A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c8.s3.159

c8.s3.159

Although these chronological discussions have occupied so much of our space, it is necessary to add a few words of explanation. It might seem as if, in bringing together all the evidence available for our purpose, certain authorities had been overlooked which might have confirmed our conclusions. Professor Böhtlingk, whose researches with regard to the age of Pânini deserve the highest credit, has endeavoured to fortify his conclusions by some additional evidence, derived from the works of Chinese travellers; and other writers on the same subject have followed his example, though they have given a different interpretation to the statements of those travellers, and have arrived at different results as to the probable date of Pânini. The evidence of these Buddhist pilgrims, however, yields no real results, either for or against the date assigned to Pânini and Kâtyâyana, and it is for this reason that it has been entirely discarded in the preceding pages. Professor Böhtlingk relied on the testimony of Hiouen-thsang, a Buddhist pilgrim who travelled through India in the years 629—645 after Christ, and whose travels have lately been translated by M. Stanislas Julien. There we read¹: