A History of Sanskrit Literature c34.s3.6

c34.s3.6

The language of the Bower Manuscript⁴ is of a peculiar character, being popular Sanskrit heavily affected by Prākritisms, suggesting comparison with the mixed dialect of Buddhist Sanskrit, which it may resemble in being an effort to write Sanskrit by persons used to writing in Prākrit. A barbarous Sanskrit is found also in medical formulae discovered in Eastern Turkestan, accompanied by a version in an Iranian dialect.¹ It must, of course, be remembered that doctors were often men of a restricted culture who could not be expected to be familiar with the niceties of Sanskrit, a phenomenon seen far more strongly in the works on architecture.