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for Pusyamitra, and rightly infers that Patanjali was engaged in writing the third book of his commentary at a time when a sacrifice extending over a prolonged period was being performed for Puşyamitra. He is certainly also right in assuming that the reference is to Pusyamitra's asvamedha.
On the other hand we have the rule Panini III.II. 111, anadyatane lan, the imperfect (is used) to denote what is not of today, where Kātyāyana adds the värttika parokṣe ca lokavijñāte prayoktur darśanaviṣaye, and (the same tense should be used) about what is beyond the range of sight, but unversally known and capable of being witnessed by the narrator. To illustrate this Patanjali gives two instances: aruṇad Yavanaḥ Sāketam, the Yavana besieged Saketa, and aruṇad Yavano Madhyamikām, the Yavana besieged Madhyamikā. Of these places Saketa is another name of Ayodhya, and Madhyamikā the name of an ancient city in the Udaipur State. It is not of course possible to draw any certain conclusion from the fact that Saketa is mentioned before Madhyamikā, but the natural inference is that some Yavana ruler during an expedition into India laid siege first to Saketa and subsequently to Madhyamikā. At all events we must conclude that the operations refered to were taking place about the time when Patanjali wrote the third book of his commentary and they were accordingly contemporaneous with Pusyamitra's horse sacrifice.
A similar inference can be drawn from Kālidāsa's Mālavikāgnimitra, which is no doubt based on traditionary accounts current in Ujjayini and adapted to suit the actual situation at the time when the drama was written, when we must infer that the paramount ruler of Magadha, whom I identify with Samudragupta, was going to perform a horse sacrifice, to which he invited his son Candragupta Vikramaditya, the viceroy of Malava. According to the Mālavikāgnimitra Puṣyamitra, who is here styled senāpati and called Vaidiśa, i.e. a man from Vidiśā, the present Besnagar in Mālava, sends an invitation to his son Agnimitra in Vidiśā asking for his attendance at the forthcoming rājayajña, i.e. horse sacrifice. It is further stated that the sacrificial horse, that had been let loose for a period of one year, had been claimed on the right bank of Sindhu by Yavana cavallery (aśvānīkena Yavanena). Puşyamitra's grandson Vasumitra, however, repelled the assault and released the horse.
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