therefore, if we accept Dr. Hall's opinion as a basis, it seems to
follow that the Mudrârâkshasa was probably composed at the latest
about the century prior to the 11th century A. D. This argument,
it must never be forgotten, only yields a terminus ad quem for
the date of our play. And this terminus would fit in very well
with the hypothetical conclusion which has been indicated above
as derivable from the last stanza of the play.
On that last stanza there is another remark germane to this branch of our subject, which may now be made. One of our MSS. --the one marked E-reads अवन्तिवर्मा, instead of चन्द्रगुप्तः in the last line of that stanza. Another -that marked N-reads रन्तिवर्मा। It is not quite impossible that the difference between E and N is due only to miscopying, and that in both MSS. one name only was intended whether that name be Rantivarmâ or Avanti- varmâ. As to the former, Rantivarmâ, I am unable to find any trace of that name anywhere. But we find two kings, named Avantivarmâ, mentioned in the documents accessible to us. One king of that name is the famous Avantivarmâ of Kas'mir.*** But that province is too far off from the provinces to which the two MSS. in question belong, and too little connected with them, to justify us in identifying the Avantivarmâ mentioned in one of them with this king of Kås'mir, We know, however, of another Avantivarmâ, who was the father of the Maukhari king Grahavarmâ, the husband of the sister of Harshavardhana of Kanoj.| He must have been a king of Western Magadha or Behar, and, if our author was an inhabitant of that part of the country, it is not impossible that this play was written by him in the reign of Avantivarmâ, and so his name came to be substituted for Chandragupta in the stanza referred to. If this identification is correct, as Avantivarmâ's date may probably be taken to be somewhere about the seventh century A. D., that would also be the date of Visâkhadatta. And as the Maukhari princes may possibly have joined their neigh-
- See Rajatarangini, Chap. V., and Bubler's Tour in Kas'mir,
J. B. B. R. A. S. (Special No.), p. 74. |+ Cunningham's Arch. Surv. Report, Vol, XV., p. 164. Vol. XVI., pp. 73-78; and see Harshacharita, p. 108. Another Avantıvarmâ, apparently, is mentioned at J. A. S. B. Vol. XXX., p. 321, but nothing has been ascertained about his date, &c. A king Avanti is mentioned at Gaņaratnamabodadhi, p. 123.
