Rough as may be the
calculations offered, it is impossible to go deeper into any subject of
this class within the narrow limits prescribed, and without recourse to
data not generally accessible. In the words of Prof. Max Muller:--"The
Code of Manu is almost the only work in Sanskrit literature which, as
yet, has not been assailed by those who doubt the antiquity of
everything Indian. No historian has disputed its claim to that early
date which had from the first been assigned to it by Sir William Jones"
("Hist. Sans, Lit." p. 61). And now, pray, what is this extremely
"early date?" "From 880 to 1200 B.C.," we are told. We will then, for
the present purpose, accept this authoritative conclusion. Several
facts, easily verifiable, have to be first of all noticed:--(1) Manu in
his many enumerations of Indian races, kingdoms and places, never once
mentions Bengal; the Aryan Brahmans had not yet reached, in the days
when his Code was compiled, the banks of the Ganges nor the plains of
Bengal. It was Arjuna who went first to Banga (Bengal) with his
sacrificial horse.
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