A History of Sanskrit Literature c31.s3.9

c31.s3.9

If we abandon the unhappy identification, the date becomes difficult to settle. We may, however, note that Patañjali does not know the work, that the knowledge of alchemy suggests acquaintance with Greek science,³ and that the term *suruṅgā*, mine, is doubtless borrowed from Greek syrinx, probably not until after the Christian era.⁴ Moreover, it seems most probable that the *Arthaçāstra* knew and used the Smṛtis of Manu, Yājñavalkya, and Nārada at least; in the case of Yājñavalkya the case appears to be proved;¹ where that text penalizes operations on boils, the *Arthaçāstra* sensibly excludes operations on dangerous boils, and in other cases it takes up the language of the Smṛti. The identity of the exhortation to the soldiers with a verse of Bhāsa may denote borrowing, but, as Bhāsa's date is uncertain, this does not help much to a definite result. The text was doubtless known to Daṇḍin who mentions its length, 6,000 Çlokas (i. e. sets of thirty-two syllables), and considers it as recent, unless we put this down to dramatic propriety in his notice; Bāṇa recognizes it, and Kālidāsa's remarks on hunting were perhaps taken from it. This accords well with the fact that the *Kauṭilīya* and Cāṇakya are known to the *Nandīsūtra* and *Anuyogadvāra-sūtra* of the Jain canon in the middle of the fifth century A.D., and that Varāhamihira in his *Bṛhatsaṁhitā* has parallel matter, while Caraka's medical treatise enumerates thirty-six special devices as compared with thirty-two of the last book of the text. Further, the work is before the *Kāmasūtra*, whose date, as will be seen, may be the fourth century A.D., before Vātsyāyana's *Nyāyabhāṣya*, and before the *Tantrākhyāyika* or *Pañcatantra*, perhaps of the same period. That the work was a product of *c.* 300, written by an official attached to some court, is at least plausible, if it cannot be proved. Whether anything goes back to Cāṇakya is an insoluble question. The author may have lived in the south, since he refers to the pearls, diamonds, shells, and gems of that part, and South Indian and Ceylonese gems bulk largely in the chapter on the examination of gems, but this is conjecture, for the fact that manuscripts exist only in the south is not of much importance.