Sacred language

Language that is cultivated for religious reasons

"Holy Language" redirects here. For the language so called by John Dee, see Enochian. For the concept of a divine language, see Divine language.

The oldest surviving manuscript in the sacred Sanskrit language: Devi Māhātmya, on palm-leaf, in an early Bhujimol script, Bihar or Nepal, 11th century. Part of a series on

Anthropology of religion

Basic concepts

* Afterlife
* Animism
* Augury
* Communitas
* Comparative religion
* Divination
* Divine language
* Evolutionary origin of religion
* Fetishism
* Great Spirit
* Henotheism
* Initiation
* Laying on of hands
* Liminality
* Magic
* Mana
* Monotheism
* Nympholepsy
* Oracle
* Pilgrimage
* Polytheism
* Rite of passage
* Ritual
* Sacred language
* Sacred–profane dichotomy
* Sacred site
* Shamanism
* Soul dualism
* Superstition
* Theories about religion
* Totem
* Transtheism
* Veneration of the dead

Case studies

Magic

* Coral Gardens and Their Magic
* Treatise on the Apparitions of
Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants
* Neo-Paganism

Ritual

* Angakkuq
* Babaylan
* Bobohizan
* Bomoh
* Bora
* Dukun
* Miko
* Jhākri
* Pawang
* Slametan
* Wu

Revitalization movements

* Cargo cult
* Ghost Dance
* Handsome Lake

Related articles

* The Elementary Forms
of the Religious Life
* Purity and Danger
* Myth and ritual
* Archaeology of religion and ritual
* Poles in mythology
* Lived religion
* Elite religion

Major theorists

* Augustin Calmet
* Akbar S. Ahmed
* Talal Asad
* Joseph Campbell
* Mary Douglas
* Émile Durkheim
* Mircea Eliade
* Arnold van Gennep
* René Girard
* E. E. Evans-Pritchard
* James Frazer
* Fustel de Coulanges
* Clifford Geertz
* Robin Horton
* Claude Lévi-Strauss
* Robert Marett
* Steven Ozment
* Roy Rappaport
* Saba Mahmood
* Marshall Sahlins
* Melford Spiro
* Stanley Tambiah
* Victor Turner
* Edward Burnett Tylor
* Daniel Martin Varisco
* Anthony F. C. Wallace

Journals

* Folklore
* The Hibbert Journal
* The Journal of Religion
* Oceania

Religions

Ethnic and folk religions

* Afro-American religion
* Alaska Native religion
* Anito
* Atua
* Böö mörgöl
* Chinese folk religion
* Hanitu
* Hausa
* Kejawèn
* Native American religion
* Noaidi
* Shindo
* Shamanism in Siberia
* Shinto
* Tengrism
* Traditional African religions

Buddhism

* Mahayana
* Nichiren
* Pure Land
* Shingon
* Theravada
* Tiantai
* Tibetan
* Vajrayana
* Zen

Christianity

* Adventism
* Anglicanism
* Armenian Apostolic Church
* Baptists
* Calvinism
* Catholic Church
* Coptic Orthodoxy
* Eastern Orthodoxy
* Ethiopian Orthodoxy
* Greek Orthodoxy
* Lutheranism
* Methodism
* Nestorianism
* Oriental Orthodoxy
* Pentecostalism
* Protestantism
* Quakers
* Russian Orthodoxy

Hinduism

* Hindu denominations
* Shaivism
* Shaktism
* Smartism
* Vaishnavism
* Ayyavazhi

Islam

* Ahmadiyya
* Ibadi
* Mahdavia
* Non-denominational
* Quranists
* Shia
* Sufism
* Sunni
* Yazdânism

Judaism

* Conservative
* Haredi
* Hasidic
* Haymanot
* Karaite
* Orthodox
* Reform

Jainism

* Digambara
* Śvetāmbara

Sikhism

Social and cultural anthropology

* v
* t
* e

A sacred language, liturgical language or holy language is a language that is cultivated and used primarily for religious reasons (like church service) by people who speak another, primary language in their daily lives.

Some religions, or parts of them, regard the language of their sacred texts as in itself sacred. These include Ecclesiastical Latin in Roman Catholicism, Hebrew in Judaism, Arabic in Islam, Avestan in Zoroastrianism, Sanskrit in Hinduism, and Punjabi in Sikhism. By contrast Buddhism and Christian denominations outside of Catholicism do not generally regard their sacred languages as sacred in themselves.

## Concept

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A sacred language is often the language which was spoken and written in the society in which a religion's sacred texts were first set down; these texts thereafter become fixed and holy, remaining frozen and immune to later linguistic developments.[1][2][3][4] (An exception to this is Lucumí, a ritual lexicon of the Cuban strain of the Santería religion, with no standardized form.)

Once a language becomes associated with religious worship, its believers may ascribe virtues to the language of worship that they would not give to their native tongues.[citation needed] In the case of sacred texts, there is a fear of losing authenticity and accuracy by a translation or re-translation, and difficulties in achieving acceptance for a new version of a text. A sacred language is typically vested with a solemnity and dignity that the vernacular lacks. Consequently, the training of clergy in the use of a sacred language becomes an important cultural investment, and their use of the tongue is perceived to give them access to a body of knowledge that untrained laypeople cannot (or should not) access.

Because sacred languages are ascribed with virtues that the vernacular is not seen to have,[4] these typically preserve characteristics lost in the course of language development. In some cases, the sacred language is a dead language, while in others, it may simply reflect archaic forms of a living language. For instance, 17th-century elements of the English language remain current in Protestant Christian worship through the use of the King James Bible from 1611, or older versions of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. In more extreme cases, the language has changed so much from the language of the sacred texts that the liturgy is barely comprehensible without special training. For example, the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church remained in Latin after the Council of Tours in 813 ordered preaching in local Romance or German, because Latin was no longer understood. Similarly, Old Church Slavonic is incomprehensible to speakers of modern Slavic languages, unless they study it.

Sacred languages are distinct from divine languages, which are languages ascribed to the divine (i.e. God or gods) and may not necessarily be natural languages.[citation needed] The concept, as expressed by the name of a script, for example in Dēvanāgarī, the name of a script that roughly means "[script] of the city of gods", and is used to write many Indian languages.

## Buddhism

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When the Buddha's sutras were first written down, probably in Pali, there were around 20 schools, each with their own version derived from the original. The present Pāli Canon originates from the Tamrashatiya school. The Chinese and Tibetan canons mainly derive from the Sarvastivada, originally written in Sanskrit, of which fragments remain. The texts were translated into Chinese and Tibetan.[5]

Theravada Buddhism uses Pali as its main liturgical language and prefers that scripture be studied in the original Pali.[citation needed] Pali is derived from Sanskrit.[6] In Thailand, Pali is transliterated into the Thai alphabet,[citation needed] resulting in a Thai pronunciation of the Pali language. Something similar also happened in Myanmar, where Pali is also transliterated into the Burmese alphabet, resulting in a Burmese pronunciation of Pali.

Mahayana Buddhism, now only followed by a small minority in South Asia, makes little use of its original language, Sanskrit, mostly using versions of the local language. In East Asia, Classical Chinese is mainly used.[citation needed] In Japan, texts are written in Chinese characters and read out or recited with the Japanese pronunciations of their constituent characters.[7]

In Vajrayana Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism is the main surviving school, and Classical Tibetan is the main language used for study,[8] although the Tibetan Buddhist canon was also translated into other languages, such as Mongolian and Manchu.[9] Many items of Sanskrit Buddhist literature have been preserved because they were exported to Tibet, with copies of unknown ancient Sanskrit texts surfacing in Tibet as recently as 2003.[10] Sanskrit was valued in Tibet as the elegant language of the gods.[11] Although in Tibetan Buddhist deity yoga the rest of the sadhana is generally recited in Tibetan, the mantra portion of the practice is usually retained in its original Sanskrit.[12]

In Nepal, the Newar Buddhist form of Vajrayana is a storehouse of ancient Sanskrit Buddhist texts, many of which are now only extant in Nepal.[13] Whatever language is used, Judith Simmer-Brown explains that a tantric Vajrayana text is often written in an obscure twilight language so that it cannot be understood by anyone without the verbal explanation of a qualified teacher.[14]

Old Tamil was used for Sangam epics of Buddhist and Jain philosophy.[15]

## Christianity

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Eastern Orthodox liturgy in the United States

Christian rites, rituals, and ceremonies are not celebrated in one single sacred language. Most churches which trace their origin to the Apostles continue to use the standard languages of the first few centuries AD. Many Christian churches make a distinction between a sacred language, a liturgical language, and a vernacular language. The three most important languages in the early Christian era were Latin, Greek, and Syriac (a dialect of Aramaic).[16][17][18]

The Gospel of John notes that the phrase "Jesus, King of the Jews" was inscribed upon the cross of Christ in three different languages, thereby sanctifying them as the first languages to proclaim his divinity. These are:

* Greek, the original language of the New Testament, as well as the Septuagint (a pre-Christian translation of the Hebrew Bible). This was the lingua franca of much of the contemporary Levant.
* Hebrew, the dominant language of the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible). This was the language commonly used among most Jews in the area.
* Latin, the language of the Roman Empire, which soon became an important language of the Christian Church, especially in the western provinces of the Roman Empire as well as being the language of the "First Among Equals", the Pope, in the Christian Pentarchy.

Liturgical languages are those which hold precedence within liturgy due to tradition and dispensation. Many of these languages have evolved from languages which were at one point vernacular, while some are intentional constructions by ecclesial authorities. These include:

* Ecclesiastical Latin in the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church.
* (Old) Church Slavonic in several of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Churches and sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches
* Koine Greek as well as the liturgical language of the Greek Orthodox Church and the Greek Catholic Church.
* Old Georgian in the Georgian Orthodox Church and the Georgian Byzantine-Rite Catholic Church.
* Classical Armenian in the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Armenian Catholic Church.
* Coptic in the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and Coptic Catholic Church.
* Geʽez in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Eritrean Orthodox Church, Ethiopian Catholic Church and Eritrean Catholic Church.
* Syriac in Syriac Christianity represented by the Syriac Orthodox Church, Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Catholic Church, Maronite Church and Saint Thomas Christian Churches.

The extensive use of Greek in the Roman Liturgy has continued, in theory; it was used extensively on a regular basis during the Papal Mass, which has not been celebrated for some time. By the reign of Pope Damasus I, the continuous use of Greek in the Roman Liturgy had come to be replaced in part by Latin. Gradually, the Roman Liturgy took on more and more Latin until, generally, only a few words of Hebrew (e.g. Dominus Deus sabaoth) and Greek (e.g. Kyrie eleison) remained. The adoption of Latin was further fostered when the Vetus Latina (old Latin) version of the Bible was edited and parts retranslated from the original Hebrew and Greek by Saint Jerome in his Vulgate. Latin continued as the western Church's language of liturgy and communication.

In the mid-16th century the Council of Trent rejected a proposal to introduce national languages as this was seen, among other reasons, as potentially divisive to Catholic unity.[citation needed]

During the Reformation in England, when the Protestant authorities banned the use of Latin liturgy, various schools obtained a dispensation to continue to use Latin, for educational purposes.

From the end of the 16th century, in coastal Croatia, the local vernacular language began to replace Church Slavonic as the liturgical language. This change occurred because Church Slavonic, which had been used in the Glagolitic liturgical books published in Rome, was becoming increasingly difficult to understand. This difficulty arose from linguistic reforms that adapted the Church Slavonic of Croatian recension used in Croatia to the norms of Church Slavonic used in Russia. For example, the vernacular was used to ask the bride and groom if they accepted their marriage vows.

Jesuit missionaries to China initially obtained permission to translate the Roman Missal into Classical Chinese, a scholarly form of the language. However, this permission was later revoked amid the Chinese Rites controversy. In contrast, among the Algonquin and Iroquois peoples, missionaries were allowed to translate certain parts of the Mass into their native languages.[19]

In the 20th century, Pope Pius XII granted permission for a few vernaculars to be used in a few rites, rituals, and ceremonies. This did not include the Roman Liturgy of the Mass.

The Catholic Church, long before the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II), had accepted and promoted the use of the non-vernacular liturgical languages listed above; while vernacular (i.e. modern or native) languages were also used liturgically throughout history; usually as a special concession given to religious orders conducting missionary activity.[20]

In the 20th century, Vatican II set out to protect the use of Latin as a liturgical language. To a large degree, its prescription was disregarded and the vernacular not only became standard, but was generally used exclusively in the liturgy. Latin remains the chief language of the Latin liturgical rites and of Catholic canon law, but the use of liturgical Latin is now discouraged. The use of vernacular language in liturgical practice after 1964 created controversy, and opposition to liturgical vernacular is a major tenet of the Catholic Traditionalist movement. Meanwhile, the numerous Eastern Catholic Churches in union with Rome each have their own respective parent-language.[citation needed]

Eastern Orthodox churches vary in their use of liturgical languages. Koine Greek and Church Slavonic are the main sacred languages used in communion. Other languages are also permitted for liturgical worship, and each country often has the liturgical services in their own language. This has led to a wide variety of languages used for liturgical worship, but there is still uniformity in the liturgical worship itself.[citation needed]

Languages used in the Eastern Orthodox Church include (but are not limited to): Koine Greek, Church Slavonic, Romanian, Georgian, Arabic, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, Montenegrin, English, German, Spanish, French, Polish, Portuguese, Italian, Albanian, Finnish, Swedish, Chinese, Estonian, Latvian, Korean, Japanese, and multiple African languages.

Oriental Orthodox churches outside their ancestral lands regularly pray in the local vernacular, but some clergymen and communities prefer to retain their traditional language or use a combination of languages.

Many Anabaptist groups, such as the Amish, use High German in their worship despite not speaking it amongst themselves.

## Hinduism

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Hinduism is traditionally considered to have Sanskrit as its primary liturgical language.[21]

### Sanskrit

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Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, Bhagavad Gita, Puranas like the Bhagavatam, the Upanishads, the epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata, and various other liturgical texts such as the Sahasranama, Chamakam, and Rudram.

Sanskrit is also the tongue of Hindu rituals. It also has secular literature along with its religious canon. Most Hindu theologians of later centuries continued to prefer to write in Sanskrit even when it was no longer spoken as a day-to-day language. Sanskrit remains as the only liturgical link language which connects the different strains of Hinduism that are present across India. The de facto position that Sanskrit enjoyed, as the principal language of Hinduism, enabled its survival not only in India, but also in other areas, where Hinduism thrived like Southeast Asia.[22]

### Old Tamil

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Old Tamil is the language of the Shaiva (Devaram) and Vaishnava (Divya Prabhandham) scriptures.[23]

### Early Telugu

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Most of Carnatic Music is in Telugu. Amaravati Stupa.[24] It is dated to 2nd century BCE and is probably, the name of a stonemason. Its structural and grammatical analysis played a key role in studying Indus script by Iravatham Mahadevan.[24][25][26]

Several personal names and place names traceable to Telugu roots are found in various Sanskrit and Prakrit inscriptions of 2nd and 1st centuries BCE.[27]

Many Hindu epics were also composed in Telugu. Some examples are the Amukthamalayada, Basava Purana, Andhra Mahabharatam, and the Ranganatha Ramayanamu.

### Others

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Apart from Sanskrit, several Hindu spiritual works were composed in the various regional languages of India such as Hindi, Assamese, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Bengali, Odia, Maithili, Punjabi, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tulu, as well as Old Javanese,[28] and Balinese of Southeast Asia.[29]

## Islam

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Salah, including Quran recitation must be conducted in Classical Arabic (Qur'anic Arabic), which is the original language of the Qur'an. Muslims believe the Qur'an as divine revelation, and as such it is believed to be the direct word of God. Thus Muslims hold that the Qur'an is only truly the Qur'an if it is precisely as it was revealed—i.e., in Classical Arabic. Translations of the Qur'an into other languages are therefore not treated as the Qur'an itself; rather, they are seen as interpretive texts, which attempt to communicate a translation of the Qur'an's message.

According to a number of sources, it is a requirement for sermons (khutbah) to be delivered completely in classical Arabic,[30] while other sources state that there is no objection if the sermon is conducted in the language understood by most attendees.[31]

## Judaism

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### Hebrew

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The core of the Hebrew Bible is written in Biblical Hebrew, referred to by some Jews as Lashon Hakodesh (לשון הקודש, "Language of Holiness"). Hebrew (and in the case of a few texts such as the Kaddish, Aramaic) remains the traditional language of Jewish religious services. Rabbinic Hebrew and Aramaic are used extensively by the Orthodox for writing religious texts.

### Ladino

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Among the Sephardim, Ladino was used for translations such as the Ferrara Bible. It was also used during the Sephardi liturgy. Ladino is also often referred to as Judeo-Spanish, as it is a dialect of Castilian used by Sephardim as an everyday language until the 20th century.[32][33]

## List

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* Akkadian was a long used liturgical language.
* Aramaic, used in some later books of the Tanakh, some Jewish prayers, and the Talmud.
* Avestan, the language of the Avesta, the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism.
* Bahasa tanah, a sacred language used in special traditional ceremonies of the Alfur people in Maluku and is generally written using the Alifuru script. It literally means 'language of the land'.
* Balaibalan was invented in the context of Sufi devotion, although it was only briefly used.
* Christian Bengali, the language of Christian worship and Bengali Christian literature restricted to the Anglo-Bengali Christian community
* Classical Arabic, the language of the Quran; it differs from the various forms of contemporary spoken Arabic in lexical and grammatical areas.
* Classical Chinese, the language of older Chinese literature and the Confucian, Taoist, and in East Asia also of the Mahayana Buddhist sacred texts. The current pronunciation of Chinese characters is based on local pronunciation, for example Japanese Buddhists read Buddhist texts in Japanese Kanji pronunciation.
* Coptic, a form of ancient Egyptian, is used by the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and the Coptic Catholic Church.
* Old Czech is used by the Moravian Church.
* Damin, an initiation language of the Lardil people in Australia.
* Early Modern Dutch is the language of the Statenvertaling, still in use among orthodox Calvinist denominations in the Netherlands.
* Early Modern English is used in some parts of the Anglican Communion and by the Continuing Anglican movement, as well as by a variety of English-speaking Protestants.
* Eskayan in the Philippines.
* Etruscan, cultivated for religious and magical purposes in the Roman Empire.
* Geʽez, the predecessor of many Ethiopian Semitic languages (e.g. Amharic, Tigrinya, Tigre) used as a liturgical language by Ethiopian Jews and by Ethiopian and Eritrean Christians (in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, and the Roman Catholic Church).
* Early New High German is used in Amish communities for Bible readings and sermons.
* Gothic, the sole East Germanic language which is attested by significant texts, is usually considered to have been preserved by the Arian churches, while the Goths themselves spoke vulgar Latin dialects of their areas.
* Koine Greek, the language of early Pauline Christianity and all of its New Testament books. It is today the liturgical language of Greek Orthodox Christianity and several other directly Greek connected Eastern Orthodox Churches. It differs markedly from Modern Greek but remains comprehensible for Modern Greek speakers.
* Habla Congo (or Habla Bantu) is a Kongo-based liturgical language of the Palo religion with origins in Cuba, later spreading to other countries in the Caribbean Basin.
* Hattic was used by the Hittites who spoke an unrelated language.
* Biblical Hebrew – the languages in which the Hebrew Bible has been written over time; these differ from today's spoken Hebrew in lexical and grammatical areas.
* Jamaican Maroon Spirit Possession Language, spoken by Jamaican Maroons, the descendants of runaway slaves in the mountains of Jamaica, during their "Kromanti Play", a ceremony in which the participants are said to be possessed by their ancestors and to speak as their ancestors did centuries ago.
* Early Middle Japanese is chanted in Shinto rituals.
* Old Javanese is utilized in Kejawèn, the polytheistic ethnic religion of the Javanese people in Indonesia.
* Kallawaya, a secret medicinal language used in the Andes.
* Ecclesiastical Latin is the liturgical language of the Latin Church's Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church. It is based on the Italian pronunciation.
* Old Latin was used in various prayers in Roman paganism, such as the Carmen Arvale and Carmen Saliare. These texts were unintelligible to classical Latin speakers and remain somewhat obscure to scholars even today.
* Manchu was the language used in Manchu shamanic rituals.
* Mandaic, an Aramaic language, in Mandaeanism.
* Classical Meitei, the holy language of Sanamahism (Meitei religion).
* Classical Mongolian was used alongside Classical Tibetan as sacred languages of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia.
* Old Norse, used in some Heathenry groups as a religious language
* Palaic and Luwian, cultivated as a religious language by the Hittites.
* Pali, the original language of Theravada Buddhism.
* Some Portuguese and Latin prayers are retained by the Kakure Kirishitan (Hidden Christians) of Japan, who recite it without understanding the language.
* Sant Bhasha, a mélange of archaic Punjabi and several other languages, is the language of the Sikh holy scripture Guru Granth Sahib.[34] It is different from the various dialects of Punjabi that exist today.
* Vedic & Classical Sanskrit, the dialects of the Vedas and other sacred texts of Hinduism as well as the original language of several sects of early Buddhism and a language of Jainism.
* Old Church Slavonic, also called Old Bulgarian, the liturgical language of the Slavic Eastern Orthodoxy
* Church Slavonic is the current liturgical language of the Russian Orthodox Church, Serbian Orthodox Church, Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Macedonian Orthodox Church and certain Byzantine (Ruthenian) Eastern Catholic churches.
* Sumerian, cultivated and preserved in Assyria and Babylon long after its extinction as an everyday language.
* Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, is used as a liturgical language by Syriac Christians who belong to the Chaldean Catholic Church, Assyrian Church of the East, Syriac Orthodox Church, Syriac Catholic Church, Syro Malabar Catholic Church and Maronite Church.
* Old Tamil is the language of the Shaiva (Devaram) and Vaishnava (Divya Prabhandham) scriptures.[23]
* Classical Tibetan, known as Chhokey in Bhutan, the sacred language of Tibetan Buddhism.
* Yoruba (known as Lucumi in Cuba), the language of the Yoruba people, brought to the New World by African slaves, and preserved in Santería, Candomblé, and other transplanted African religions. The Yoruba descendants in these communities, as well as non-descendants that have adopted one of the Yoruba-based religions in the diaspora, no longer speak any of the Yoruba dialects with any level of fluency. And the liturgical usage also reflects the compromise of the language whereby there isn't an understanding of correct grammar nor proper intonation. Spirit possession by the Yoruba deities in Cuba shows that the deity manifested in the devotee at a Cuban orisa ceremony delivers messages to the faithful in Bozal, a type of Spanish-based creole with some words of Yoruba language as well as those of Bantu origin with an inflection similar to the way Africans would speak as they were learning Spanish during enslavement.

## References

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12. ^ "Mantras – FPMT". 27 April 2017.
13. ^ Gutschow, Niels (November 2011). Architecture of the Newars: A History of Building Typologies and Details in Nepal. Chicago: Serindia Publications. p. 707\. ISBN 978-1-932476-54-5.
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18. ^ A. Lamport, Mark (2020). The Rowman & Littlefield Handbook of Christianity in the Middle East. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 135\. ISBN 9780807067505. "the ancient church had three important languages: Greek, Latin, and Syriac."
19. ^ Salvucci, Claudio R. 2008. The Roman Rite in the Algonquian and Iroquoian Missions Archived 2012-10-08 at the Wayback Machine. Merchantville, NJ:Evolution Publishing. See also
20. ^ "Library : Liturgical Languages". www.catholicculture.org.
21. ^ Frost, Christine Mangala (2017-05-25). The Human Icon: A Comparative Study of Hindu and Orthodox Christian Beliefs. ISD LLC. p. 317\. ISBN 978-0-227-90612-5.
22. ^ Flood, Gavin (2022-05-13). The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Hinduism. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-119-14488-5.
23. ^ a b "The Tamil Buddhists of the Past and the Future". sangam.org. Retrieved 2021-07-27.
24. ^ a b Mahadevan, Iravatham (1 January 2010). "Harappan Heritage of Andhra: A New Interpretation" (PDF). International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics. 39 (1): 12. "Nagabu: Personal name on a pillar in the Amaravati Stupa (ca. 2nd cent. BCE.)."
25. ^ "The Arrow Sign in the Indus Script 3". Harappa.com. "Nagabu: Prob. name of a stone mason. On a granite pillar in the Amaravati Stupa. Dated variously between 2nd cent. B.C.E. and 2nd cent. CE"
26. ^ "ప్రాచీనాంధ్రశాసనములు, శ్రీ వేటూరి ప్రభాకర శాస్త్రి, భారతి మాస పత్రిక, జూన్ 1928". June 1928.
27. ^ p.23, Chapter: III. (3 April 1969). "Historical Grammar of Telugu, K Mahadeva Sastri".`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
28. ^ Raffles, Thomas Stamford (1817). "The History of Java: In Two Volumes".
29. ^ Acri, Andrea (2013). "Modern Hindu Intellectuals and Ancient Texts: Reforming Śaiva Yoga in Bali". Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde. 169: 68–103\. doi:10.1163/22134379-12340023. S2CID 170982790.
30. ^ Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani. The Language of the Friday Khutab. Karachi, Pakistan. Access via archive.org
31. ^ "حكم إلقاء خطبة الجمعة بغير اللغة العربية". binbaz.org.sa (in Arabic). Retrieved 2025-04-16.
32. ^ EL LADINO: Lengua litúrgica de los judíos españoles, Haim Vidal Sephiha, Sorbona (París), Historia 16 – AÑO 1978:
33. ^ "Clearing up Ladino, Judeo-Spanish, Sephardic Music" Archived 2008-04-16 at the Wayback Machine Judith Cohen, HaLapid, winter 2001; Sephardic Song Judith Cohen, Midstream July/August 2003
34. ^ Nirmal Dass (2000). Songs of Saints from Adi Granth. SUNY Press. p. 13\. ISBN 978-0-7914-4684-3. Retrieved 29 November 2012. "Any attempt at translating songs from the Adi Granth certainly involves working not with one language, but several, along with dialectical differences. The languages used by the saints range from Sanskrit; regional Prakrits; western, eastern and southern Apabhramsa; and Sahaskrit. More particularly, we find sant bhasha, Marathi, Old Hindi, central and Lehndi Panjabi, Sindhi and Persian. There are also many dialects deployed, such as Purbi Marwari, Bangru, Dakhni, Malwai, and Awadhi."

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Topics in Buddhism

* Outline
* Glossary
* Index

Foundations|

* Four Noble Truths
* Three Jewels
* Buddha
* Dharma
* Sangha
* Noble Eightfold Path
* Nirvana
* Middle Way

The Buddha|

* Tathāgata
* Birthday
* Four sights
* Eight Great Events
* Great Renunciation
* Physical characteristics
* Life of Buddha in art
* Footprint
* Relics
* Iconography in Laos and Thailand
* Films
* Miracles
* Family
* Suddhodāna (father)
* Māyā (mother)
* Mahapajapati Gotamī (aunt, adoptive mother)
* Yaśodharā (wife)
* Rāhula (son)
* Ānanda (cousin)
* Devadatta (cousin)
* Bodhi tree
* Places where the Buddha stayed
* Buddha in world religions

Bodhisattvas|

* Avalokiteśvara
* Guanyin
* Mañjuśrī
* Mahāsthāmaprāpta
* Ākāśagarbha
* Kṣitigarbha
* Samantabhadra
* Vajrapāṇi
* Skanda
* Tārā
* Metteyya/Maitreya

Disciples|

* Kaundinya
* Assaji
* Sāriputta
* Mahamoggallāna
* Ānanda
* Mahākassapa
* Aṅgulimāla
* Anuruddha
* Mahākaccana
* Nanda
* Subhūti
* Puṇṇa Mantānīputta
* Upāli
* Mahapajapati Gotamī
* Khema
* Uppalavanna
* Asita
* Channa
* Yasa

Key concepts|

* Avidyā (Ignorance)
* Bardo
* Bodhicitta
* Buddha-nature
* Dhamma theory
* Dharma
* Enlightenment
* Five hindrances
* Indriya
* Karma
* Kleshas
* Mental factors
* Mindstream
* Parinirvana
* Pratītyasamutpāda
* Rebirth
* Saṃsāra
* Saṅkhāra
* Skandha
* Śūnyatā
* Taṇhā (Craving)
* Tathātā
* Ten Fetters
* Three marks of existence
* Anicca
* Dukkha
* Anattā
* Two truths doctrine

Cosmology|

* Ten spiritual realms
* Six Paths
* Deva realm
* Human realm
* Asura realm
* Hungry Ghost realm
* Animal realm
* Naraka
* Three planes of existence

Branches|

* Mahayana
* Zen
* Chinese Chan
* Japanese Zen
* Korean Seon
* Vietnamese Thiền
* Pure Land
* Tiantai
* Huayan
* Risshū
* Nichiren
* Madhyamaka
* Yogachara
* Vajrayana
* Tibetan Buddhism
* Chinese Esoteric Buddhism
* Shingon
* Dzogchen
* Theravada
* Navayana
* Early Buddhist schools
* Pre-sectarian Buddhism
* Basic points unifying Theravāda and Mahāyāna
* Southern, Eastern and Northern Buddhism

Practices|

* Bhavana
* Bodhipakkhiyādhammā
* Brahmavihara
* Mettā
* Karuṇā
* Mudita
* Upekkha
* Buddhābhiṣeka
* Dāna
* Devotion
* Deity yoga
* Dhyāna
* Faith
* Five Strengths
* Iddhipada
* Meditation
* Mantras
* Kammaṭṭhāna
* Recollection
* Smarana
* Anapanasati
* Samatha-vipassanā (Vipassana movement)
* Shikantaza
* Zazen
* Tukdam
* Koan
* Ganana
* Mandala
* Tonglen
* Tantra
* Tertön
* Terma
* Merit
* Mindfulness
* Mindful Yoga
* Satipatthana
* Nekkhamma
* Nianfo
* Pāramitā
* Paritta
* Puja
* Offerings
* Prostration
* Music
* Refuge
* Sādhu
* Satya
* Sacca
* Seven Factors of Enlightenment
* Sati
* Dhamma vicaya
* Pīti
* Passaddhi
* Śīla
* Five precepts
* Eight precepts
* Bodhisattva vow
* Pratimokṣa
* Threefold Training
* Śīla
* Samadhi
* Prajñā
* Vīrya
* Four Right Exertions
* Twenty-two vows of Ambedkar
* Yujia Yankou
* Shuilu Fahui

Nirvana|

* Bodhi
* Bodhisattva
* Buddhahood
* Pratyekabuddhayāna
* Four stages of awakening
* Sotāpanna
* Sakadagami
* Anāgāmi
* Arhat

Monasticism|

* Bhikkhu
* Bhikkhunī
* Śrāmaṇera
* Śrāmaṇerī
* Anagārika
* Ajahn
* Sayadaw
* Zen master
* Rōshi
* Lama
* Rinpoche
* Geshe
* Tulku
* Western tulku
* Kappiya
* Donchee
* Householder
* Upāsaka and Upāsikā
* Achar
* Śrāvaka
* Ten principal disciples
* Shaolin Monastery

Major figures|

* The Buddha
* Nagasena
* Aśvaghoṣa
* Nagarjuna
* Asanga
* Vasubandhu
* Kumārajīva
* Buddhaghosa
* Buddhapālita
* Dignāga
* Bodhidharma
* Zhiyi
* Emperor Wen of Sui
* Songtsen Gampo
* Xuanzang
* Shandao
* Padmasambhava
* Saraha
* Atiśa
* Naropa
* Karmapa
* Hōnen
* Shinran
* Dōgen
* Nichiren
* Shamarpa
* Dalai Lama
* Panchen Lama
* Ajahn Mun
* B. R. Ambedkar
* Ajahn Chah
* Thích Nhất Hạnh

Texts|

* Early Buddhist texts
* Tripiṭaka
* Mahayana sutras
* Pali Canon
* Chinese Buddhist canon
* Tibetan Buddhist canon
* Dhammapada
* Sutra
* Vinaya
* Madhyamakālaṃkāra
* Abhidharmadīpa

Countries|

* Afghanistan
* Bangladesh
* Bhutan
* Cambodia
* China
* India
* Indonesia
* Japan
* Korea
* Laos
* Malaysia
* Maldives
* Mongolia
* Myanmar
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* Philippines
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* Tuva (ru)
* Singapore
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* Africa
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* Central Asia
* Uzbekistan
* Middle East
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* Western countries
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* France
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* Mexico
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* Sweden
* Switzerland
* Ukraine
* United Kingdom
* United States
* Uruguay
* Venezuela

History|

* Timeline
* Ashoka
* Kanishka
* Buddhist councils
* History of Buddhism in India
* Decline of Buddhism in India
* Huichang persecution of Buddhism
* Greco-Buddhism
* Gandharan Buddhism
* Texts
* Menander I
* Buddhism and the Roman world
* Buddhism in the West
* Silk Road transmission of Buddhism
* Persecution of Buddhists
* In Afghanistan
* In Vietnam
* Rimé movement
* Banishment of Buddhist monks from Nepal
* Dalit Buddhist movement
* Chinese invasion of Tibet
* 1959 Tibetan uprising
* Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism
* Buddhist modernism
* Vipassana movement
* 969 Movement
* Engaged Buddhism
* Women in Buddhism

Philosophy|

* Abhidharma
* Atomism
* Buddhology
* Creator
* Buddhism and democracy
* Economics
* Eight Consciousnesses
* Engaged Buddhism
* Eschatology
* Ethics
* Evolution
* Humanism
* Logic
* Reality
* Secular Buddhism
* Socialism
* The unanswerable questions

Culture|

* Architecture
* Temple
* Vihāra
* Kyaung
* Wat
* Ordination hall
* Stupa
* Pagoda
* Burmese pagoda
* Candi
* Dzong architecture
* List of Buddhist architecture in China
* Japanese Buddhist architecture
* Buddhist temples in Korea
* Thai temple art and architecture
* Tibetan Buddhist architecture
* Art
* Greco-Buddhist
* Budai
* Buddha in art
* Calendar
* Cuisine
* Funeral
* Holidays
* Vesak
* Uposatha
* Māgha Pūjā
* Asalha Puja
* Vassa
* Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi
* Kasaya
* Mahabodhi Temple
* Mantra
* Om mani padme hum
* Mudra
* Music
* Pilgrimage
* Lumbini
* Maya Devi Temple
* Bodh Gaya
* Sarnath
* Kushinagar
* Poetry
* Prayer beads
* Hama yumi
* Prayer wheel
* Symbolism
* Dharmachakra
* Flag
* Bhavacakra
* Swastika
* Thangka
* Temple of the Tooth
* Vegetarianism

Miscellaneous|

* Abhijñā
* Amitābha
* Brahmā
* Dharma talk
* Hinayana
* Iddhi
* Kalpa
* Koliya
* Lineage
* Māra
* Siddhi
* Sacred languages
* Pāḷi
* Sanskrit

Comparison|

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* Influences
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Lists|

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Sacraments, rites, and liturgies of the Catholic Church

Sacraments|

* Baptism
* Confirmation
* Eucharist
* Penance
* Anointing of the Sick
* Holy Orders
* Matrimony

Eucharistic liturgies|

* Divine Liturgy
* Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts
* Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great
* Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom
* Holy Qurbana
* Holy Qurbono
* Mass
* Low Mass
* Missa Cantata
* Solemn Mass
* Pontifical High Mass
* Papal Mass

Canonical hours,
Liturgical hours|

* Matins (nighttime)
* Lauds (early morning)
* Prime (first hour of daylight)
* Terce (third hour)
* Sext (noon)
* None (ninth hour)
* Vespers (sunset/evening)
* Evensong (Anglican Use Vespers)
* Ramsha (West Syriac Vespers)
* Compline (end of the day)

Other liturgical services|

* Asperges
* Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament
* Exorcism
* Funeral
* Requiem
* Liturgy of the Hours
* Procession

Liturgical literature|

* Agpeya
* Antiphonary
* Book of hours
* Breviary
* Roman Breviary
* Customary
* Euchologion
* Gospel Book
* Gradual
* Horologion
* Lectionary
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* Divine Worship: Daily Office
* Martyrology
* Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis
* Pontifical
* Roman Pontifical
* Psalter
* Missal
* Divine Worship: The Missal
* Roman Missal
* Tonary
* Roman Ritual
* Sacramentary

Liturgical language|

* Ecclesiastical Latin
* Liturgical use of Latin

Liturgical
rites|

| Latin Church
(Latin
liturgical rites)|

| Current|

* Ambrosian Rite
* Rite of Braga
* Mozarabic Rite
* Rite of Lyon
* Roman Rite
* Mass of Paul VI
* Extraordinary Form
* Tridentine Mass
* Anglican Use
* Zaire Use

| Orders|

* Benedictine Rite
* Carmelite Rite
* Carthusian Rite
* Cistercian Rite
* Dominican Rite
* Norbertine Rite

|

Defunct|

* African Rite
* Aquileian Rite
* British
* Celtic Rite
* Durham Rite
* Hereford Use
* Sarum Use
* York Use
* Gallican Rite
* Missa Nautica
* Missa sicca
* Missa Venatoria
* Pre-Tridentine Mass

Eastern Catholic
Churches
(Eastern Catholic
liturgy)|

* Alexandrian Rite
* Armenian Rite
* Antiochene Rite
* West Syriac
* Malankara
* Byzantine Rite
* East Syriac Rite
* Syro-Malabar

Catholic Church portal

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