for the proposition that a king must protect all castes and all orders or âsramas. Manu, therefore, must have lived considerably earlier than Kâlidâsa, and the Gîtâ, as we have already argued, must be considerably earlier, not only than Manu, but also than his predecessor Âpastamba. The Gîtâ, may, therefore, be safely said to belong to a period several centuries prior to the fifth century a.c.
The next piece of external evidence is furnished by the Vedânta-sûtras of Bâdarâyana. In several of those Sûtras, references are made to certain Smritis as authorities for the propositions laid down. Take, for instance, I, 2, 6, or I, 3, 23, and many others. Now three of these sûtras are very useful for our present purpose. The first we have to consider is Sûtra II, 3, 45. The commentators Sankarâkârya, Râmânuga, Madhva, and Vallabha[1] are unanimous in understanding the passage in Gîtâ, chapter XV, stanza 7 (p. 112), to be the one there referred to by the words of the Sûtra, which are, 'And it is said in a Smriti.' Now a glance at the context of the Sûtra will, I think, satisfy us that the commentators, who are unanimous though representing different and even conflicting schools of thought, are also quite right. Sûtra 43, in the elliptical language characteristic of that branch of our literature, says, 'A part, from the statement of difference, and the reverse also; some lay down that it is a fisherman or a cheat.' Sûtra 44 runs thus, 'And also from the words of the Mantra.' And then comes Sûtra 45 as set out above. It is plain, that the Sûtra No. 45 indicates an authority for something not specified, being regarded as part of some other thing also not specified. Now the discussion in previous Sûtras has been about the soul; so we can have little difficulty in accepting the unanimous interpretation of the commentators, that the proposition here sought to be made out is that the individual soul is part of the Supreme Soul, which is the proposition laid down in the Gîtâ in the passage referred to. The
- ↑ I am indebted to Professor M. M. Kunte for a loan of Vallabhâkârya's commentary on the Sûtras noted in the text. I had not seen it in 1875, when I last discussed this question.
