassatikathā in <http://www.tipitaka.org/romn/cscd/e0101n.mul8.xml>

For the concentration meditation parts (first 4 parts form 16 parts):

> Herein a monk — having gone to the wilderness, to the shade of a tree,
> or to a bodily seclusion building — sits down folding his legs
> crosswise, holding his body erect and setting mindfulness to the fore
> [lit: breathes at nose tip]. Always mindful, he breathes in; mindful
> he breathes out.
>
> 1. "When he breathing in long, he contemplates 'I breathing in long';
>    Or when he breathing out long, he contemplates 'I breathing out
>    long'.
> 2. When he breathing in short, he contemplates 'I breathing in short';
>    Or when he breathing out short, he contemplates 'I breathing out
>    short'.
> 3. He trains himself 'I am breathing in and sensitively contemplating
>    the entire breath in'. Or he trains himself 'I am breathing out and
>    sensitively contemplating the entire breath out'.
> 4. He trains himself 'I am breathing gentle breath in'. Or he trains
>    himself 'I am breathing gentle breath in'.

cr. <http://tipitaka.wikia.com>


---

