DRBU is offering a course in Pāli language this Spring 2016 semester. Pāli is an Indic language, closely related the Sanskrit. It is the language of the earliest extant Buddhist canon, the texts of Theravada Buddhism. DRBU Students who have taken at least three semesters of Sankrit are invited to join the class. Students are learning how to pronounce Pāli by chanting the Mettasutta, using melodies from various traditions. The class is reading, translating into English, and interpreting Pāli suttas from the Saṃyutta Nikāya and verses from the Dhammapada.

The first two weeks of class were spent introducing the nuts and bolts of Pāli grammar, as it differs from Sanskrit grammar. The rest of the semester is spent translating and interpreting the meaning and structure texts.