Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume VIII.djvu/38

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have flourished about 140 B.C.^[1] Now a considerable time must have intervened between Sabarasyâmin and another commentator on the Pûrva Mîmâmsâ, whom Sabara quotes with the highly honorific title Bhagavân, the Venerable, namely, Upavarsha. Upavarsha appears from Sankara's statement to have commented on the Vedânta-sûtras^[2]. We have thus a long catena of works from the seventh century a.c., indicating a pretty high antiquity for the Vedanta-sûtras, and therefore a higher one for the Bhagavadgîtâ. The antiquity of the Vedânta-sûtras follows also from the circumstance, which we have on the testimony of Râmânuga, repeated by Mâdhavâkârya, that a commentary on the Sûtras was written by Baudhâyanâkârya^[3], which commentary Râmânuga says he followed. Baudhâyanâ's date is not accurately settled. But he appears to be older than Âpastamba, whose date, as suggested by Dr. Bühler, has already been mentioned^[4]. The Vedânta-sûtras, then, would appear to be at least as old as the fourth century B.C.; if the information we have from Râmânuga may be trusted. A third argument may be mentioned, bearing on the date of the Vedânta-sûtras. In Sûtra 110 of the third Pâda of the fourth Adhyâya of Pânini's Sûtras, a Pârâsarya is mentioned as the author of a Bhikshu-sûtra. Who is this Pârâsarya, and what the Bhikshu-sûtra? Unluckily Patañgali gives us no information on this head, nor does the Kâsikâ ${\mbox{V}}ri{\mbox{tti}}$. But a note of Professor Târânâtha Tarkavâkaspati, of Calcutta, says that Pârâsarya is Vyâsa, and the Bhikshu-sûtra is the Vedânta-sûtra^[5]. If this is correct, the Vedânta-sûtras go very far indeed into antiquity. For ${\mbox{Pâ}}n{\mbox{ini}}$ can certainly not be assigned to a later date than the fourth century B.C., while that learned

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1. The authorities are collected in our edition of Bhartrihâri (Bombay Series of Sanskrit Classics), Introd. p. xi note. See also Bühler's Âpastamba in this series, Introd. p. xxviii.
2. See Colebrooke's Essays, vol. i, p. 332. An Upavarsha is mentioned in the Kathâsaritsâgara as living in the time of king Nanda, and having ${\mbox{Pâ}}n{\mbox{ini}}$, Kâtyâyana, and ${\mbox{Vyâ}}d{\mbox{i}}$ for his pupils.
3. See the Râmânuga Bhâshya; and the Râmânuga Darsana in Sarvadarsana-san̲graha.
4. Âpastamba, p. xvi.
5. See Siddhânta Kaumudî, vol. i, p. 592.