A History of Sanskrit Literature c33.s7.1

c33.s7.1

The use of Sanskrit in lieu of Prākrits or Pāli for texts defending Buddhist principles is of uncertain age. What is fairly clear is that the Mūlasarvāstivādins from the first period of their activity adopted Sanskrit as the language of the school, and we have fragments of their canon, from the *Udānavarga*, *Dharmapada*, *Ekottarāgama*, and *Madhyamāgama*, as well as the *Vinaya*, which point to derivation in some degree from texts similar to those represented in the Pāli canon. But the date of these Buddhist Sanskrit texts as extant is wholly uncertain, and has been placed as late as the third century A. D., which is probably too low.³