1837.] Note on the language of the Buddhist Scriptures. 685 



This material fact (so opposite to the genius of Brahmanism), I 

 long since called attention to ; and thence argued that the inscriptions 

 on the lats would be probably found to be scriptural texts ! 



The tendency of your researches to prove that the elaborate forms 

 of the Deva Nagari were constructed from simpler elements, more or 

 less appropriated to the popular Bhashas, is very curious ; and seems 

 to strengthen the opinion of those who hold Hindi to be indigenous, 

 older than Sanskrit in India, and not (as Colebrooke supposed) de- 

 duced from Sanskrit. If Buddhism used these primitive letters before 

 the Deva Nagari existed, the date of this creed would seem to be thrown 

 back to a remote sera, or, the Sanskrit letters and language must be 

 comparatively recent. 



I can trace something very like Buddhism into far ages and realms : 

 but I am sure that that Buddhism which has come down to us in the 

 Sanskrit, Pali and Tibetan books of the sect, and which only therefore 

 we do or can know, is neither old nor exotic. That Buddhism (the 

 doctrines of the so called seventh Buddha) arose in the middle of India 

 in comparatively recent times, and expressly out of those prior abo- 

 minations which had long held the people of India in cruel vassalage 

 to a bloated priesthood. 



The race of Sdka, or progenitors of Sdkya Sinha (by the way, the 

 Sinha proves that the princely style was given to him until he assum- 

 ed the ascetic habit) may have been Scythians or Northmen, in one 

 sense ; and so probably were the Brahmans in that same sense, viz. 

 with reference to their original seat. (Brachmanes nomen gentis 

 diffusissimse, cujus maxima pars in montibus degit ; reliqui circa 

 Gangem.) 



If one's purpose and object were to search backwards to the origi- 

 nal hive of nations, one might, as in consistency one should, draw 

 Brahmanism and Buddhism, Vya'sa and Sa'kya, from Tartary. All I 

 say is, that quoad the known and recorded man and thing — Sa'kya 

 Sinha and his tenets — they are indisputably Indian and recent*. 



I incline to the opinion that Hindi may be older in India than 

 Sanskrit, and independent, originally, of Sanskrit. But were this so, 

 and were it also true that the Buddhists used the best dialect of 

 Hindi (that however is saturated with Sanskrit, whatever its primal 

 independence) such admissions would rather strengthen than weaken 

 the argument from language against the exotic origin of Buddhismf. 



* According to all Bauddha authorities the lineage of the whole seven mortal 

 Buddhas is expressly stated to be Brahmanical or Kshetriya ! What is the an- 

 swer to this ? 



t Our own distinguished Wilson has too easily followed the continental Eu- 

 4 T 



