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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Write brief essay on Buddhist writing in Sanskrit in the post – Maurya period.

  • UPSC 1993
  • Post-Mauryan Period

Early Buddhist literature was composed in Pali, the language of the Theravada canon, in keeping with the Buddha's own preference for teaching in the vernacular rather than Brahmanical Sanskrit. The post-Mauryan centuries (c. 200 BCE–300 CE) reversed this instinct: as Mahayana Buddhism matured and sought a wider, pan-Indian and elite audience, a substantial body of…

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What the full answer covers

  • The Pali Canon as the Starting Point
  • Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit and the Mahavastu
  • The Lalitavistara: A Mahayana Life of the Buddha
  • Ashvaghosha and the Arrival of Classical Sanskrit Kavya
  • Nagarjuna and Philosophical Sanskrit
  • Kanishka's Fourth Council and Sarvastivada Sanskrit Scholarship
  • …and 1 more sections, with a conclusion

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