Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c32.s1.80

c32.s1.80

(v) The political data taking us to the Maurya times, we have further materials to hold that the book could not have been written in the later Maurya times. The position of the Śākyas and Ājīvakas could not be low as in the A. (III. 20),² they being grouped together with or as Śūdra monks. Under Aśoka or his successors it was not likely that a law hostile to them would have been promulgated. Again, the sarcasm of Patañjali that the Mauryas were fond of money (gold), finds corroboration in the A. that the Maurya sovereign did institute 'archas' or worships for making money.³ Now Aśoka could not have done it, he was too conscientious and religious for that. His descendants were also religious. The datum of Patañjali and the A. thus should refer either to Chandragupta or to Bindusāra, and under both sovereigns K served.