Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s20.23

c11.s20.23

Another inconclusive effort to place KA about A. D. 250 is that made by E. H. Johnston¹. He argues that Kauṭilya's work must have come into existence after the time of Aśvaghoṣa, but not very long after; Aśvaghoṣa does not use the term *vijigīṣu* though he knows the forms *jigiṣat* and *jigiṣu*, and he remains well within the limits of Dharma in his references to politics; hence he must have preceded Kauṭilya. Yet, the common use of neologisms by the two writers (of which examples are cited) shows that no long interval separated the two writers. And the fact that Āryaśūra (A. D. 434) unlike Aśvaghoṣa parades his knowledge of *Arthaśāstra* in the *Jātakamālā*, and refers to Kauṭilya, shows clearly that he came later than Kauṭilya. But the only certainty that emerges from Johnston's arguments is that Kauṭilya wrote earlier than Āryaśūra's time. For Aśvaghoṣa was under no compulsion to accept Kauṭilya's outlook and vocabulary if he had the work before him; many later writers are known to have declined to do so like Daṇḍin and Bāṇa, and to have condemned his doctrines and methods.