Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit
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Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit (BHS) is a modern linguistic category applied to some of the Mahāyāna Buddhist Sutras, such as the Perfection of Wisdom.
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.
The term is not widely or consistently used, and owes its usage and definition largely to the scholarship of Franklin Edgerton.
Further reading
- Edgerton, Franklin, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary. ISBN 8121511100