Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c11.5

c11.5

Some new grounds have been adduced to show that the *Arthaśāstra* was a work of the period from the first to the third centuries A.D.³ It is contended that in Kauṭilya’s classification of knowledge positive sciences had begun to be separated from philosophy, and that this process can be assigned to the early centuries of the Christian era.¹ But there is no doubt that the principal disciplines mentioned by Kauṭilya, i.c. *kalpa*, (ritual), *vyākaraṇa* (grammar), and *nirukta* (etymology), existed as subjects of study in the pre-Mauryan period. It is to be further noted that the mention of the *lokāyata* (materialistic) system of philosophy in the *Arthaśāstra* does not imply any later date for that work.² The *lokāyata* system is perhaps pre-Buddhist,³ and definitely pre-Mauryan, for it is clearly mentioned in the early Buddhist texts.⁴