The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus c4.s1.t2.67

c4.s1.t2.67

and Udayana, who wrote the Parisuddhi on the Tátparyyatíká of Váchaspati, could not have been a contemporary of the latter, as will also appear from the invocation to Sarasvati in the opening lines of the Parisuddhi. Váchaspati, then, preceded Udayana by 142 years, and must have been himself preceded by the author of the Vyása-Bháshya by a longer interval still, for Váchaspati ascribes the Bháshya to Veda-Vyása himself (**वेदव्यासेन भाषिते भाष्ये ज्ञात्वा विधास्यते**). The internal evidence also points to the conclusion that the Bháshya cannot have been composed later than the sixth century—*cf.* the quotations from Pañchasikha, Várshaganya, and the Shashthi-Tantra-Sástra, without a single reference to Ísvara-Krishna—which is decisive. I may add that I remember to have come across passages of a similar import in Buddhist and other writings of a still earlier date.