Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c16.s1.t2.2

c16.s1.t2.2

Patañjali is usually regarded as a contemporary of Pushyamitra. Sir R. G. Bhandarkar draws our attention to the passage in the *Mahābhāshya*—*iha Pushyamitram yājayāmaḥ*: "here we perform the sacrifices for Pushyamitra"—which is cited as an illustration of the *Vārttika* teaching the use of the present tense to denote an action which has been begun but not finished.² The instances given by Patañjali of the use of the imperfect to indicate an action well-known to people, but not witnessed by the speaker, and still possible to have been seen by him, are, "*arunad Yavanaḥ Sāketam: arunad Yavano Madhyamikām*." This, says Sir R. G. Bhandarkar, shows that a certain Yavana or Greek chief had besieged Sāketa or Ayodhyā and another place called Madhyamikā ¹ when Patañjali wrote this. It is, however, possible that the instances cited by the great grammarian are stock illustrations (*mūrdhābhishikta udāharaṇa*) which are simply quoted by him from earlier authorities. But a war with Greeks in the days of Pushyamitra is vouched for by Kālidāsa. In his *Mālavikāgnimitram* the poet refers to a conflict between prince Vasumitra, grandson and general of Pushyamitra, and a Yavana on the southern (or right) bank of the Sindhu.² Unfortunately the name of the leader of the invaders is not given either in the *Mahābhāshya* or in the *Mālavikāgnimitram*. There is considerable divergence of opinion with regard to his identity. But all agree that he was a Bactrian Greek.