History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c4.12

v1.c4.12

P. 181 The late Sir Ramakrishna Bhandarkar outdid even Western scholars in assigning Yājñavalkya to a date not earlier than the 6th century A. D. In his work ‘Vaiṣṇavism and Śaivism’ (p. 148) the learned doyen of modern Sanskrit studies in Western India holds that the worship of Gaṇeśa is a late one, as it is not mentioned in the Gupta inscriptions. The veteran scholar did not notice the points brought out in my book (such as the mention of nakṣatras from Kṛttikā). He is willing to assign Amarasiṁha to the 5th or 6th century A. D. (ibid. p. 45). The great lexicographer mentions Vināyaka and his synonyms (such as ekadanta &c), but the words Mita, Sammita that are given as the appellations of Vināyaka in Yāj. are conspicuous by their absence in Amara's lexicon. Hence the conclusion is that Amara wrote centuries after Yājñavalkya and that Vināyaka worship had taken a complexion before Amara flourished that was very different from what it was in Yājñavalkya's day.