Ancient Indian Colonization in South-East Asia c10.23

c10.23

There is no doubt that in both Champā and Kambuja Sanskrit was the language of the court and the learned, but it is difficult to determine how far it superseded the local vernaculars. We have very few early specimens of these local languages, but when we come across them in written records, we find them full of Sanskrit words. The vernaculars must have existed side by side with Sanskrit and were largely influenced by them, but they do not appear to have been used in serious compositions with any literary pretensions for which Sanskrit was exclusively employed.