A History of Sanskrit Literature c7.s1.15

c7.s1.15

We must not, however, exaggerate the activity of the grammarians to the extent of suggesting with some writers that Classical Sanskrit is an artificial creation, a product⁴ of the Brahmins when they sought to counteract the Buddhist creation of an artistic literature in Pāli by recasting their own Prākritic speech with the aid of the Vedic language. It is, in point of fact, perfectly obvious that there is a steady progress through the later Saṃhitās, the Brāhmaṇas, and the Āraṇyakas and Upaniṣads, and that the Bhāṣā, the spoken language of Pāṇini's grammar, is closely related to, though not identic with, the language of the Brāhmaṇas and the older Upaniṣads. Nor in point of fact does Classical Sanskrit present the appearance of an artificial product; simplified as it is in comparison with the redundant luxury of the Vedic texts, it yet presents no artificial symmetry, but rather admits exceptions in bewildering profusion, showing that the grammarians were not creators, but were engaged in a serious struggle to bring into handier shape a rather intractable material.