A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s1.51

v2.c19.s1.51

The time and place of the origin of this literary language cannot be determined with any degree of certainty.³ It is probable that, during the period immediately after Aśoka, when Buddhism had already spread throughout the whole of Central India and in the North-west too, it developed as a compromise between the various dialects spoken in this vast territory, among the monks engaged in handing down the Theravāda Canon. It is for this reason that Pāli bears traces of so many different Indo-Aryan dialects.⁴ When the Canon of the Vibhajjavādins was written down in the first century B.C., there was already an older and a more modern form of Pāli,¹ so that, even at that early period, Pāli must have been a language with a considerable development behind it. The monks of Ceylon were, however, bent on preserving and passing on the texts written in the language once established for them in India.² In all probability these monks were just as conscientious regarding the contents as regarding the language, and preserved and handed down to us the texts of the Tipiṭaka which was written down in the Pāli language, with rare fidelity during the last two thousand years. However, *before* they were fixed in Pāli and had reached Ceylon, they probably also passed through changes in contents.