The Mauryan Polity c5.s2.t2.15

c5.s2.t2.15

Again the argument that the work contains correct *triṣṭubh* stanzas in regular metre and the metre of the *ślokas* is far more classical than that of the *Rāmāyaṇa* is no proof of the later date of the *Arthaśāstra*, but is a proof positive as to the antiquity of the epic, the *Rāmāyaṇa*. India was familiar with classical metre and *triṣṭubh* *ślokas* in the sixth century B.C. if not earlier. We know that as many as 43 stanzas occur in the *Bṛhaddevata* whose approximate date is fixed as later than 500 B.C. and earlier than 400 B.C.¹ On this account, therefore, to bring down the age of the work is inconclusive.