Arrange the following in chronological order, beginning with the earliest.
(A) Early Buddhist texts including the Tripitaka
(B) Charaka and Sushruta
(C) Ashtadhyayi of Panini
(D) Natyashastra of Bharata
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → (C), (A), (B), (D)
The dates of these early texts are approximate, so they are placed by the period in which each took its form:
(C) Ashtadhyayi of Panini — about the 5th–4th century BCE. Panini’s grammar laid down the rules of Sanskrit about 2,500 years ago.
(A) Early Buddhist texts including the Tripitaka — the Buddha’s teachings were collected by monks after his death, arranged into the three “baskets” (pitakas) between about 500 and 100 BCE, and written down in Sri Lanka in the 1st century BCE.
(B) Charaka and Sushruta — the medical works of Charaka and Sushruta took their present form about 100 CE; tradition makes Charaka the physician of the Kushana king Kanishka.
(D) Natyashastra of Bharata — the treatise on drama, music and dance took its present form about 300 CE, the latest of the four.