Kenneth Roy Norman FBA (1925–2020) was a British

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

. He was Professor Emeritus of Indian Studies at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

, and was a leading authority on

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Buddh ...

and other Middle Indo-Aryan languages.

Life

Norman was educated at

Taunton School Taunton School is a co-educational independent school in the county town of Taunton in Somerset in South West England. It serves boarding and day-school pupils from the ages of 13 to 18. The current headmaster is Lee Glaser, appointed in the aut ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

. After military service in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and Malaya, he was admitted to Downing College, Cambridge, where he studied classics, receiving his

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

in 1954. The whole of his academic career was spent at Cambridge. He was appointed Lecturer in Indian Studies in 1955, Reader in 1978, and Professor of Indian Studies in 1990. He retired in 1992. From 1981 to 1994 he was President of the

Pali Text Society The Pali Text Society is a text publication society founded in 1881 by Thomas William Rhys Davids "to foster and promote the study of Pāli texts". Pāli is the language in which the texts of the Theravada school of Buddhism are preserved. The ...

, and from January to March 1994 he was the Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai Visiting Professor at the

School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury a ...

. He was made a Foreign Member of the

Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters {{Infobox organization , name = The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters , full_name = , native_name = Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab , native_name_lang = , logo = Royal ...

in 1983 and a Fellow of the British Academy in 1985.

Notable works

Translations

*''Elders' Verses: Vol. I'' (1969, 2nd ed. 2007), a translation of the Theragāthā *''Elders' Verses: Vol. II'' (1971, 2nd ed. 2007), a translation of the Therīgāthā
''The Word of the Doctrine''
(1991), a translation of the Dhammapada
''The Group of Discourses''
(1992, 2nd ed. 2001), a translation of the Suttanipāta *''Pātimokkha'' (2001), a translation of the Pātimokkha *''Overcoming Doubts: Vol. I: The Bhikkhu-Pātimokkha Commentary'' (with P. Kieffer-Pülz and W. Pruitt, 2018), a translation of the Kaṅkhāvitaraṇī

Other books

''Pali Literature''
(1983)
''A Philological Approach to Buddhism: The Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai Lectures 1994''
(1997) *''Collected Papers: Vols. IVIII'' (19902007)

Papers

Samprasāraṇa in Middle Indo-Aryan
(1958)
Notes on Aśoka's Fifth Pillar Edict
(1967)
Dr. Bimala Churn Law
(1969)
Some Aspects of the Phonology of the Prakrit Underlying the Aśokan Inscriptions
(1970)
Notes on the Bahapur Version of Aśoka's Minor Rock Edict
(1971)
Notes on the Greek Version of Aśoka's Twelfth and Thirteenth Rock Edicts
(1972)
Aśoka and Capital Punishment: Notes on a Portion of Aśoka's Fourth Pillar Edict, with an Appendix on the Accusative Absolute Construction
(1975)
Two Pali Etymologies
(1979)
A Note on Attā in the Alagaddūpama-sutta
(1981)
The Nine Treasures of the Cakravartin
(1983)
The Pāli Language and the Theravādin Tradition
(1983)
The Pratyeka-Buddha in Buddhism and Jainism
(1983)
The Origin of Pāli and Its Position among the Indo-European Languages
(1988)
Aspects of Early Buddhism
(1990)
Pāli Philology and the Study of Buddhism
(1990)
Studies in the Minor Rock Edicts of Aśoka
(1991)
On Translating from Pāli
(1992)
Theravāda Buddhism and Brahmanical Hinduism: Brahmanical Terms in a Buddhist Guise
(1992)
‘ Solitary as Rhinoceros Horn ’
(1996)
The Four Noble Truths
(2003)
Why are the Four Noble Truths Called “Noble”?
(2008)

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Norman, K. R. 1925 births 2020 deaths Alumni of Downing College, Cambridge British Indologists British orientalists British philologists Fellows of the British Academy Linguists of Pali Pali People educated at Taunton School