Pali

Independent University Department of Pali started in June 2007 and Dr. Yojana Bhagat was appointed as the Coordinator of the newly started Department of Pali at ‘A’ wing 305 Justice Ranade Bhavan, Vidyanagari Campus, Santacruz (E) as the office. Prior to that, studies of Pali had re-started at the University Department of Sanskrit in June 2005 with 12 students in the M A Pali class.

Pali studies at Bombay University boast a rich history and legacy. Way back in the year 1912-13, eminent Pali scholar Prof. Dharmanand Kosambi started MA Pali at the Fergusson College, Pune, then in the University of Bombay. In 1935 ‘Pali-Devanagari Text Series’ was started by his well-known student and distinguished Pali scholar Prof. N K Bhagwat in which the Pali texts were first time edited and brought in Devanagari script from all different scripts like Sinhalese, Laos, Thai, Burmese and so on, making Pali studies easily accessible to Indian students. These Pali texts in Devanagari like the Milindapanha, Mahavamsa, Therigatha, Theragatha and many more are reprinted and studied by the students of Department of Pali even today.

The study of Pali continued in the University of Bombay and well-known scholar of Pali and Ancient Indian Culture and also student of Prof. N K Bhagwat, Prof. Meena Talim became the first person to obtain PhD in the subject Pali from the University of Bombay in 1960.

The legacy of Pali learning continued and PhD students of Prof. Meena Talim- Dr. Sharda Sanghvi, Dr. Yojana Bhagat, Mr. Vinod Bhele became the visiting faculties along with 75 years old Prof. Talim herself, when M A Pali re-started in 2005 at the Department of Sanskrit and also in the independent Department of Pali from 2007.

The academic year 2023-24 is the 17^th year of the Department of Pali. The Department of Pali has shown a slow but steady growth in the number of courses it offers along with number of teachers and students it has inculcated. It is also the first Department to expand, by starting courses at the University Sub-campus Kalyan Centre from the academic year 2022-23.

Department of Pali working at the grassroot level, introduced Certificate and Diploma courses for the 10-12^th pass students along with a BA-MA 5 Year Integrated Course in Pali fulfilling the dreams of many of learning Pali from a very basic level.

At the same time Department of Pali started excelling gradually at the National and International level by encouraging students into research by introducing innovative seminar of the students, by the students, for the students of MA Pali the “Antevasikanam Pali Parisa” which not only motivated students to venture into research but contributed to Pali studies with M.Phil and PhD which commenced in the Department from 2007 and 2016 respectively.

Department of Pali is very proud to announce that our small efforts to contribute to Pali studies is acknowledged Nationally and Internationally when renowned scholars of Pali, the veterans like Prof. Richard Gombrich, Ven. K L Dhammajoti, Ven. S Dhammika, Prof. Asanga Tilakaratne, Prof. Angaraj Choudhary, Prof. Bimalendra Kumar, Prof. Ravindra Panth, Dr. Alex Wayne, Dr. Ujjwalkumar, Dr. Animesh Prakash,  Delson Armstrong and many more personally visited the Department and guided the teachers and students in Pali.

Today Department of Pali having introduced NEP 2020 in 3 Master Programs, has 7 Certificate- Diploma courses inspiring 361 students to learn Pali with 25 visiting faculties, more than 108 NET cleared with 21 JRF students, 23 MPhil and 4 PhD scholars.