242 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
But there are other circumstances which definitely point to a later date.
The Mahabharat contains a reference to the Huns. It was Skandagupta who fought the Huns and defeated them in or about the year 455 A.D. Notwithstanding this the invasions of the Huns continued till 528 A.D. It is obvious that the Mahabharat was being written about his time or therefter.
There are other indications which suggest a much later date. The Mahabharat refers to the Mlenchhas or the Muslims. In the 190th Adhyaya of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharat there is a verse 29 wherein the author says that “the whole world will be Islamic. All Yadnas, rites and ceremonies and religious celebrations will cease”. This is a direct reference to the Muslims and although the verse speaks of what is to happen in the future, the Mahabharat being a Purana must as in the case of the Purana be taken to speak of the event that has happened. This verse so interpreted show that the Mahabharat was being written after the date of the Muslim invasions of India.
There are other references which point to the same conclusion.
In the same Adhyaya verse 59, it is said that “Oppressed by the Vrashalas, the Brahmins struck with fear and finding no one to protect them, will roam all over the world groaning and crying in agony”.
The Vrashalas referred to in this verse cannot be the Buddhists. There is no particle of evidence that the Brahmins were ever oppressed. On the contrary the evidence is that the Brahmins, during the Buddhists regime, were treated with the same liberality as the Buddhist Bhikshus. The reference to the Vrashalas means the uncultured must be to the Islamic invaders.
There occur other verses in the same Adhyaya of the Vanaparva. They are 65, 66 and 67. In these verses it is said that, “Society will become disarranged. People will worship Yedukas. They will boycott Gods. The Shudras will not serve the twice-born. The whole world will be covered with Yedukas. The Yug will come to an end.”
What is the meaning of the term ‘ Yedukas ’? By some it has been taken to mean a Buddhist Chaitya. But according to Mr. Kausambi [1 ] this is wrong. Nowhere either in the Buddhist literature or in the Vedic literature is the word Yeduka used in the sense of ‘Chaitya’. On the contrary according to the Amarkosh as commented upon by Maheshwar Bhatt the word Yeduka means a wall which contains a wooden structure to give it strength. So understood Kausambi contends that the word Yeduka must mean ‘Idgaha’ of the Musalmans before which they say their prayers. If this is a correct interpretation
1 Hindi Sanskriti Ani Ahimsa. p. 156.