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What is now known as "Pāli" was the language spoken in the sixth century B.C. in Magadha, a country in Northern India. At that time it was called Magadhi and the term Pali was then not in use. The Buddha, whose teaching was addressed to all classes of humanity regardless of rank creed or class, used this language for His discourses. These discourses have from that day been handed down, first orally, and later in writing, in the same identical language, although the language of the country of Magadha in course of time underwent a great many changes. At first these changes resulted in a division into three forms:- Magadhi, the language of the court and cultured people; Add- hamāgadhi, the language of the merchants and common people; and Suddhamāgadhi, the pure Magadhi, which came to be called Pāli, a which was, as stated above, the language in which the Buddha preached His doctrine, and in which the Buddhist Scriptures have been preserved.