The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c29.114

c29.114

The *Vāyu Purāna*, one of the oldest of the eighteen Purānas, clearly should be attributed in its existing form to the first half of the fourth century, and the *Laws of Manu*, as we now know the book, may be dated from about the beginning of the Gupta period. Without going further into detail, and so trespassing on the domain of the historian of Sanskrit literature, it may suffice to cite Professor R. G. Bhandarkar's observation that the period was distinguished by 'a general literary impulse', the effects of which were visible in poetry, as well as in law books and many other forms of literature.