686 Note on the language of the Buddhist Scriptures. [Aug. 



According to this hypothesis, Hindi is not less, but more, Indian 

 than Sanskrit : and, a fortiori, so is the religion assumed to have com- 

 mitted its records to Hindi. 



But, in very truth, the extant records of Buddhism, whether San- 

 skrit or Prakrit, exhibit both languages in a high state of refinement ; 

 and though one or both tongues came originally from Tartary, they 

 received that refinement in India, where, certainly, what we know as 

 Buddhism, (by means of these records) had its origin, long after 

 Brahmanism had flourished there in all its mischievous might. 



P. S. You will, 1 hope, excuse my having adverted to some other 

 controverted topics besides that which your paper immediately sug- 

 gested. These questions are, a good deal, linked together : for 

 instance, if Buddhism furnishes internal evidence throughout its 

 most authentic records that it is the express antithesis of Brahmanism, 

 its posteriority of date to the latter is decided, as well as its jealousy 

 of priestly pretensions. Nee clericis infinita aut libera potestas, is a 

 deduction which only very precise and weighty evidence will suffice 

 to set aside : I have seen none such yet from Ceylon or from Ava. 

 And be it observed I here advert to authentic scriptural tenets, and 

 not to popular corruptions resulting from the facile confusion of the 

 ascetic with the clerical profession. 



Note. We are by no means prepared to enter into a controversy 

 on a subject on which we profess but a slight and accidental acquaint- 

 ance : nor will we arrogate to ourselves the distinction of having 

 entered the lists already occupied by such champions as Mr. Hodg- 

 son and Mr. Turnour, who have both very strong arguments to 

 bring forward, in support of their opposite views. As far as the 

 Dharmalipi could be taken as evidence the vernacularists had the 

 right to it ; but on the other hand there can be no doubt, as Mr. 

 Hodgson says, that all scholastic disputation with the existing Brah- 

 manical schools which Sa'kya personally visited and overcame, must 

 have been conducted in the classical language. The only question is, 

 whether any of these early disquisitions have been preserved, and whe- 

 ther, for example, the Life of Sa'kya, called the Lalita Vistara, found by 

 Professor Wilson to agree verbatim with the Tibetan translate examin- 

 ed simultaneously by Mr. Csoma, has a greater antiquity than the Pita- 

 kattayan of Ceylon ? We happen fortuitously to have received at this 

 moment two letters bearing upon the point in dispute from which we 



ropean writers in identifying the Sdka vansa with the classical Sacae or Scythians, 

 and Buddhism with Samanism. The Tartars of our day avow that they got all 

 their knowledge from India : teste Kahgynr et Stangyur. 



