Variously described either as an "irregular Sanskrit" (Kaye 2004, p. 11), or as the so-called Gāthā dialect, the literary form of the Northwestern Prakrit, which combined elements of Sanskrit and Prakrit and whose use as a literary language predated the adoption of Classical Sanskrit for this purposely.(Hoernle 1887, p. 10) Kaye, George Rusby (2004) [1927]. The Bakhshālī manuscripts: a study in medieval mathematics. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. ISBN978-81-7742-058-6. Hoernle, Augustus (1887), On the Bakshali manuscript, Vienna: Alfred Hölder (Editor of the Court and of the University)
Jan E.M. Houben "Linguistic Paradox and Diglossia: on the emergence of Sanskrit and Sanskritic language in Ancient India." De Gruyter Open Linguistics (Topical Issue on Historical Sociolinguistic Philology, ed. by Chiara Barbati and Christian Gastgeber.) OPLI – Vol. 4, issue 1: 1–18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2018-0001