Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c12.s13.t5.3

c12.s13.t5.3

It is remarkable that Kauṭilya refers more than once to female ascetics (I. 12; III. 3, 4). That Brahmavādinīs were not taboo within the Brahmanical fold is proved not only by the *Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanishad* but by an illustration of Patañjali as well. Patañjali speaks of women studying the Mīmāṃsā of Kāśakṛtsna (IV. i. 14), and as Kāśakṛtsna is an author cited by Bādarāyaṇa in his *Vedānta Sūtras*, we may take it that the Mīmāṃsā of Kāśakṛtsna referred to by Patañjali was an Uttaramīmāṃsā text current in that time. But such women ascetics or students of philosophy must have been few.