Editing Gandhari language (section)

== Rediscovery and history ==
Initial identification of a distinct language occurred through study of one of the [[Āgama (Buddhism)|Buddhist āgama]]s, the ''Dīrghāgama'', which had been translated into [[Chinese language|Chinese]] by Buddhayaśas ({{zh|c=佛陀耶舍}}) and Zhu Fonian ({{zh|c=竺佛念}}).

{{Blockquote|The now dominant hypothesis on the propagation of Buddhism in Central Asia goes back to 1932 when E. Waldschmidt remarked that the names quoted in the Chinese ''Dīrghāgama'' (T. 1), which had been translated by the avowedly [[Dharmaguptaka]] monk Buddhayaśas (who also translated the ''Dharmaguptakavinaya''), were not rendered from Sanskrit, but from a then undetermined Prākrit also found in the [[Kingdom of Khotan|Khotan]] ''[[Dharmapada]]''. In 1946, Bailey identified this Prākrit, which he named Gāndhārī, as corresponding to the language of most Kharoṣṭhī inscriptions from Northwestern India.{{sfn|Heirman|Bumbacher|2007|p=97}}}}

Since this time, a consensus has grown in scholarship which sees the first wave of Buddhist missionary work as associated with Gāndhārī and the Kharoṣṭhī script, and tentatively with the Dharmaguptaka sect.{{Citation needed|reason=The previous citation, to Bumbacher 2008, p.97, is incorrect, the book has nothing by this author at this page|date=April 2020}}

Available evidence also indicates that the first Buddhist missions to Khotan were carried out by the Dharmaguptaka sect, and used a Kharoṣṭhī-written Gāndhārī.{{sfn|Heirman|Bumbacher|2007|p=98}}
However, there is evidence that other sects and traditions of Buddhism also used Gāndhārī, and evidence that the Dharmaguptaka sect also used Sanskrit at times.

{{Blockquote|It is true that most manuscripts in Gāndhārī belong to the Dharmaguptakas, but virtually all schools — inclusive [[Mahāyāna]] — used some Gāndhārī. Von Hinüber (1982b and 1983) has pointed out incompletely Sanskritised Gāndhārī words in works heretofore ascribed to the [[Sarvastivada|Sarvāstivādins]] and drew the conclusion that either the sectarian attribution had to be revised, or the tacit dogma "Gāndhārī equals Dharmaguptaka" is wrong. Conversely, Dharmaguptakas also resorted to Sanskrit.{{sfn|Heirman|Bumbacher|2007|p=99}}}}

Starting in the first century of the common era, there was a large trend toward a type of Gāndhārī which was heavily Sanskritized.{{sfn|Heirman|Bumbacher|2007|p=99}}