Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit (BHS) is the language in which most of the Mahāyāna Buddhist Sutras, such as the Perfection of Wisdom literature, were written.
BHS is a Middle Indo-Aryan language, a "Prakrit", to which have been added superficial elements designed to make the language resemble classical Sanskrit. Thus, while a BHS text will look like a Sanskrit text, it will obey slightly different rules, and feature grammatical and lexical innovations not found in the Sanskrit corpus proper.
Further Reading:
Edgerton, Franklin: Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary.
Last updated: 02-11-2005 00:25:14
Last updated: 04-25-2005 03:06:01