Date of the Mudraraksasa

Summary

Responding to a recent paper on the dating of the political drama Mudrārākṣasa, this note by Jarl Charpentier defends his earlier conclusion that the play was composed during the reign of Skandagupta in the late fifth century AD. Charpentier summarises arguments he had presented in 1923, noting that he analysed linguistic, political and cultural references in the text to show that it reflects conditions of the later Gupta period rather than the age of Candragupta II. He acknowledges that other scholars, including Speyer, Hillebrandt, Konow and Jayaswal, have proposed earlier dates, but he contends that their evidence is insufficient. He also criticises attempts to assign a specific year—such as 397 AD—for the composition, arguing that such precision is unattainable. He concludes that while exact dating is difficult, the Mudrārākṣasa was likely written shortly before the Hun invasions of India.