794 Review of L'histoire [No. 167. 



commences and terminates with the same formula, and is, as the simple 

 Sutra, written in prose, with a more or less numerous intermixture 

 of versified passages. It is moreover dedicated to the explanation of some 

 one or other point of doctrine, and the legends are also subservient to 

 example and authority. But here ends the resemblance, and numerous 

 differences will be found, which are of such importance as to render 

 the classification of these two kinds of Sutras in the same category im- 

 proper. 



A simple Sutra as written in prose, a developed one in prose mixed 

 with verses, and the poetical portion, is merely a repetition of what is 

 written in prose in another form. 



If these observations are true, we have a certain character by which 

 to divide the Sutras into two classes, the first containing Sutras in the 

 strict sense of the word, which are the most simple and probably the 

 most ancient ; the second comprehending the Sutras of fuller develop- 

 ment, which are more complicated, and therefore more modern. 



To this character is added another which separates, as regards the 

 form, the simple from the great Sutras. The verses introduced into the 

 former, do not differ in language from the body of the same treatise 

 written in prose ; verse and prose are both Sanscrit, while the poetical parts 

 of the developed Sutras are either written in an almost barbaric Sanscrit, 

 or confounded with forms of all ages, Sanscrit, Pali and Pracrit. 



The Buddhist compositions of the North are not written in the 

 epic style, the noble and at the same time simple style of the 

 Ramayana and Mahabharat, nor in the rich and coloured language 

 of the drama, nor also in the monotonous idiom of the Puranas, nor 

 lastly in the compact, though a little obscure, prose of the commenta- 

 tors. Their style differs from all of them. The Sanscrit words have 

 often acquired new acceptations. The language of the Buddhists has 

 followed the march of their ideas ; and as their conceptions in a marked 

 degree, differ from those of the Brahmans, so their style is very differ- 

 ent from the learned language of the latter. 



p. 105. The simple Sutras have also not the fastidious developments of 

 the longer ones. There Buddha is generally placed in a central town of 

 India, in the midst of an assembly of the religious, met to hear his 

 preaching, and this assembly is sometimes increased by a multitude of 

 gods ; in the great Sutras, however, the assembly consists of an exag- 



