Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s20.35

c11.s20.35

Sylvain Lévi has argued that the mention of coral from Alexandria (*pravālam Alakandakam* II, 11, 41) shows that the Arthaśāstra must be later than the first century A.D. when the coral trade shifted to India according to Pliny and the Periplus². But there are numerous references to *pravāla* (coral) in the earliest strata of the Mahābhārata not to speak of the occurrence of the word in the gaṇapāṭha where we cannot be sure of the sense of the term. There is little reason to doubt that the coral was known in India much earlier than the first century A.D., and we know that coral was a valued article of trade in the Hellenistic world.