________________
20
Sanskrit Language Study
classical Sanskrit). The Vedic Reader includes the famous Purusa Sūkta (X.90) and the Hymn of Creation (X.129). While Lanman's Sanskrit Reader includes extensive Vedic selections, Macdonell offers more help to the student (see subtitle, listed above).
Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit
Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary, vol. I: Grammar; vol. II: Dictionary, by Franklin Edgerton. 1st ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1953; reprint Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1970, etc. Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Reader, edited with notes, by Franklin Edgerton. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1953; reprint Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1972, etc.
Various Buddhist texts in Sanskrit exhibit non-standard Sanskrit forms, some more, some less. Edgerton has categorized these texts, according to how "hybrid” their language is, into three classes. The first class, in which hybrid forms are found throughout, consists essentially of only one text: the Mahāvastu. The second class, in which hybrid forms are found mostly in the verse portions, but not much in the prose portions, includes such texts as the Lotus Sūtra and the Lalita Vistara. The third class, the largest, in which hybrid forms are not common anywhere, distinguished primarily by its vocabulary, includes for example the Prajñāpāramitā literature. Much work on Buddhist texts in Sanskrit, then, will not necessarily require reference to the Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar.
Edgerton regards Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit as a different language from standard Sanskrit, and treats it accordingly. His Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary therefore excludes words occurring (with the same meanings) in standard Sanskrit, as found in the Sanskrit (-German) dictionary by Böhtlingk and Roth. So, for example, a term like nirvāna, though a fundamental Buddhist term, is not included in Edgerton's dictionary, since it is found with the same meaning in the Böhtlingk/Roth dictionary. Edgerton's dictionary, then, cannot be used by itself for Buddhist text work, but can be used as a supplement to others like Monier-Williams' Sanskrit-English dictionary. Many Sanskrit
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
