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Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit: the original language
-Johannes BRONKHORST, Switzerland
Languages in which the sacred texts of religious traditions have been composed and preserved tend to be looked upon as more than ordinary languages. This is not only true of India. Hebrew has been considered the original language by Christians and Jews alike!. This view, which in the case of the Jews is already attested before the beginning of our era, for the Christians of course somewhat later, survived right into the 19th century2. A similar view was held by at least some Moslems with respect to Arabic, the language of the Koran and therefore of Allah himself, this in spite of the fact that the composition of the Koran can be dated very precisely in historical and relatively recent times3.
In India the followers of the Vedic tradition have always kept Sanskrit, the language of the Veda, in high regard. Sanskrit is the only correct language, other languages being incorrect. Patanjali's Vyakarana-Mahabhaṣya (ca. 150 B.C.E.). in its first chapter called Paspasahnika, distinguishes clearly between correct and incorrect words, pointing out that many incorrect words correspond to each correct word; besides correct gauh there are many incorrect synonyms: gāvi, goņi, gota, gopotalika, etc. There are various
1. Borst, 1957-63: 147 f. etc. (for an enumeration of the pages dealing with the subject see p. 1946 n. 204); Scholem, 1957: 19, 146; Katz, 1982:
43-88.
2. Borst, 1957-63: 1696; see also Olender, 1989.
3. Mounin, 1985: 117: Borst. 1957-63: 337 f.. 352 f.; Kopf. 1956: 55 f. Loucel, 1963-64.
Bhuyamso pasabdah, alpiyamsaḥ sabda iti. Ekaikasya hi Sabdasya bahavo'. pabhramsah. Tadyatha gaur ity asya Sabdasya gavi, goni gota gopotaliketyadayo bahavo'pabhramsah-Vyakaranamahabhasya of Patanjali [Navahnikam]. (Chaukhambha Sanskrit Sansthan, Varanasi, 1990) p.20. also see p.33.- (editor)
K.N. MISHRA (ed.): Aspects of Buddhist Sanskrit: The Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Language of the Sanskrit Buddhist Texts. (Oct. 1-5, 1991), Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, Varanasi, INDIA, 221007, 1993.
