Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c12.s13.t3.8

c12.s13.t3.8

The Prātiśākhyas are a class of works designed to preserve Vedic texts correctly, as handed down in their several *śākhās* or groups of *śākhās* (Prati-śākhā); and these treatises may generally be assigned to the period between Pāṇini and Patañjali according to Goldstücker, say between 600 B.C. and 200 B.C. Mention has already been made of the *Vājasaneyi Prātiśākhya* of the Vārttikakāra Kātyāyana. As Vyāḍi is several times quoted in the *Ṛgveda Prātiśākhya* ascribed to Śaunaka, we may assign that Prātiśākhya too to our period. To Vyāḍi himself is ascribed a treatise on *Veda lakṣaṇa*¹.