[Buddha-l] Sanskrit speaking Buddha

[L.S. Cousins]

An interesting challenge:

1. We do not know the date of the Buddha. I personally think it most 
probable that he died around 400 B.C. But the evidence is not 
conclusive; so he may have lived earlier or later.

2. We do not know at what date vernacular Sanskrit was replaced by an 
early vernacular form of Middle Indian.

3. In any case there is no reason to suppose that transition took 
place at the same time in all parts of the previously 
Sanskrit-speaking area.

So it is not possible to know whether or not the Buddha was a native 
speaker of Sanskrit. He could also have learned it as a language of 
culture. We do not know whether that was the practice in the royal or 
aristocratic families of Eastern India during his lifetime.

Written Sanskrit is not used by Buddhists in any known source that 
can be dated before the second century A.D. Forms of Middle Indian 
were certainly used for writing by Buddhists between the third 
century B.C. and the first century. So we must at present assume that 
any later Sanskrit texts which originate as written works  from a 
period much before the second century A.D. will have been translated 
(or perhaps rather transliterated) from an earlier Middle Indian form.

In sum it is impossible to say whether the Buddha spoke Sanskrit or 
not. It is almost certain that the oral literature preserving his 
teachings in e.g. the third/second century B.C. was not in Sanskrit. 
It is unlikely that the first written texts anywhere were in 
Sanskrit, although it is not possible to absolutely rule out the 
possibility that the situation was different in some specific region 
e.g. Kashmir.

Lance Cousins

>Richard Hayes asked:
>In this, as in most things having to do with the history of Buddhism, I
>suffer from an appalling ignorance. Could you (or someone else) quickly
>outline what the state of the evidence on this topic is

This was  in response to James  Blumenthal:

>  > I think it would be more accurate to say there is every reason to
>  believe the Buddha did NOT teach in Sanskrit.