The Mahavastu #220882

We may expect some definite conclusion as to the real origin of Buddhist Sanskrit when Professor Franklin Edgerton, of Harvard University, who has been engaged on a study of this dialect for some time, publishes the result of his researches. Meanwhile we may quote an opinion which he expressed in 1936. The proto — canonical Prakrit on which Buddhist hybrid Sanskrit was based, was a dialect closely related to both Ardhamagadhi and Apabhramsa, but not identical with either.' Pali works are cited by the abbreviated form of their titles used in the Pali Text Society's pali-english Dictionary.