reason to suppose that, in the third century b. c., if not earlier, Sanskrit had ceased to be the spoken language of the people at large.
There is an interesting passage in the Kullavagga, where we are told that, even during Buddha's lifetime, some of his pupils, who were Brâhmans by birth, complained that people spoiled the words of Buddha by every one repeating them in his own dialect (nirutti). They proposed to translate his words into Sanskrit; but he declined, and commanded that each man should learn his doctrine in his own language[1].
And there is another passage, quoted by Hardy in his Manual of Buddhism, p. 186, where we read that at the time of Buddha's first preaching each of the countless listeners thought that the sage was looking towards him, and was speaking to him in his own tongue, though the language used was Mâgadhi[2].
Sanskrit, therefore, as a language spoken by the people at large, had ceased to exist in the third century b.c.
Yet such is the marvellous continuity between the past and the present in India, that in spite of repeated social convulsions, religious reforms, and foreign invasions, Sanskrit may be said to be still the only language that is spoken over the whole extent of that vast country.
Though the Buddhist sovereigns published their edicts in the vernaculars, public inscriptions and
