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AUGUST, 1892.]
THE INSCRIPTIONS OF PIYADASI.
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It is quite otherwise with Mixed Sanskrit. Every application of it which is known to us, whether in monuments or in literature, is, without exception, Buddhistic. The irregularities and inconsistencies of its grammar and of its orthography mark it with an evident character of spontaneity. It is not a dialect which has undergone alterations and after-touches, or which has bowed itself to those precise rules which denote the idea of a really literary language.
From this two-fold point of view, therefore, the contrast between the two dialects is as marked, as, in other respects, their analogies are striking, and such hints are of considerable value to us.
There is little appearance of the every day use of writing in India much before the time of Aśôka. The inscriptions of Aśðka are certainly the most ancient examples of the art which have hitherto been accessible to us. At this period we know of the existence of an archaic religious language preserved by a privileged caste in memorials, which are surrounded by a traditional reverence, and which, though it has never been written, has still been the object of a certain amount of culture. The Brahmans, the exclusive depositaries, through the oral tradition, of a religious literature on which their authority was founded, have always shewn themselves little disposed to deprive themselves, by writing, of their monopoly. At that time their disposition must have been the same. On the other hand, it is natural that the habitual study of the Vedic texts and the continuance of their religious avocations should have led them to preserve, or, in a measure, to evolve for their personal use an idiom akin to that of their traditions, and very superior, in its general aspect of preservation, to the contemporary dialects of the common people. The Buddhists must, on the contrary, have been anxious to avail themselves of the art of writing to spread abroad their doctrines. The monuments of Piyadasi bear witness to this, and the vulgar tongues were the necessary instrument of this propaganda.
When people set themselves to the task of fixing, by writing, the current tongue, the religious language, and the experience gained in the efforts devoted to assuring its integrity, cannot fail to have exercised a certain amount of influence. This is exactly what we find in the orthography of the edicts. This influence continued, and gained increased power with time, and explains the continual progress with which, from Kapur di Giri to Suë Vihar, and from Saë Vihar to Mathura, the popular orthography comes nearer and nearer to learned accuracy. At the same time, the practice of writing exercised upon the culture of the religious language a reaction which was none the less certain because it was indirect. People might refuse to write it, but it was impossible that the ase of the alphabet should at have acted as a stimulus towards phonetic and grammatical studies. The attempts to fix the orthography of the vulgar tongue must have suggested and urged on the definitive fixation of the more learned language, the idea and general prototype of which mast have long been dormant in the Brahmanical schools. The labour devoted to this must, in its turn, have extended its influence to the vulgar orthography. The Buddhists, as we know, were recruited from the Brahmanical, as well as from the other castes, and they were, to a certain degree, initiated into its learning. This explains how their orthography, in Mixed Sanskrit, continually tended to approach nearer and nearer that of correct Sanskrit. It followed it from afar, if not step by step, at least in its general direction. It was, without doubt, in this manner the Buddhists who unoonsciously determined, partly the final constitution, and certainly the diffusion of Sanskrit. It was they who, little by little, introduced into wider circulation the habits of an orthography which was inspired by the labours and practice of the schoolmen. They followed on that track, though, it is true, with imperfections and shortcomings. By this slow and instinctive revelation, the secrets of the learned so to say, became public. All that remained for the Brahmans to do was to recover their vantage ground on the strength of their superior technical knowledge, to take the initiative again by teaching their learned language in its correctness, and to develop its public use, both oficial and literary. It was thus that the diffusion of Sanskrit
