ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Sanskrit Buddhist literature

Sanskrit Buddhist literature is like a special kind of book that talks about the Buddhist religion, but it was written a really long time ago in a language called Sanskrit.

Imagine that you have a big secret that you want to share with your best friend, but you want to make sure that only they understand it. So, you create a special code that only you and your best friend know how to read. That's kind of what Sanskrit is, it's a special code that only certain people know how to read and understand.

Back in ancient times, when Buddhism was becoming popular, Buddhists wanted to write down all their religious teachings so that they could be preserved for future generations. They chose to write these teachings in Sanskrit because it was a language that was used by scholars and religious people at the time.

Sanskrit Buddhist literature includes many different kinds of books, like stories and poems, that talk about important Buddhist ideas, like how to live a good life, how to be kind to others, and how to understand the world around us.

These books are still important today because they help people learn about the Buddhist religion and the teachings of the Buddha, who was the founder of Buddhism. Even though Sanskrit is not widely used today, there are scholars who study this language to understand these ancient texts and the wisdom they contain.