Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s20.19

c11.s20.19

The comparison of the KA with the epics has also led to no better results. Following up a line of thought suggested by Jacobi in the first instance, Charpentier compared the legendary examples cited by KA with the corresponding episodes in the *Mahābhārata*, and he reached the conclusion that the current text of the epic must have come into existence sometime between the date of the KA and that of the *Kāmandakīya Nītisāra*.⁴ He also pointed out that KA (1, 5) defines *itihāsa* in a manner that shows that K. was not thinking of our epic. On the other hand Hillebrandt and Meyer point out that the *Mahābhārata* knows all the predecessors of K. mentioned by him, but not K. himself ; and that the *kaccit* chapters in the *Rāmāyaṇa* (II 100) and the *Mahābhārata* (II 5) which agree with one another closely contain phrases which recall whole chapters of KA to the mind.⁵ Hillebrandt shows further that the *Rāmāyaṇa* is fully acquainted with the detailed terminology of the *Arthaśāstra* and apparently draws several verses from older systematic treatises on the science.