ON KRISHNA, AND SOLAR MYTHS. 187 
THE AUTHOR’S REPLY. 
Wirn regard to the date of the Bhagavad-Gita, I have not 
placed it in ‘the third century of the Christian era, but “after the 
third century ” ; that is, I have spoken of the third century as the 
most remote date probable. And here I think I am in good 
company, for I believe Professor Max Miiller places it in what he 
ealls the “* Renaissance period of Indian literature,” the commence- 
ment of which he gives as about 800 A.p.; and Sir Monier 
Williams speaks of it as, at all events, “a comparatively modern 
episode of the Mahabharata” (Religious Thought and Life in 
India, p. 63). It is perfectly true, as Professor Douglas says, that 
“nothing is so deluding as Oriental chronology”; what is to be 
noted, however, is, that recent researches have somewhat modified 
not a few dates once pretty widely received. Mr. Fergusson’s 
papers on Indian chronology in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic 
Society are, for instance, a case in point. And no doubt Professor 
Max Miiller is on very sure ground when he speaks of the “ blank 
in the Brahmanical literature of Indiafrom the first century before 
to the third century after our era” (India, p. 86. et seq.). 
It may not be out of place to remark that there is a passage near 
the end of the Bhagavad-Gita, which may, I think, indicate that it 
was written at a time when Vaishnavism was seeking by a party, 
and perhaps more or less secret, propagandism to supplant 
Buddhism. The passage I refer to is as follows :—* This [namely, 
the teaching of the Gita]* you should never declare to one who 
performs no penance, who is not a devotee, nor to one who does 
not wait on [some preceptor], nor yet to one who calumniates 
me’ (Telang’s Translation, p. 129). It has, indeed, by some been 
supposed that the reference is to the Saivites. But would not the 
“‘ performer of no penance,” the ‘ non-devotee,” the “ calumniators 
of Vaishnavism,” seem rather to point to the Buddhist than to 
the Saivite? At all events, this remarkable passage, when its 
actual reference becomes more clear in the light of a more perfect 
historical knowledge of Hinduism, should afford us some clue to 
* Prohibitions as to certain classes of learners are found at the close of 
other books also, ¢.g., Aitareya-Aranyaka, iii., 2, 6, 9. 
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