History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.39

v7.c92.39

¹⁶⁸² In *JRAS* for 1906 pp. 355-362 B. C. Majumdar endeavours to show that the two hymns to Durgā are late interpolations in the Mahābhārata, probably derived from practices of non-Aryan Śūdras in Oriyaspeaking hill tribes of Sambalpur. But he forgets that apart from other sources Kālidāsa (not later than about 400 A D.) speaks of Pārvatī as Umā, Aparṇā, Durgā, Gaurī, Bhavānī and Caṇḍī in his several works and also that Kālidāsa refers to the Ardhanārīśvara form of Śiva. In the last verse of the Śākuntala Kālidāsa speaks of Śiva as 'parigata-śaktih' and thereby suggests that at least the germs of the later Śakti worship were not unknown in his times. Therefore, the worship of Durgā in her several aspects is older than 300 A D. by at least a century or more; vide pp. 185-186 above