The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c11.s1.t9.7

c11.s1.t9.7

As for the date or age of the *Arthaśāstra* he examines six kinds of evidence,—(1) religious, (2) political, (3) historical, (4) literary, (5) philological and (6) astronomical. In his judgment Kauṭalya's work was composed during a period in which Pāṇini's work was either unknown or had not attained wide celebrity and influence. The *Arthaśāstra* is therefore according to him pre-Pāṇinian, *i.e.* previous to 350 B.C. Besides, the *Arthaśāstra* is said to follow the *Jyotiṣa-vedāṅga*, the astronomical treatise, which according to Burgess (*J.R.A.S.* 1893, p. 752) "preserves the main features of Indian astronomical knowledge before it was modified or affected by that of the Greeks" (pp. 27, 120-127).