We note next that of all the books of the second class, Bunkim Chundra’s Krishnacharitra is the only work that gives any independent criticism: all the rest, with the single exception of Srikrishner Jivana O Dharma, merely echo his arguments. Thus Bunkim Babu’s theory is the only one we need discuss.
Now the whole critical structure of the Krishnacharitra rests upon the passage on pages 41 and 42, where the date of Pānini is discussed. Pānini is pushed back to 1000 B. C.; and, the ‘original’ Mahābhārata being earlier than Pānini, we are asked to believe that it was produced within a century or two of Kurukshetra, and that it is in consequence trustworthy historically. The whole argument thus rests on the date of Pānini.
We translate this important passage:—
“Goldstücker has proved that, when Pānini’s Sūtra was composed, Buddha had not arisen. In that case Pānini must belong to the sixth century B. C. But not only that, in his time the Brāhmanas, the Aranyakas, the Upanishads and the other parts of the Vedas had not been composed. Apart from the Rig, the Yajur, and the Sāma Vedas, nothing else existed. Asvalāyana, Sānkhāyana and the rest had not appeared. Max Müller says that the age in which the Brāhmanas were composed began about 1000 B. C. Dr. Martin Haug says that that was the end of the age, and that it began in the fourteenth century B. C. Therefore, if we say that Pānini must belong to the tenth or eleventh century B. C., we do not say too much.”
Now the first remark we make on this extraordinary piece of criticism is this, that Goldstücker and Max Müller are most unfairly conjoined to support a date which both of them would have indignantly repudiated. For Müller’s date for Pānini is the fourth century B.C.,[[292]] and Goldstücker never proposed to push him further back than the sixth century; indeed all that he claims is that he has brought forward evidence which affords a strong probability that Pānini preceded the origin of the Buddhistic creed.[[293]] Our next remark is that, though more than forty years have passed since Goldstücker’s book appeared,[[294]] he has convinced no one that the Brāhmanas and the Upanishads are posterior to Pānini’s grammar: opinions still differ as to Pānini’s precise date, but no scholar to-day puts him before the Brāhmanas.[[295]]
Can the grounds for this unanimity among modern scholars be vividly set forth? We believe they can. Here, as in our first chapter, we shall not attempt to fix a definite chronology, but shall simply aim at reaching the relative age of the great books we are dealing with; and we shall not deal with the meaning of disputed passages, but shall rest the case altogether on the clear and prominent features of history which every one can appreciate. There is, then, first of all the great broad fact that the Sūtras depend on the Brāhmanas, and are, in general, posterior to them, and that the language and style of Pānini’s Sūtras show that he belongs to about the middle of the Sūtra period.[[296]] All the detailed study of the last forty years has gone to strengthen this stable conclusion.
But there is another and still more conclusive proof that Pānini comes long after the early Brāhmanas. These ancient books are written in Vedic Sanskrit.[[297]] The early Upanishads are more modern in character, but even they belong to a stage of the language a good deal earlier than the Sūtras: Professor Macdonell’s words are, “the oldest Upanishads occupying a position linguistically midway between the Brāhmanas and the Sūtras.”[[298]] Thus the Brāhmanas were composed while Vedic Sanskrit was still the language of the Indo-Aryans. Now Pānini’s grammar deals with classical Sanskrit, not the Vedic speech. He deals with many points of Vedic grammar, it is true, but he deals with them as exceptions; his subject is classical Sanskrit. He laid down the law, which has ruled Sanskrit throughout the centuries since his day. Thus he arose at a time, when the language of the Brāhmanas had become archaic, and modern Sanskrit had taken its place.[[299]] It is thus absolutely impossible to believe that Pānini lived and wrote before the Brāhmanas were composed: to propose to put him back before their composition is much the same as proposing to push Johnson’s Dictionary back before Chaucer.
Another line of proof may also be indicated. Careful study of the early Brāhmanas has made it plain that they were composed after the collection of the hymns of the Rigveda, but before[[300]] the formation of the Sanhitā text (i.e., the text in which the words are joined according to the rules of Sandhi) and the Pada[[301]] text (i.e. the word by word text). The author of the Pada text is Sākalya.[[302]] Now Yāska refers to Sākalya as a predecessor;[[303]] and Yāska himself is earlier than Pānini.[[304]] Thus the historical order is the early Brāhmanas, the Sanhitā text, Sākalya, Yāska, Pānini.
Bunkim Babu’s date for Pānini being thus altogether untenable, his whole argument for the historicity of the Pāndava Mahābhārata and Krishna’s character as therein pourtrayed tumbles in ruins, and brings down with it all the rest of this Krishna literature.
We would invite our readers to turn away from these vain attempts to turn a myth into sober history, and to listen to the teaching of those really scholarly Indians who study Hinduism from a scientific standpoint. We have already referred to Sitanath Tattvabhushan’s Hindu Theism, and we have frequently used Bose’s Hindu Civilization under British Rule and R. C. Dutt’s works as authorities. We would now call attention to a monograph by one of the greatest scholars in Bengal (Comparative Studies in Vaishnavism and Christianity, by Brajendra Nath Seal), where[[305]] the growth of the Krishna legend is frankly discussed;[[306]] also to a very remarkable essay on Buddhist and Vishnuite in a recent number of Sāhitya[[307]] by the late Umes Chundra Batabyal, in which grave historical reasons are given for concluding that the Gītā is in part at least a polemic against Buddhism; and to the late Mr. Justice Telang’s introduction to his translation of the Gītā (S. B. E., vol. VIII), with regard to which readers will note, that, although the date is put a little earlier than most scholars would put it, no attempt is made to defend the traditional theory of the origin of the Song.