Pāli Studies in Colonial Bengal: Bengali-Speaking Buddhists’ Strategy to Distinguish themselves from Hindus

Abstract

Abstract This article focuses on one of the core strategies used to decouple Buddhism from Hinduism in colonial Bengal. Capitalising on the nineteenth-century enthusiasm in Indo-European languages and public education, marginalised Buddhist minority argued that what Sanskrit meant for Hindus was Pāli for Buddhists to secure grant-in-aid for Pāli studies. With the assistance from Buddhists from Ceylon, they introduced Pāli weekly classes at village temples and primary, secondary, and postsecondary schools with Buddhist students in Chittagong. They convinced the colonial government to fund Pāli Departments at Chittagong College and at the University of Calcutta and more importantly to establish a ‘state scholarship for the scientific study of Pāli in Europe’ in 1915 that produced arguably the first indigenous Buddhologist. I contend that Pāli studies not only gave Bengali-speaking Buddhists access to modern education, but also enabled them to distinguish themselves from Hindus and emerge as a distinct religious community.