Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c8.s2.t2.2

c8.s2.t2.2

The epigraphic mixed dialects bear a clear and close linguistic relation to the idiosyncratic Sanskrit of Buddhist texts generally and particularly to the true "Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit" (BHS) of texts such as the *Mahāvastu*. Although the epigraphic and literary hybrids do differ in particulars, this is at least in part due to the different character and content of the documents preserved in them. In any case, the variability of both of these unstandardized languages presents major obstacles to a detailed comparison. But despite these complications, there can be no doubt that the two represent different manifestations of the same basic linguistic phenomenon, namely, the gradual Sanskritization of MIA vernaculars. It is also certain that the hybrid language used in the first three centuries of the Christian era was neither an exclusively Buddhist nor an exclusively literary construction, as seems to be assumed by certain scholars (notably Edgerton) who did not sufficiently consider the epigraphic evidence. For among the hybrid inscriptions of this period, we have documents of not only Buddhist but also Brahmanical and Jaina content which are original compositions in the hybrid dialect.