[INDOLOGY] Query: Date of the Bhagavatam

[Dominic Goodall]

Friedhelm Hardy’s very significant observations in Viraha-Bhakti on the indebtedness of the Bhāgavatapurāṇa to the Tamil poetry of the Āḻvārs should surely be mentioned here !

As I have pointed out in annotation to a translation of Bhāgavata X, chapter 31, the second-syllable rhyming used in passages of heightened emotion is further evidence of this Tamilian influence. The style of the work, as many have observed, really stands out from amongst other run-of-the-mill Purāṇas.

And one should also consider Charlotte Schmid’s observations based on South Indian narrative sculpture about Kṛṣṇa : “Aventures divines de Kṛṣṇa : la līlā et les traditions narratives des temples cōḻa” in Arts Asiatiques 2002.

In view of all this, such early dates as C7th and C8th seem implausible and such late ones as 1200 seem very unlikely.

Dominic Goodall




> On 21-Jul-2015, at 8:49 am, David and Nancy Reigle <dnreigle at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Since no one has yet replied to this, perhaps there is not much new on this question. As we all know, the continuing upabṛṃhaṇa, expansion or supplementation, of the purāṇas makes them almost impossible to date accurately. Since their older parts may be separated from their later parts by centuries, are we seeking the date of their latest redaction?  
> 
> In the critical edition, The Bhāgavata (ed. H. G. Shastri, Bharati K. Shelat, K. K. Shastree, B.J. Institute of Learning and Research, Ahmedabad, 1996-1999), an "Epilogue" volume was published in 2002 (vol. 4, part 3), which has just over two pages on "Time and Composition of the BGP" (pp. 15-17). K. K. Shastree there concludes (p. 16): "It means that the time of composing the BGP is not earlier than the latter half of the 7th cent., A.D. and not later than the first half of the 8th cent., A.D."
> 
> However, Ganesh Vasudeo Tagare in the Introduction to vol. 1 of his English translation of The Bhāgavata-purāṇa (1976, p. xxxvi) points out that a Purāṇa Bhāgavata is named in the Jaina text, Nandī-sūtra. Since this Jaina text can be dated around 500 C.E., some version of the Bhāgavata-purāṇa existed then. This is in his section, "The Date and Authorship of the Bh.P.," pp. xxxiv-xlii. He begins this section by listing thirteen proposed dates for the Bhāgavata-purāṇa, ranging from 1200 B.C. to 1300 A.D., and their sources. Included here is the date proposed by 
> purāṇa specialist R. C. Hazra, author of the 1940 classic work, Studies in the Purānic Records on Hindu Rites and Customs, as 600 A.D. 
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> David Reigle
> Colorado, U.S.A.
> 
> On Mon, Jul 20, 2015 at 2:15 PM, George Hart <glhart at berkeley.edu <mailto:glhart at berkeley.edu>> wrote:
> I would be most grateful if someone could post (or email me) the latest ideas about the date of the Bhagavatam. Working mostly with Tamil, I’m not in the loop about such matters and I need to say something in the introduction to my translation of the Akanāṉūṟu. (Of course, I will acknowledge any help). Thanks. George Hart 
> 
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Dominic Goodall
École française d'Extrême-Orient,
19, rue Dumas,
Pondicherry 605001
Tel. +91 413 2334539




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