History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c90.164.2

v7.c90.164.2

that the first section of the present Viṣṇudharmottara is called Viṣṇudharma or that the Viṣṇudharmottara is so called because it was composed after the Viṣṇupurāṇa, which contains the greatness of Viṣṇu and the dharmas of Vaiṣṇavas He often trots out the theory that, if a work is free from Tantric elements, it must be an early work belonging to the 3rd or 4th century A D (see p. 142). The Sarvadarśanasaṅgraha of Mādhavācārya (which was composed in the 14th century) makes no reference to the cult of Śakti or the system of Tantra, though it devotes a good deal of space to the views of even Cārvāka (a thorough-going atheist), Bauddhas and Jainas. The Sarvasiddhāntasaṅgraha also does not refer to the Śāktas or the Tantras But no one can argue that Mādhava is earlier than 4th or 5th century A D. There may be various reasons for silence. One may abhor a thing and may not refer to it or use it at all as the Dānasāgara says about the Devīpurāṇa. The argument from silence is a slippery one I challenge the whole basis of Prof. Hazra's date for Viṣṇudharma, viz the date of the Viṣṇudharmottara. This last is a vast work in three sections It would be proved later that portions of the latter Purāṇa dealing with prognostications from dreams cannot be placed earlier than about 600 to 650 A D. For the Viṣṇudharma we have to rely on what Prof. Hazra quotes. Chap. 66 quotes the famous words of the Gītā 'whenever there is decline of dharma &c.' (p. 143 n 94) and then the same chap.