The Rashtrakutas and their Times c22.217

c22.217

The arguments from the Dharmaśātra, adduced to support the theory that the price of the cow in the 11th century viz., 56 Paṇas, was about 500 per cent. higher than that in the 5th century, viz., 12 Paṇas, are equally weak. In the first place, the assumption underlying the whole line of argument here, viz., Manusmṛti, Mūlyādhyayanapariśiṣṭa of Kātyāyana, Dānamayūkha of Nīlakaṇṭha, Vasiṣṭha Dharma-Sūtra, Yājnavalkyasmṛti, and the Arthaśāstra of Kauṭalya are contemporary works written in the 5th century A.D., cannot be accepted by any student of the Dharmaśāstra literature. To maintain that the price of a cow in the time of Manu, Yājñavalkya, and Kauṭalya was 12 Paṇas, because the ransom for a lost cow was two Paṇas according to these authorities, is hardly correct, for there is nothing to prove that the ransom was to be exactly ⅙th the price of the lost article. The line in the Manusmṛti cited to support this contention, *viz.*