1854.] On the Peculiarities of the Gdthd Dialect. 613 



Sutras be the productions of men beyond the Indus imperfectly 

 acquainted with the Sanskrita, how happens one portion of them to 

 be so perfect in every respect, while the other is so impure ? "What 

 could have been the object of writing the same subject twice over 

 in the same work, once in pure prose and then in incorrect 

 poetry ? 



It might be supposed — what is most likely the case — that the prose 

 and the poetry are the productions of two different ages ; but the 

 question would then arise, how came they to be associated together ? 

 What could have induced the authors of the prose portions to 

 insert in their works, the incorrect productions of Trans-Indus origin ? 

 Nothing but a sense of the truthfulness and authenticity of those 

 narratives, could have led to their adoption. But how is it likely to 

 be supposed that the most authentic account of S'akya within three 

 hundred years after his death, was to be had only in countries 

 hundreds of miles away from the place of his birth, and the field of 

 his preachings ? The great Sutras are supposed to have been com- 

 piled about the time of the third convocation, (309 B. C.) when 

 it is not at all likely that the sages of Central India would have 

 gone to Cashmere in search of data, which could be best gathered 

 at their own threshold. 



The more reasonable conjecture appears to be that the Gatha is 

 the production of bards, who were contemporaries or immediate suc- 

 cessors of S'akya, who recounted to the devout congregations of the 

 prophet of Magadha, the sayings and doings of their great teacher, 

 in popular and easy flowing verses, which in course of time came to 

 be regarded as the most authentic source of all information con- 

 nected with the founder of Buddhism. The high estimation in 

 which the ballads and improvisiations of bards are held in India 

 and particularly in the Buddhist writings, favours this supposition ; 

 and the circumstance that the poetical portions are generally intro- 

 duced in corroboration of the narrative of the prose, with the words : 

 cre^n^ffi, " Thereof this may be said," affords a strong presumptive 

 evidence. 



According to the Mahaivanso, the Buddhist scriptures were 

 chaunted chapter after chapter as they were compiled by the Theros 

 of the first convocation. This could scarcely have been possible 

 had not the Sutras been in verse, and that they were in verse and in 



