Bhagavata Purana - Origin and Date

Origin and Date

The Puranas are a type of traditional Hindu texts that took form during the medieval period, often both informed by earlier material and undergoing later interpolations. It is therefore problematic to assign a precise date to any such text, The Bhāgavata Purāṇa itself is a typical case, a text transformed by oral tradition which reached its "basic final shape" at some stage during the Indian Middle Ages.

Scholarly consensus holds that the text was completed no later than around 1000 CE, when it is mentioned by al Biruni and quoted by Abhinavagupta; the earliest suggestions of it are the composition of the Vishnu Purana and Harivamsa, and the Vaishnava Bhakti movement in South India, which limit its composition to after 500 CE. Within this range, scholars such as R. C. Hazra date it to the first-half of the sixth century, while most others place it in the post-Alvar period around the ninth century. The final redactor of the text was emphasizing the texts's claim to ancient origns by resorting to an archaizing Vedic flavour of Sanskrit.

The Bhāgavata itself claims primordial origins, while accepting that it has since been edited by human and divine hands. The text and Hindu tradition ascribe its authorship to Veda Vyasa, who is also credited as the scribe for the Vedas.

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa contains apparent references to the South Indian Alvar saints and it makes a post factum prophecy of the spread of Vishnu worship in Tamil country (BP XI.5.38–40); these facts, along with its emphasis on "emotional Bhakti to Krishna" and the "Advaita philosophy of Sankara", lead many scholars to trace its origins to South India. However, J. A. B. van Buitenen, a late professor of Indology at the University of Chicago points out that 10th–11th CE South Indian Vaishnava theologians Yamuna and Ramanuja do not refer to Bhāgavata Purāṇa in their writings, and this anomaly needs to be explained before the geographical origins and dating are regarded as definitive.