difficulty of making himself clearly understood when each petty district had a provincial dialect of its own, unsettled both in its spelling and its pronunciation.

24. A difficulty of this kind could only be overcome by the publication of some established rules of speech, which should fix the wavering pronunciation and loose orthography of a common language. This was accomplished by the Páli Grammar of Kachháyana, compiled under Sákya's instructions; and the language, thus firmly established, was used throughout India by the Buddhist teachers, for the promulgation and extension of the practical doctrines of their faith.

25. In the Buddhist works of Ceylon, this language is expressly called Mágadhi, or the speech of Magadha; and as this district was the principal scene of Sákya's labours, as well as the native country of himself and of his principal disciples, the selection of Mágadhi for the publication of his doctrines was both natural and obvious. It is true, as Professor H. H. Wilson has remarked,* that there are several differences between the language of existing Buddhist inscriptions and the Mágadhi of Páli Grammars; but these differences are not such as to render them unintelligible to those whom PRIYADARSI addressed in his Pillar edicts in the middle of the third century before Christ. The Pro

• Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xii. p. 238.

fessor admits that the Páli was most likely selected for his edicts by Priyadarsi, "that they might be intelligible to the people ;" but he is of opinion that the language of the inscriptions was rather the common tongue of the inhabitants of Upper India than a form of speech peculiar to a class of religionists; and he argues that the use of the Páli language in the inscription is not a conclusive proof of their Buddhistical origin.

26. The conclusion which I have come to is exactly the reverse; for it is a well known fact, that the Brahmans have never used any language but Sanskrit for their religious writings, and have stigmatised the Mágadhi as the speech of men of low tribes. In their dramas also the heroes and the Brahmans always speak Sanskrit, while the use of Mágadhi is confined to the attendants of royalty. Professor Wilson has, however, identified the Mágadhi with Prákrit, the use of which, though more honourable, was still confined to the principal female characters; but the extensive employment, in the dramatic works of the Brahmans, of various dialects, all derived from one common stock, seems to me to prove that they were the vernacular language of the people. In this vernacular language, whatever it was, whether the high Prákrit of the Saurasenas, or the low Prákrit of the Mágadhas, we know certainly that the Vinaya and Sutra, or the practical doctrines

* Colebrooke, in Trans. As. Soc. Bengal, vol. vii. p. 199. Wilson's Hindu Theatre, vol. i. p. lxiii. iv.

of Sákya, were compiled, and therefore also promulgated.*

27. In the opinion of Turnour, the celebrated scholar, the Páli is a "rich and poetical language, which had already attained its present refinement at the time of Gotama Buddha's advent" (B. c. 588). According to Sir William Jones,† it is "little more. than the language of the Brahmans, melted down by a delicate articulation to the softness of Italian." To me it seems to bear the same relation to Sanskrit that Italian does to Latin, and a much nearer one than modern English does to Anglo-Saxon. The nasal sounds are melted down; the compounds are softened to double and even single consonants; and the open vowels are more numerous. It is the opinion of all European scholars that the Páli language is derived almost entirely from the Sanskrit; and in this opinion I fully coincide. Messrs. Burnouf and Lassen, who jointly formed a Páli Grammar, state, as the result of their labours, that Páli is almost identical with Sanskrit ; and Pro

* Csoma, in Prinsep's Journal, vol. vi. p. 503. I use the term Prákrit as comprehending all the written and cultivated dialects of Northern India. Prákrit means common" or “ natural," in contradistinction to the "artificial" or "refined" Sanskrit.

+ Preface to Sakuntala.

Essai sur le Pali; par E. Burnouf et Chr. Lassen, p. 187,— "Il en est résulté qu'elle etait presque identique à l'idiome sacré des Brahmanes."

fessor Lassen, at a later date,* when more conversant with the Páli books, states authoritatively, that the whole of the Prákrit language is derived from the Sanskrit. Turnourt also declares his conviction that all researches tend to prove the greater antiquity of Sanskrit. Professor Wilson and James Prinsep are likewise of the same opinion. This conclusion seems to me self evident; for there is a tendency in all spoken languages to suppress dissimilar consonants, and to soften hard ones: as in the Latin Camillus for the Tuscan Cadmilus, and the English farthing for the Anglo-Saxon feorthling; or, as in the Páli assa, "a horse," for the Sanskrit aswa, and the Páli majha, "middle," for the Sanskrit madhya. There is also a natural inclination to clear away the semi-vowels and weaker consonants; as in the English King, for the Anglo-Saxon Kyning, or as in the Páli Olakita, "the seen" (i. e. Buddha), for the Sanskrit Avalakita; and in the Páli Ujeniya, a "man of Ujain," for the Sanskrit Ujjayaniya. It is always therefore easy to determine between any written languages, that resemble each other, which of the two is the original, and which the borrowed;

Institutiones Linguæ Prakriticæ; Chr. Lassen, p. 6,—“ Prakriticam linguam derivatam esse totam a Sanskriticâ."

+ Turnour-Mahawanso, Introduction, p. xiii. The general results of all researches tend to prove the greater antiquity of the Sanskrit.

Hindu Theatre, vol. i. p. lxiii.

§ Prinsep's Journal, vol. vi. p. 688.

because letters and syllables are never added, but, on the contrary, are always suppressed or curtailed in the process of time. The Páli is, therefore, without doubt, derived from the Sanskrit, and must, moreover, have been a spoken language for many centuries.

28. For the publication of his esoteric theories regarding the origin of the world, and the creation of mankind, Sákya made use of the Sanskrit language only. But the perfect language of our day, perhaps, owes much of its refinement to the care and sagacity of that Great Reformer; for it seems highly probable that KÁTYÁYANA, the inspired saint and lawgiver who corrected the inaccuracies of Pánini's Sanskrit grammar,* is the same as the KACHHAYANO† who compiled the Páli grammar during the life-time of Sákya. Kátyáyana's annotations on Pánini, called Vártikas, restrict his vague rules, enlarge his limited ones, and mark numerous exceptions to others. "These amended rules of Sanskrit grammar were formed into memorial verses by Bhartrihari, whose metrical aphorisms, entitled Káriká, have almost equal authority with the precepts of Pánini, and emendations of Kátyáyana. According to popular tradition, Bhartrihari was the brother of Vikramaditya, the author of the Hindu

Colebrooke, Trans. As. Soc. Bengal, vii. 199.

+ Kachháyano is only the Páli form of the Sanskrit Kátyáyana; the tya of the latter being invariably changed to chha. Colebrooke, Trans. As. Soc. Bengal, vii. 204.

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