263 
1874.] Rajendralala Mitra —The Yavanas of Sanskrit Writers. 
speaker relates a past fact belonging to a time which precedes the present, 
and Katyayana improves on this rule by observing that it is used too 
when the fact related is out of sight , notorious , hut eoulcl he seen hg the per¬ 
son ivho uses the verb. And Patanjali again appends to this Varttika the 
following instances and remarks : “ The Yamna besieged (imperfect) Ago- 
dhga ; the Yamna besieged (imperfect) the MddhgamiJcas. Why does 
Ivatyayana say : ‘ out of sight ?' (because in such an instance as) 4 the sun 
rose’ (the verb must be in the aorist). Why 1 notorious ?' (because in such 
an instance as) ‘ Devadatta made a mat’ (the verb must be in the preterite). 
Why does he say : ‘ but when the fact could be seen bg the person who uses 
the verb T (because in such an instance as) according to a legend, Vasudeva 
killed Kansa, (the verb must likewise be in the preterite). 
“ Hence he plainly informs us, and this is acknowledged also by Nagoji- 
bhatta, that he lived at the time—though he was not on the spot—when 
the Yavana besieged Agodhgdf and at the time when “ the Yamna besieged 
the JKadhgami has .’’ For the very contrast which lie marks between these 
and the other instances proves that he intended practically to impress his 
contemporaries with a proper use of the imperfect tense. 
Now, if we accept the date of Buddha’s death to be 513 B. C., and 
the period of Nagarjuna, the founder of the Madhymika sect, to be four 
hundred years after the death of Buddha, we would bring the time of 
Patanjali to 143 B. C. ; the time would be only 43 B. C., if the interval 
between the death of Buddha and the promulgation of the doctrines 
in question be five hundred years as supposed by some. Then deduct¬ 
ing therefrom sixty-six years which Lassen and Max Muller suppose 
are due to a mistake in the tradition on the subject, and the date 
would be brought down to twenty-three years after Christ. Again, Abhe- 
manyu of Kashmir is said to have encouraged the work of Patanjali, and 
flourished in GO A. C. Thus we have a wide range of two hundred and three 
years, from 143 B. C. to 66 A. C., for the date of Patanjali, and during that 
time the Greeks, the Bactrians, and the Scythians, severally attacked India on 
* Preface to the Manava Kalpa Sutra* p. 229. 
III. 2, III: Katyayana: ^ 
WFrfh^.—Patanjali: qTTi? ^ WF I 
rr farsrq i ^ ii i 
^fFlT^T ^ 3 T § . — K aiyy at a : ^frf I W‘7WT^fr?T 
—Nagojibhatta on these in¬ 
stances of Patanjali: HTsi qrrqT^fcT fsfffM ^ 
