A History of Sanskrit Literature c32.7

c32.7

The work, however, makes it clear that it has no claim to be the first written. In the introduction we hear of Çvetaketu, the Vedic scholar, as having composed a treatise which Pāñcāla Bābhravya condensed in seven chapters. Of these Dattaka, at the bidding of the hetairai of Pāṭaliputra, chose the sixth for working up as a special subject and his example was followed by Cārāyaṇa, Suvarṇanābha, Ghoṭakamukha, Gonardīya, Goṇikāputra, Kucumāra, who each took up a section. Then, in view of the size of Bābhravya's work, it was reduced to reasonable dimensions by the author. In point of fact both he and his commentator cite these worthies and give verses from them, so that we may believe that books under their names were actually current. Of these names Cārāyaṇa and Ghoṭakamukha are found in the *Arthaçāstra*, Gonardīya and Goṇikāputra in Patañjali's *Mahābhāṣya*, Ghoṭakamukha beside Kauṭilya in the Jain lists, and that Bābhravya left a school is reasonably certain from the *Kāmasūtra*'s citation of the views of Bābhravīyas. The Buddhists also recognize the Kāmaçāstra as one of the arts in which the young Buddha was instructed, and Açvaghoṣa clearly knew some early work of this sort.