Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c8.s2.t2.8

c8.s2.t2.8

The other school of thought tends to view the degree of hybridism in a given document as a matter not so much of knowledge or ability as of taste; thus Lamotte describes hybrid Sanskrit as "une langue littéraire où le dosage du prākrit et du sanskrit était laissé à leur appréciation personelle" (HBI 642; see also 638 and 645). The epigraphic evidence in particular tends to support the views of this second school. Especially worthy of note are cases such as the Morā well inscription (MI §113; see 3.3.2) where a single inscription comprises portions both in hybrid and in more or less standard Sanskrit, distributed according to function; here, as is usually the case, the prose portion is in hybrid language while the verse—which is composed for the occasion, not quoted from another source—is in good Sanskrit. Such cases indicate that Lamotte was correct in supposing that the use and degree of hybridism were essentially controlled by the taste and judgment of the composers of the texts, and that at least some of them could write in standard Sanskrit when they saw fit.