The Shulbasutras of Baudhayana, Apastamba, Katyayana and Manava: With Text, English Translation and Commentary c5.s1.4

c5.s1.4

Instead of working downwards from the high antiquity of Baudhāyana and Āpastamba whatever that antiquity might be, other scholars have preferred to consider the dates of later writers like Pāṇini, Kātyāyana, and Patañjali and work upwards to arrive at the dates of Baudhāyana and Āpastamba. Here again, Pāṇini's date itself is debatable and no better datable than other ancient texts. Nevertheless, scholars are generally agreed that Pāṇini most probably lived in the fourth century B.C. Keith argued that Pāṇini's date depended essentially on the date to be assigned to the *Mahābhāṣya* of Patañjali. Renou and Filliozat and Keith placed Patañjali's date around *c.* 150 B.C. on the ground that the *Mahābhāṣya referred to a sacrifice by Puṣyamitra who reigned around c.* 185 or 178 B.C.b In his *Veda of the Black Yajurveda*, Keith has observed that by 140 B.C. Pāṇini's work attained a commanding position as is evident by the clear proof of the elaborate way in which it was commented upon in Dākṣāyaṇi's *Saṃgraha*, by Kātyāyana and others and concluded that Pāṇini's date could hardly by any chance be later than 300 B.C., nor there could be any reason to deny that he might have lived about 350 B.C.