A History of Sanskrit Literature c7.s3.1

c7.s3.1

It is a characteristic feature of Sanskrit, intimately connected with its true vitality, that, unlike Medieval Latin, it undergoes important changes in the course of its prolonged literary existence, which even to-day is far from ended. Moreover, we must note the existence of two streams of movement, the Sanskrit of the Brahmanical schools as summed up in the grammar of Pāṇini, and the less formal language of the ruling class and the Brahmins in their entourage as shown in the epics. The works of Classical Sanskrit literature show the clearest evidence of influence in both directions; the Brahmins, to whom or to whose influence and tradition we owe most of the literature, were schooled in grammar and were anxious to avoid solecisms, but they were also under the literary influence of the epics, and in special of the *Rāmāyaṇa*, and it was not possible for them to avoid assimilating their language in great measure to that of their model.