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BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM.
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a form of the verb peculiar to the Grammar of the Vedas (Fei-to).
The evidence of Hinan Tsang, therefore, is conclusive as to the language of the books which were sought for and studied by the Chinese Buddhists in India, and carried with them to China, and there translated into the form and under the appellation in which they still exist. Whether the books they took from Ceylon were Sanskrit or Páli, we have no further indication than the name Fan, which it seems most probable that Fa Hian employed in the same sense as Hiuan Tsang, or that of Sanskrit; and it is also to be observed that the principal works of Ceylon are subsequent to his time, which makes it further almost certain that the Fan books of Ceylon were also in Sanskrit.
The Buddhist authorities of India Proper, then, were undeniably Sanskrit; those of Ceylon might have been Páli or Mágadhi: were they synchronous with the Sanskrit books, or were they older, or were they younger, more ancient or more modern? To answer these questions we must endeavour to determine their
CHINESE
SANSKRIT. EnglisII. T'ocative. Sing. Hi (He) Pu-lu-sha Purusha
O man Du. Hi (He) Pu-lu-shao Purushau
O two men Pl. Ii (He) Pu-lu-sha Purushah
O nien The verb does not differ materially from the Páli verb; but the inflexional terminations of the cases of the noun differ very widely: some of them are misstated, but this is probably from errors of transcription.
