The great glory of the Master [Buddha] lay in his wonderful sympathy for everybody, especially for the ignorant and the poor. Some of his disciples were Brahmins.
When Buddha was teaching, Sanskrit was no more the spoken language in India. It was then only in the books of the learned. Some of Buddha's Brahmin disciples wanted to translate his teachings into Sanskrit, but he distinctly told them, "I am for the poor, for the people; let me speak in the tongue of the people."
And so to this day the great bulk of his teachings are in the vernacular of that day in India.
- Swami Vivekananda at Parliament of Religions, Chicago
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