Editing Pali (section)

===Pali today===
Pali died out as a literary language in mainland India in the fourteenth century but survived elsewhere until the eighteenth.<ref>Negi (2000), "Pali Language", ''Students' Britannica India'', vol. 4</ref> It was revived in Indian academics with laborious efforts of researchers like [[Dharmananda Damodar Kosambi|Dharmananda Kosambi]].<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1946 |title=Professor Dharmananda Kosambi |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41688598 |journal=Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute |volume=27 |issue=3/4 |pages=341–343 |issn=0378-1143}}</ref> Today Pali is studied mainly to gain access to Buddhist scriptures, and is frequently chanted in a ritual context. The secular literature of Pali historical chronicles, medical texts, and inscriptions is also of great historical importance. The great centres of Pali learning remain in [[Sri Lanka]] and other Theravada nations of Southeast Asia: [[Myanmar]], [[Thailand]], [[Laos]] and [[Cambodia]]. Since the 19th century, various societies for the revival of Pali studies in India have promoted awareness of the language and its literature, including the [[Maha Bodhi Society]] founded by [[Anagarika Dharmapala|Anagarika Dhammapala]].

In Europe, the [[Pali Text Society]] has been a major force in promoting the study of Pali by Western scholars since its founding in 1881. Based in the United Kingdom, the society publishes romanized Pali editions, along with many English translations of these sources. In 1869, the first ''Pali Dictionary'' was published using the research of Robert Caesar Childers, one of the founding members of the Pali Text Society. It was the first Pali translated text in English and was published in 1872. Childers' dictionary later received the [[Volney Prize]] in 1876.

The Pali Text Society was founded in part to compensate for the very low level of funds allocated to Indology in late 19th-century England and the rest of the UK; incongruously, the citizens of the UK were not nearly so robust in Sanskrit and Prakrit language studies as Germany, Russia, and even [[Denmark]]. Even without the inspiration of colonial holdings such as the former British occupation of Sri Lanka and Burma, institutions such as the [[Danish Royal Library]] have built up major collections of Pali manuscripts, and major traditions of Pali studies.