There was also in the Pracrit of the early Chinese translators a very clear pronunciation of b for the Sanscrit and Pali v. This is shown by the constant selection of Chinese characters sounded with b or p, according to the old pronunciation. For example, the city "Vaishali," near the modern Patna, is spelt Bai-sha-li. The Pali sound is Vesali. Dr. E. J. Eitel, in his Hand-book of Chinese Buddhism, page 27, has said, that "Chinese texts consider Pali as the ancient and Sanskrit as the modern form even as regards the system of sounds." If he will direct his attention to these facts, he will perhaps admit that not the Pali, but a certain Pracrit form or forms of the Hindoo language, prevalent at the time in Central and Northern India, was or were at the basis of the Chinese old texts, The Hindoo translators in China would have Sanscrit texts chiefly before them, and Pracrit texts occasionally. Their pronunciation was not pure Sanscrit, but was modified by Pracrit peculiarities.

In the flourishing period of Buddhism, in the region watered by the Ganges, at the time of the Greek invasion, and afterwards, the art of writing lately introduced was put to extensive use in the Buddhist monasteries. Those institutions fostered education, which was then very much in Buddhist hands. While the people spoke Pali and Pracrit, Sanscrit was the language of education, and hence the fondness shown for it by the Buddhists.

Burnouf held that there was a double text, a Pracrit text for the laity and a Sanscrit for the literati.

King Kanishka in Cashmere called a council, the fourth; and in the writings edited by this assembly, Sanscrit was the language.

The language of Magadha in the time of the emperor Ashoka was a Pracrit. This was probably much used by the Hindoo Buddhists who came to China.

An argument against Pali is to be found in the careful selection of Chinese words commencing with sh, to represent the Sanscrit sh; but sh is not a letter known to the Pali, just as it was wanting in the ancient Greek and Latin. The original text of the early Chinese translations before the days of Hiuen-tsang must have had sh fully developed. It probably dropped ra in sharira, "a relic," and sti in Shravasti, name of the capital of an ancient kingdom called Kosala, and lying near Kapilavastu.

I place here some remarks on po-li, "glass," a favourite word. In Buddhist glossaries, the Chinese po-li is derived from the Sanscrit word spatika, "crystal." Many of the Hindoo Buddhists who came to China--perhaps all--spoke dialects of Sanscrit, but not the Sanscrit itself. The s was dropped, and the final ka. The t in ti became l, as in the Turkish belur.