The Buddhist text Majjhima Nikaya is in
- A.Sanskrit
- B.Pali
- C.Prakrit
- D.Telugu
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, Pali. The Majjhima Nikaya is part of the Pali Canon, the Tipitaka of Theravada Buddhism.
The Tipitaka has three baskets: the Vinaya Pitaka on rules for monks and nuns, the Sutta Pitaka on the Buddha's discourses, and the Abhidhamma Pitaka on philosophy. The Sutta Pitaka is divided into five collections, the Digha, Majjhima, Samyutta, Anguttara and Khuddaka Nikayas. The Majjhima Nikaya, the 'middle-length' collection, holds about 152 discourses. The canon was preserved orally and written down in Pali in Sri Lanka in the first century BCE. The Buddha himself preached in the people's language rather than in Sanskrit.
A is wrong because Sanskrit was used by later Mahayana texts such as the Lalitavistara and Ashvaghosha's Buddhacharita. C is wrong because Prakrit, in the form of Ardhamagadhi, is the language of the Jain Agamas, not this text. D is wrong because Telugu literature began many centuries later.
Exam tip: Tipitaka = Vinaya + Sutta + Abhidhamma, in Pali; five Nikayas make up the Sutta Pitaka.
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