A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c8.s2.125

c8.s2.125

It will readily be seen how entirely hypothetical all these arguments are. If they possess any force it is this, that in spite of the conflicting statements of Brahmanical, Buddhist, and European scholars, nothing has been brought forward as yet that would render the date here assigned to Kâtyâyana impossible. Nay more;—if we place Kâtyâyana in the second half of the fourth century, Âsvalâyana, the predecessor of Kâtyâyana, about 350, and Saunaka, the teacher of Âsvalâyana, about 400; and if then, considering the writers of Sûtras anterior to Saunaka and posterior to Kâtyâyana, we extend the limits of the Sautra period of literature from 600 to 200, we are still able to say, that there is no fact in history or literature that would interfere with such an arrangement. As an experiment, therefore, though as no more than an experiment, we propose to fix the years 600 and 200 B.C. as the limits of that age during which the Brahmanic literature was carried on in the strange style of Sûtras.