एतत् पृष्ठम् परिष्कृतम् अस्ति
17
INTRODUCTION.

preservation of India against the harassments of the Mlechchha Mussulmans points to its composition in that century.

It is not necessary to examine at any length the other argument which is suggested by Professor Wilson. Our note on the passage in question* (see P. 220 infra) will afford ample ground for considering that argument as being very far from satisfactory. And, therefore, we must now proceed to inquire whether there are any other materials available for forming an opinion on the question of the age when our author flourished. But before we do so, it is desirable to consider another point on which also Professor Wilson bases a chronological inference, though without deducing a date more definite than "one subsequent to the disappearance of the Bauddhas in India."*+ That point is that the antiquity of the play cannot be very great in consequence of its reference to the Jaina Kshapanaka Jivasiddhi. Professor Wilson's first argument in support of this point is based merely on the “introduction- of the Jainas” into the play which, by itself, he considers to be a mark of modernness++. One can only understand this argument when one remembers that Professor Wilson's estimate of the age of the Jaina system was a very low one&&. But in view of the facts and arguments bearing on this topic that are now available*॥, it seems to me impossible to accept Professor Wilson's premises, and the particular argument we are here dealing with must, therefore, fall to the ground. His second argument is based on what he considers to be the misapplication of the word Kshapanaka—a word which, Professor Wilson says, means not a Jaina, but a Bauddha only. Its application in the play to one who is plainly intended to be taken as a Jaina, not a Bauddha॥* involves, Professor Wilson thinks, a confusion of terms "which is characteristic of a period


  • Cf. also Hindu Theatre, Vol. I., p. 88, and Das'akumâracharita, p. 164 (Calc.

ed.) This work is attributed to the 6th century. See India: What it can teach us, p. 314; Indian Antiquary. Vol. III., P. S2; and Burnell's Aindra Grammer, p, 73. + Hindu Theatre, Vol. II., p. 159, note. This is a point on which something will have to be said in later portion of this Introduction. ++Hindu Theatre, Vol. II, p. 215. See Indian Antiquary, Vol. II., p. 193; Vol. VI., p. 15. Barth, Religions of India, p. 150. I See our Anugîtâ in the Sacred Books of the East, p. 225, and Barth, Religions of India, p, 151; J. B. B. R. A.S., Vol. XII., p. 54; Burgess's Arch. Sury. Report, Vol. V., p. 43. ॥ M. Barth is wrong in supposing him to be meant for & “ Buddhistic charac- ter," p. 134.

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