20 ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, (CEYLON BRANCH.) 



verb, "to buy." We can only derive from the inscription 

 the very interesting fact that the legend of Anathapindika 

 was known in the second century B. but no proofs for- 

 th e antiquity of the Pali language or the present Buddhist 

 canon. 



Prof. E. Knhn in an admirable introduction to his contri- 

 butions to Pali Grammar has conclusively shewn that Pali 

 (in its present form) is not Magadhi, at the same he has 

 pointed out traces of another dialect still discernible in the 

 most ancient poetical writings of the sacred Pali literature. 

 Prof. Weber, on the other hand, in his review of Guilders' 

 Pali Dictionary (Journal of the German Oriental Society, 

 1876, p. 170 — 183) very justly refers to the obvious influ- 

 ence which Samskrt in a secondary way has had on Pali.*) 



Although the proofs brought forward by Prof. Kern 

 (" Over de Jaartelling der Zuidelijke Budhisten, etc.," 

 Amsterdam 1873) for the artificiality of Pali have been 

 thought insufficient, I believe, by the great majority of 

 European Orientalists, nobody can doubt any longer that 

 Pali, in common with all the dialects we meet with in Indian 

 literature, had lost its vernacular purity, when employed in 

 writings. 



* Prof. Weber's remarks are also borne out by a reference to the 

 many poetical words found in Pali which were certainly not invented 

 independently in Samskrt and a vernacular, but introduced from the 

 former into the latter (e. g. abhakaro, osadhiso, sasanko, and many 

 others.) Another instance is sutti = Skt. gukti. while the vernacular 

 form (also in Prakrt and Simhalese) is sippi, derived from Tamil qippi 

 Skt. cukti probably was fabricated, through an artificial etymology, out 

 of a vernacular form sukki which may have occurred in some Dravidian 

 dialect. Besides in later Pali writings (for instance the 2nd part of 

 the Mahawamso) the influence of Samskrit style and language is obser- 

 vable on every page. — I may here remark (with regard to Childera' 

 Diet, and Weber's review) that samminjeti seems to me derived 

 from Vrj, vrfij. 



