I propose using set builtin function of bash before pasting your code. You can adjust this code to receive a list of args, I guess:

#! /usr/bin/perl

sub whatever
{
        my ($arg1,$arg2)=@_;
    system << "ARGS" . <<'SCRIPT';
if [ -n "$arg1" ]
then
        set $arg1 $arg2
fi
ARGS
date
echo "what about this?"
echo $1 $2
SCRIPT
}

whatever $ARGV[0], $ARGV[1];
[download]

Or more generic :

#! /usr/bin/perl

sub whatever
{
    system << "ARGS" . <<'SCRIPT';
if [ -n "@_" ]
then
        set @_
fi
ARGS
date
echo "what about this?"
echo $*
SCRIPT
}

whatever @ARGV;
[download]