The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c11.s1.t35.26

c11.s1.t35.26

In D. R. Bhandarkar's final argument (pp. 56, 61) the *Arthaśāstra* in the main (excluding the first and the last chapters) is composed in *Dharmasūtra* style and may therefore belong to the period from the seventh to the second century B.C. He furnishes instances of Vaśiṣṭha's *Dharmaśāstra* as well as a Jātaka quoting from the *Arthaśāstra*. And these instances point to the pre-Asokan origin of the treatise. The first and last chapters may have been added "shortly before the time" of *Kāmandakī*, says he, and there may have been a few interpolations in that process of "imparting a finishing touch to the *Arthaśāstra* of Kauṭalya."