A History of Sanskrit Literature c21.s1.4

c21.s1.4

The date of Daṇḍin is still open to dispute, and if the *Kāvyādarça* were not to be taken into account would be even more difficult to determine than it actually is. If, for reasons which will be given later, we place the *Kāvyādarça* definitely before Bhāmaha (*c.* A. D. 700), there is no reason to assert that he wrote much earlier, and the chief impression conveyed by the *Daçakumāracarita* is that its geography¹ contemplates a state of things anterior to the empire of Harṣavardhana, and that its comparative simplicity suggests a date anterior to the work of Subandhu and Bāṇa. Nor is there anything to suggest a later date. The corruption of manners adduced by Wilson in favour of the legend which makes him an ornament of the court of Bhoja of Dhārā, so far as it was real, merely represents a regular feature of one aspect of Indian life.