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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
JUNE, 1924
as a learned language; it only gradually attained to a more extensive use, till from the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. onward, it became the literary language of the whole of
India 14
Though this theory is, in my opinion, untenable because of the fact that the language of the ancient epic was Sanskrit (962), still it would be of interest to put together what we can gather from the Kauçiliya regarding the use and spread of classical Sanskrit. First of all, the fact that the Arthasastra itself is written in Sanskrit is certain enough thousands of things, ideas, conditions, etc., of common, political and economic life find their expression in that work in Sanskrit, not in Prakrit. The subjects treated there, with quite a few exceptions, lie completely outside the sphere of priestly schools ; if however these latter still treated of such things, they would cease to be “priestly " schools, and would become what we must designate the scientific and literary circles of India. This conclusion holds good not only for the time of Kautilya, but also for the preceding period, during which came into existence those works of his predecessors, which he has quoted and utilised.
Paradoxical as the statement may sound, the Kiinasáélra stands in internal relationship with the Arthasásint, since each of the three objects of the Trivarga-Dharma, Artha and Kama---was capable of being treated scientifically or systematically, and as soon as two of these objects were partially dealt with, the treatment of the third followod with a certain nccessity. The close relationship between the Arthasastra and the Kamasastru is disclosed externally by the fact that, among works which have come down to us, both have followed the same arrangement, method of treatment, and style of diction, and are therefore to be regarded as belonging to a distinct category, distinguished from other works. To mention only a few instances : both works contain in their beginning the identical words : 16 tasyd'yam prakaranadhikaranasamuddeśaḥ: the table of contents consisting in the enumeration of the chapters, and the last section in both is called the secret lore, Aupanisadikam. Two more verbal resemblances, besides those above pointed out, are to be found : Kaut. 1. 6, p. 11; Kamas. 1. 2, p. 24; UT T1 T: TWTETAPHAFTA: TIET
GATTI and Kaut. IX. 7, p. 369; Kamas, VI. 6, p. 353 : STU v TH portret: sauts : TIEK ERRE : dvesa however stands for soka in the Kamasutra
In this case, the borrowing party is undoubtedly Vateya yana;16 he might well be later than Kautilya by some centuries, for his mention of Grahalagnabala in III. 1, p. 192, appears to display an acquaintance with Greek Astrology of which (963) there is not to be found any trace in the Kauţiliya.1' Though however our Kamasutra is later
14 M. E. Senart formulates his view thus:--As for the classical Sanskrit, based in a Bralumanic environment materially on the Vedic language, and cauad, as a matter of fact by the first application of writing to popular dialects, it must be placed between the third century B.C., and the first century A.D. Its public or official use began to spread only at the end of the first century or the beginning of the second century A.D. No work of the classical literature can be anterior to this epoch. J4., VIIT, t. 8, p. 404. Compare ibid., pp. 334, 339. Prof. Rhys Davida propounds similar views, principally in the eighth and ninth chapters of his work, op. cit.; on p. 153, he enunciates the linguistic development of India in thirteen stages, of which the classical Sanskrit is the eleventh. "For long, the literary language only of the priestly schools, it was first used in inscriptions and coins from the second century A.D. onwards; and from the fourth and fifth centurios onwards, became the lingua franca for all India."
15 Kaurulya, p. 1: Kámasdtra, p. 7.
16 In Kamasutra, 1. 2, p. 13, ho relies upon the Adhyaksapracara, by which vory probably is meant the second adhikaraga of the Kaupillya.
17 In his definition of Kama (p. 13), Vatayâyana proceede on the ideas of the Vaidesiko, & system which Kautilya, however, does not know. श्रोत्रत्वचक्षुर्जिद्वामाणानामात्मसंयुक्तेन मनसाधिष्ठितानां स्वेषु स्वेषु fans are: #14: 1 Compare Valse. Dagsana, V. 2. 16. The idea underlying this statement is made clear by the following explanation of the Tarkasangrahadipika: TEHT HTET egra 77 इन्द्रियन इन्द्रिबमर्थेन ततः प्रत्यक्ष ज्ञान संपयते।
