A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c8.s3.158

c8.s3.158

Whatever changes may have to be introduced into the earlier chronology of India, nothing will ever shake the date of Chandragupta, the illegitimate successor of the Nandas, the ally of Seleucus, the grandfather of Aśoka. That date is the sheet-anchor of Indian chronology, and it is sufficient for the solution of the problem which occupies us at present. It enables us to place Kâtyâyana before Chandragupta, the successor of the Nandas, or, at all events, the founder of a new dynasty, subsequent to the collapse of Alexander's empire. It enables us to fix chronologically an important period in the literature of India, the Sûtra period, and to extend its limits to at least three generations after Kâtyâyana, to about 200 B. C. In doing so, I am far from maintaining that the evidence which connects the names of Kâtyâyana and Nanda is unexceptionable. Nowhere except in Indian history should we feel justified in ascribing any weight to the vague traditions contained in popular stories which were written down more than a thousand years after the event. The most that can be said in favour of these traditions is, first, that there was no object in inventing them; secondly, that they are not in contradiction with anything we know of the early history of India from other sources; and thirdly, that the date which from their suggestions we assign to the literary works of Kâtyâyana and his predecessors and successors, harmonises with the conclusions derived from the literature of the Brahmans, as to the probable growth and decay of the Hindu mind previous to the beginning of our era.