that he was Sankara's Paramaguru, and not having properly understood the
meaning of this expression, Mr. Sinnett wrote that he was Sankara's
Guru.
It is generally admitted by Orientalists that Patanjali lived before the
commencement of the Christian era. Mr. Barth places him in the second
century before the Christian era, accepting Goldstucker's opinion, and
Monier Williams does the same thing. Weber, who seems to have carefully
examined the opinions of all the other Orientalists who have written
upon the subject, comes to the conclusion that "we must for the present
rest satisfied with placing the date of the composition of the Bhashya
between B.C. 140 and A.D. 60, a result which considering the wretched
state of the chronology of Indian Liturgy generally is, despite its
indefiniteness, of no mean importance." And yet even this date rests
upon inferences drawn from one or two unimportant expressions contained
in Patanjali's Mahabhashya. It is always dangerous to draw such
inferences, and especially so when it is known that, according to the
tradition current amongst Hindu grammarians, some portions of
Mahabhashya were lost, the gaps being filled up by subsequent writers.
Even supposing that we should consider the expression quoted as written
by Patanjali himself, there is nothing in those expressions which would
enable us to fix the writer's date. For instance, the connection
between the expression "Arunad Yavanah Saketam" and the expedition of
Menander against Ayodhya between B.C. 144 and 120, relied upon by
Goldstucker is merely imaginary. There is nothing in the expression to
show that the allusion contained therein points necessarily to
Menander's expedition. We believe that Patanjali is referring to the
expedition of Yavanas against Ayodhya during the lifetime of Sagara's
father described in Harivamsa. This expedition occurred long before
Rama's time, and there is nothing to connect it with Menander.
Goldstucker's inference is based upon the assumption that there was no
other Yavana expedition against Ayodhya known to Patanjali, and it will
be easily seen from Harivamsa (written by Vyasa) that the said
assumption is unwarranted. Consequently the whole theory constructed by
Goldstucker on this weak foundation falls to the ground. No valid
inferences can be drawn from the mere names of kings contained in
Mahabhashya, even if they are traced to Patanjali himself, as there
would be several kings in the same dynasty bearing the same name. From
the foregoing remarks it will be clear that we cannot fix, as Weber has
done, B.C. 140 as the maximum limit of antiquity that can be assigned to
Patanjali. It is now necessary to see whether any other such limit has
been ascertained by Orientalists. As Panini's date still remains
undetermined, the limit cannot be fixed with reference to his date. But
it is assumed by some Orientalists that Panini must have lived at some
time subsequent to Alexander's invasion, from the fact that Panini
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