1854.] On the Peculiarities of the Gdthi Didlect. 611 



to avoid false metre even at the expense of etimology, prevail to a 

 great extent in their compositions. In this respect the G-atha may 

 be likened to the Kabits of the Bhats of modern India, who in their 

 attempt to combine freedom of elocution, harmony and grammar 

 in their improvisiations — sadly offends against all thre'e. 



Of the origin of the Gatha, nothing appears to be known for cer- 

 tain M. Burnouf is inclined to attribute it to ignorance ; he says : — 



"This fact (the difference of language of the different parts 

 of the Vaipulya S'utras) indicates in the clearest manner that 

 there was another digest (of the Buddhist literature prepared, 

 besides those of the three convocations) and it agrees with the 

 development of the poetical pieces in which these impurities occur, 

 in shewing that those pieces do not proceed from the same hand 

 to which the simple Sutras owe their origin. There is nothing 

 in the books characterised by this difference of language, which 

 throws the smallest light on its origin. Are we to look on this 

 as the use of a popular style which may have developed itself 

 subsequent to the preaching of Sakya, and which would thus be 

 intermediate between the regular Sauskrita and the Pali, — a dialect 

 entirely derived and manifestly posterior to the Sauskrita ? or should 

 we rather regard it as the crude composition of writers to whom 

 the Sanskrita was no longer familiar, and who endeavoured to write 

 in the learned language, they ill understood, with the freedom 

 which is imparted by the habitual use of a popular but imperfectly 

 determined dialect ? It will be for history to decide which of these 

 two solutions is correct ; to my mind the second appears to be the 

 more probable one, but direct evidence being wanting, we are reduced 

 to the inductions furnished by the very few facts as yet known. 

 Now, these facts are not all to be found in the Nepalese collection ; it 

 is indispensably necessary in order to understand the question in all 

 its bearings to consult for an instant the Singalese collection and 

 the traditions of the Buddhists of the South. What we thence 

 learn is, that the sacred texts are there written in Pali ; that is to say 

 in a dialect derived immediately from the learned idiom of the 

 Brahmans, and which differs very little from the dialect which is 

 found on the most ancient Buddhist monuments in India. Is it in 

 this dialect that the poetical portions of the great Sutras are com- 

 posed ? By no means ; the style of these portions is an indescribable 



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