The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c25.6

c25.6

The words of Patañjali in which he alludes to the horse-sacrifice of Pushyamitra (*iha Pushpamitram yājayāmaḥ*), when read with other relevant passages, permit of no doubt that the grammarian was the contemporary of that king as well as of the Greek invader presumed to be Menander. The question of Patañjali's date was the subject of prolonged controversy between Weber on one side and Goldstücker and Bhandarkar on the other. Ultimately Weber was constrained to admit the substantial validity of his opponents' arguments (*Hist. Ind. Lit.*, 2nd ed., Trübner, 1882, p. 224, note); and no doubt now remains that the date of Patañjali is fixed to 150–140 B. C. in round numbers. References are: Goldstücker, *Pāṇini, His Place in Sanskrit Literature*, pp. 228–38; *Ind. Ant.* i, 299–302; ii, 57, 69, 94, 206–10, 238, 362; xv, 80–4; xvi, 156, 172 (the Maurya passage).