8 SANSKRIT, PRAKRIT, AND APABHRANQA
2. The Character and Extent of the Use of Sanskrit
We have seen that the Sanskrit of the grammarians is essentially a legitimate development from the Vedic speech ; it remains to consider the extent of its use, in the time of Panini and later. In examining the matter it is essential to remember the social conditions of India. In Britain to-day the varieties of English spoken and written are complex and numerous ; in India, where caste, clan, and racial distinctions were far more prominent and important, linguistic facts were far more com- plicated still. What is clear 1 is that Sanskrit represents the language of B rahma nical civilization^ and the extent oX^ihat T civilizafTorTwas ever^ncreasinp^ though thg_J|rajimanical. religion had to face competition from new faiths, in special Buddhism "and" JaTnism, from__the Jifth c entury B. C. x Th~e Buddhist texts themselves afford the most convincing evidence of all of the predominance of Brahmanism ; the Buddha is represented as attempting not to overthrow the ideal of Brahmanism, but to change its content by substituting merit in place of birth as the hall-mark of the true Brahmin. The public religious_ rites and the domestic ritual were recorde d and c ar ried out in SanskrhVand education wasTn"Brahmin hands. The Buddhist texts repeatedly conhrm trie "Brahmanical principle that instruction of the people {lokapakti) was the duty of Brahmins, and the tales of the Jatakas 2 show young men of all classes, not merely Brahmins but boys of the ruling class, Ksatriyas, and children of the people, Vaicyas, seeking instruction in the north from Brahmin teachers. Sanskrit was the. ianguage__of science, not merely grammar, prosody, astronomy, phonetics, etymology, buf Hoiibt- Iess also of more magic arts," such as ""the pTj jysjflgngmy and_ "Semonology recorded in the Buddhist texts and confirmed by the inclusion of-magiq SarpajanavKlyaTand DevajanaVrdya in the list of the subjects taught by the Brahmin to the people given in the Qatapatha Brahmana? The same text* mentions also
1 'Ihomas, JRAS. 1904, pp. 465 ff. 2 Kick, SoaaU Gliedirung, p. 131.
3 xih. 4. 3. 9 ff.
- xi 5.6.8. Cf Brhadarauyaka Upanisad,.$. 10; iv. 1. 3 ; 5. n ; Chandogya,
vii. 1. a; Faddegon, Act. Or. iv. 4 ff., 133. Yakovakya perhaps denotes the dialogues which develop into philosophy.
