CHARACTER AND EXTENT OF THE USE OF SANSKRIT 17
the language of the lower classes of the population. Still less plausible is the suggestion 1 that Sanskrit as a vernacular was preserved in Kashmir during its eclipse in India generally, a view which has no support either in tradition or in the form of the Kashmirian vernacular. What we do find is that the Buddhism which penetrated Kashmir was strongly influenced by Mathura, where the new faith had fallen into the hands of men trained in the Brahmanical schools, who applied their own language to the propagation of the faith. We have in this one more proof of the hold which Sanskrit had in Brahmanical circles, and of the obvious fact that it was far better fitted as a language of theology and philosophy than Ardhamagadhl or any similar dialect.
3. The Characteristics and Development of Sanskrit in Literature
It is a characteristic feature of Sanskrit, intimately connected with its true vitality, that, unlike Medieval Latin, it undergoes important changes in the course of its prolonged literary existence, which even to-day is far from ended. Moreover, we must note the existence of two streams of movement, the Sanskrit of the Brahmanical schools as summed up in the grammar of Panini, and the less formal language of the ruling class and the Brahmins in their entourage as shown in the epics. The works of Classical Sanskrit literature show the clearest evidence of influence in both directions; the Brahmins, to whom or to whose influence and tradition we owe most of the literature, were schooled in grammar and were anxious to avoid solecisms, but they were also under the literary influence of the epics, and in special of the Ramayana, and it was not possible for them to avoid assimilating their language in great measure to that of their model.
Hence it follows that much of what is taught by Panini and his followers has no representation in the literature. As we have seen, Katyayana and Patanjali recognize the disuse of certain verbal formS ; there disappear also many idioms, 2 such as anvaje- or upaje-kr, strengthen, nivacane-kr, be silent, matto- or kane-
1 Franke, Pali und Sanskrit, pp. 87 ff.
- Bhandarkar, JBRAS. xvi. 273 ; Speijer, Sansk. Synl., pp. 39, 45, 61 {., 65 t, 7a,
89 f., 108.
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