Why Did the Buddhists Adopt Sanskrit?
Western scholarship has long wondered about the reasons that led the Buddhists, or, to be more precise, specific sectarian components of the Indian Buddhist communities (most conspicuously the [Mūla]sarvāstivādins), to abandon the Middle Indic vernaculars as their scriptural, scholarly and probably...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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De Gruyter
2017-08-01
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| Series: | Open Linguistics |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2017-0015 |
| _version_ | 1819024283911847936 |
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| author | Eltschinger Vincent |
| author_facet | Eltschinger Vincent |
| author_sort | Eltschinger Vincent |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Western scholarship has long wondered about the reasons that led the Buddhists, or, to be more precise, specific sectarian components of the Indian Buddhist communities (most conspicuously the [Mūla]sarvāstivādins), to abandon the Middle Indic vernaculars as their scriptural, scholarly and probably vehicular language, to turn to Sanskrit, the celebrated and elitist language of Brahmanical scriptures (first and foremost the Veda), ritual, and culture. The fact is all the more intriguing that insistent Buddhist traditions traced to the Buddha himself, apparently a champion of regional languages, a prohibition to use Sanskrit or, at least, to emulate Brahmanical linguistic behavior. The present paper presents a partly new hypothesis concerning one aspect of this important sociolinguistic phenomenon by looking into the legitimations provided by these Buddhists for studying (Sanskrit) grammar |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T04:52:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-db761b4d072844a4a695630fe8741502 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2300-9969 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T04:52:20Z |
| publishDate | 2017-08-01 |
| publisher | De Gruyter |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Open Linguistics |
| spelling | doaj.art-db761b4d072844a4a695630fe87415022022-12-21T19:15:25ZengDe GruyterOpen Linguistics2300-99692017-08-013130832610.1515/opli-2017-0015opli-2017-0015Why Did the Buddhists Adopt Sanskrit?Eltschinger Vincent0Section des Sciences religieuses, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, FranceWestern scholarship has long wondered about the reasons that led the Buddhists, or, to be more precise, specific sectarian components of the Indian Buddhist communities (most conspicuously the [Mūla]sarvāstivādins), to abandon the Middle Indic vernaculars as their scriptural, scholarly and probably vehicular language, to turn to Sanskrit, the celebrated and elitist language of Brahmanical scriptures (first and foremost the Veda), ritual, and culture. The fact is all the more intriguing that insistent Buddhist traditions traced to the Buddha himself, apparently a champion of regional languages, a prohibition to use Sanskrit or, at least, to emulate Brahmanical linguistic behavior. The present paper presents a partly new hypothesis concerning one aspect of this important sociolinguistic phenomenon by looking into the legitimations provided by these Buddhists for studying (Sanskrit) grammarhttps://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2017-0015buddhismsanskritindic grammarsarvāstivādabuddhist sociolinguistic attitudeshieroglossyproselytismdebate |
| spellingShingle | Eltschinger Vincent Why Did the Buddhists Adopt Sanskrit? Open Linguistics buddhism sanskrit indic grammar sarvāstivāda buddhist sociolinguistic attitudes hieroglossy proselytism debate |
| title | Why Did the Buddhists Adopt Sanskrit? |
| title_full | Why Did the Buddhists Adopt Sanskrit? |
| title_fullStr | Why Did the Buddhists Adopt Sanskrit? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Why Did the Buddhists Adopt Sanskrit? |
| title_short | Why Did the Buddhists Adopt Sanskrit? |
| title_sort | why did the buddhists adopt sanskrit |
| topic | buddhism sanskrit indic grammar sarvāstivāda buddhist sociolinguistic attitudes hieroglossy proselytism debate |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2017-0015 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT eltschingervincent whydidthebuddhistsadoptsanskrit |