The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c17.100

v1.c17.100

The argument from literature and religion is supported also by the argument from civilisation. The second period, that of the Saṃhitās, shows the development of the primitive Vedic community into something more nearly akin to the Hinduism which, as we learn from the Greek records, existed at the time of the invasion of Alexander and the immediately succeeding years. But we are still a long way from the full development of the system as shown to us in the Arthaçāstra, that remarkable record of Indian polity which is described in Chapter XIX. The language also of the Vedic literature is definitely anterior, though not necessarily much anterior, to the classical speech as prescribed in the epoch-making work of Pāṇini: even the Sūtras, which are undoubtedly later than the Brāhmaṇas, show a freedom which is hardly conceivable after the period of the full influence of Pāṇini¹; and Pāṇini is dated with much plausibility not later than 300 B.C.²