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was not however a literary composition—we come to Yaska and his Nirukta. Scientific as it is, the language of Yaska often reminds us of the earlier writings. The frequency of" verbal forms were current during the time of Panini. It was after the epoch of the Ashtadhyayi that a change had come over literary styles. Attributes attracted greater attention and compounds could alone compress long dependent sentences into the needed form. ' In argument the ablative of an abstract noun saves a long periphrasis/ The minute rules of Panini for constructing the innumerable verbal forms facilitated this mania for conciseness of expression. Thus the fluent or simple style came gradually to be displaced by the formative or attributive style, To this was added the richness and flexibility of the Sanskrit language itself, which allowed any sort of twisting and punning of the literary vocabulary. The Puranas and the Itihasas were composed at the transitional stage in the history of literary styles. They present at the same time the simplicity of the earlier language and the complexity of the later composition. So do the earliest specimens of poetic and dramatic literature. Hence the natural and not improbable conclusion is that if an author shows an easy and elegant style and if the flow of his language is more natural, it must be either his taste is too aesthetic for his age or his work must be assigned to an early period in the history of literature. This artificial style was greatly developed in the field of philosophy and dialectics. PatanjalPs language is most simple, lucid and impressive. The sentences are short and such as one-would use in oral disputations. No tiring compounds, nain. This construction is facilitated by a