Part 8 - Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit (Gāthā-dialect)

The popular Sanskrit Dialects or language, which is the subject of the present study, may be divided into three classes according to the language as used by the Buddhists (chiefly Mahāyānists) by the Jains and / or even by the Hindus. While describing the life of Buddha and his teachings and doctrines, a group of Buddhists used a type of Sanskrit which is not pure Sanskrit, but an admixture of Sanskrit, Pāli and some other dialects.

Such works of the Buddhists are Mahāvastu, Divyāvadāna, Kāraṇḍavyūha, Lalitavistara, Sad-dharmapuṇḍarika, Jātakamālā, Avadānā-Śataka, Suvarṇabhasottama sūtra and many others. The names of the language as used by them are variously termed. Some say that the name of the language is to be called "Mixed Sanskrit ", or "Hybrid Sanskrit" or "Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit" or "Popular Sanskrit Dialect". Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit language is Middle Indo-Aryan literary language, a Prākṛit dialect heavily infiltrated with Sanskrit, in which the texts of the northern Buddhist scriptures were written. It was developed before the Christian era. This type of mixed Sanskrit language was mostly used by the Mahāyānists, even though the Hīnayānists also used this mixed Sanskrit. For example, Mahāvastu is a Hīnayāna text, while Lalita -Vistara is a Mahāyāna text, though basically the linguistic features of both the texts are the same. The approximate date of the origin of this type of Buddhist Sanskrit is between 200 B.C. and 2^nd cent. A.D. Hybrid Sanskrit, Pāli, and Sanskrit, thus become the major vehicles of the Buddhist thought. The prestige attached to Sanskrit and the ever -growing numbers of Brahmins entering monasteries would have contributed to acceptance and use of Sanskrit as an Important language of theological exposition among Buddhists, whose leaders originally wanted them all to use the dialects, the language of common people.

Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit writings emerged after the codification in the 4^th century BC of classical Sanskrit by the scholar Pāṇini. His standardized version of the language that had evolved from the ancient Vedic came to be known as Sanskrit (meaning 'refined', or 'completely formed'). Prior to this, Buddhist teachings are not known to have generally been recorded in the language of the Brahmanical elites.

The term Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit owes its usage and definition largely to the scholarship of Franklin Edgerton. Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit is primarily studied in the modern world in order to study the Buddhist teachings that it records and to study the development of Indo-Aryan languages. Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit has been demoted by this name since the publication of a dictionary and grammar of the language by Franklin Edgerton, but has also been called "Buddhist Sanskrit, "mixed Sanskrit" and "the gāthā dialect" (reflecting the fact that it is most commonly found in the verses, gāthā, of Mahāyāna discourse). Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit is the appellation used by Professor Franklin Edgerton to design the peculiar religious language employed in the Buddhist texts of Northern India that have become known to us during the last 125 years in manuscripts found chiefly in Nepal, Japan and Chinese Turkestan. Indologists will know this very curious idiom by other names, such as Buddhist Sanskrit, Mixed Sanskrit, the Gāthā -dialect. The last term, which was the first to used, when the linguistic individuality of the idiom was realized, suggests the fact that scholars investigating the texts first believed that the verse portions / or some of them) were composed in another dialect than the prose parts, which were thought to be simply sanskrit, rather poor sanskrit most of it, and badly treated by seribal tradition. However, as early as 1882, when Senart published the first volume of his edition of the Mahāvastu, one of the oldest texts, it was made generally known that also the prose portions of at least this text belonged to the Gāthā-dialect, for which term Senart substituted the designation " Mixed Sanskrit ".

In this widely read History of Indian Literature (vol.1, 1905), Winternitz expressly states that an old Middle Indie dile is employed in verse portions and also in large parts of the prose of this literature. Edgerton reports:

"Thousands of words were used which are unknown in Sanskrit, or not used there with the same meanings. To this curious language, which became widespread in North India, I have given the name Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit... there is no reason to assume any single original language of Buddhism".^[1]

However, earlier works, mostly from the Mahāsaṃghika school, use a form of 'mixed sanskrit ' in which the Prākṛit has been incompletely Sanskritised, with the phonetic forms being changed to the sanskrit versions, but the grammar of Prākṛit being retained.^[2] Not all Buddhist usage of Sanskrit was of the hybrid form: some translated works (e. g. by the Sarvāstivādin school) were in classical sanskrit. There were also later works composed directly in Sanskrit and written in a simpler style than the classical literature, as well as works of kāvya in the ornate classical style such as the Buddhacarita.^[3] Compared to Pāli and Classical Sanskrit, comparatively little study has been made of Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, in part because of the view of some scholars that BHS is not distinct enough from Sanskrit to comprise a separate linguistic category. Edgerton writes that a reader of a Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit text " will rarely encounter forms or expressions which are definitely ungrammatical, or at least more ungrammatical than, say, the Sanskrit of the epics, which also violates the strict rules of Pāṇini. Yet every paragraph will contain words and turns of expression which, while formally unobjectionable. Would never be used by any non -Buddhist writer."^[4] Edgerton invited the attention of the Academicians by the use of a peculiar attribute “The Hybrid Sanskrit” while referring to the buddhist gāthā language. Some Scholars in India supported and praised this view. The origin and nature of BHS is disputed, Edgerton preferring to view it as the result of an incomplete process of translation into Sanskrit of materials originally composed in a vernacular, prākṛit. This was not a formal attempt at translation but a gradual process of influence reflecting the prestige of Sanskrit proper in the broader Community (Edgerton, sect. 134). BHS texts vary in character, particularly in the degree to which they employ vernacular grammatical forms. Later BHS texts are identified as such largely through their vocabulary, their grammar being that of standard, if simple, Sanskrit. In the eyes of traditionally trained pandits and even some Western scholars, BHS appeared to be a highly incorrect, even barbaric, language requiring correction. The work of defining BHS continues, as texts are edited a new with greater sensitivity. Edgerton holds that nearly all Buddhist works in Sanskrit, at least until a late period, belong to a continuous and broadly unitary linguistic tradition. The language of these works is separate from the traditional of Brahmanical Sanskrit and goes back ultimately to a semi-sanskritized form of the protocanonical Prākṛit. The peculiar Buddhist vocabulary of BHS is evidence that BHS is subordinate to a separate linguistic tradition quite separate from standard Sanskrit (Edgerton finds other indication as well).^[5] Sukumar Sen says " Before the publication of Franklin Edgerton ' s Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary (1953) the language of the scriptures of the Northern Buddhists such as the Mahāvastu, the Lalitavistara, the Divyāvadāna etc. was known as Buddhistic Sanskrit. The amended nomenclature seems to have been accepted by scholars without a demur. But is the insertion of the word 'hybrid' at all necessary or desirable?" He further adds: "Buddhistic Sanskrit is not a hybrid language although its words are often not homogeneous. The overall pattern or structure of the language is an old Indo -Aryan language that was much akin to Sanskrit but unlike it was not rigidly controlled by the grammarians. It was a free kind of language that was used by ordinary men, not aspiring for Brahmanical scholarship or veneration. It was what may be called Spoken Sanskrit. By its nature it was an unstable literary or business language varying according to time and place. To call such a language ' hybrid ' is not correct. Buddhistic Sanskrit was not an artificially made up language fashioned by fusing Sanskrit and the Prākṛits. Any language whether spoken or literary, including the Pidgin and Creole etc has its distinct basis or seed language, however, inscrutable it may be. As regards the vocabulary there is no language which is not more or less heterodox. There is bound to be some borrowed element. In the case of Buddhistic Sanskrit its indebtedness in this respect is heavy. But that is natural. Both Sanskrit and the Prākṛits were influential contemporary speeches which controlled between them its career which ultimately vanished into Sanskrit.”^[6]

It is to be noted at the initial stage that when the Buddhist, well versed in Pāli, started writing Buddhist scriptures in Sanskrit, there arose a type of Sanskrit literature which was known in course of time as Buddhist (Hybrid or Mixed) Sanskrit. To my mind it seems that this type of literature was grown out of “Popular Sanskrit " which was greatly influenced by Pāli, one of the Middle Indo -Aryan dialects. For example, the genitive singular of all bases is generalised with sya like a-bases, e. g. bhikṣu-sya, agni-sya in place of bhikṣoḥ, agneḥ. This type of usage is also found in Sanskrit like -udadhisyottare kūle mṛtaḥ Kim anuśocyate, atijarasaya bhikṣusya kantha -varṣaśataṃ gatā as cited by Saraṇadeva in his Drughaṭavṛtti in 1172 A. D. In a similar way, we have vucyate (instead of ucyate in Sanskrit), a passive construction of Sanskrit vac to speak where the samprasāraṇa of v (ac) is accompanied by vu-c in popular Sanskrit.

Besides these, in Sandhi there are some very irregular forms like naraśreṣṭho evaṃ, brāhmaṇo āha (a Vedic type), priyo ahaṃ and so on.

Some Pāli or Prākṛit forms are Sanskritised. Like; yāvat/yāva, khādayitvā/khādiya, dattā/ dinna, idānīm / dāni, anyasmin /anyasmi and so on.

All these uses are not without any reason, nor are they grown out of ignorance, but a large mass of Buddhist literature is grown out of this popular Sanskrit. All these Buddhist Sanskrit literature are very rich in Pāli and MIA construction, though basically written in Sanskrit.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Edgerton, Franklin, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Language and Literature, p. 56.

[2]:

T. Burrow, The Sanskrit Language, p. 61.

[3]:

Loc. Cit.,

[4]:

Edgerton, Franklin. The Prākṛt Underlying Buddhistic Hybrid Sanskrit. Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, Vol. 8, No. 2/3, page 503.

[5]:

Edgerton, Franklin. The Prākṛt Underlying Buddhistic Hybrid Sanskrit. Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, Vol. 8, No. 2/3, pages 503-505.

[6]:

Sen, Sukumar, "On Buddhistic (hybrid) Sanskrit." (Reprint B. T. N. S. No - 1, 1977). Bulletin of Tibetolog. 2(1997). p. 77 - 78.