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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
In his article on The Nārāyaṇīya and the Bhāgavatas published in the Indian Antiquary, September, 1908, Grierson put forward a somewhat remarkable hypothesis (pp. 253–4) of the solar origin of Bhāgavatism. The view does not appear to have attracted much notice from scholars competent to pronounce an opinion on the subject; but it has neither been directly approved nor directly discredited.Since the theory has been repeated by Grierson in his article on Bhakti-mārga in Hastings’ Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics ii, p. 540, where he practically reproduces his previous statements and arguments, a few remarks on the question may be offered.
page 670 note 1 Whether bhakti in its earlier historical stages was at all monotheistic is a question which, as Miss Mrinal Das Gupta (IHQ. vi, 1930, pp. 331–3) has already shown, is extremely debatable. Early Indian monotheism need not have been a purely ethical doctrine, centring round devotional ideas; it was also speculative and ritualistic, as evidenced by the Agni-Brahmaṇaspati-Hiraṇyagarbha-Prajāpati hymns and by later Brāhmanic and theosophic theories. The idea of the All-god and the One-god must, however, be distinguished.
page 671 note 1 The antiquity and the indigenous character of the worship of the Saura cult must be admitted; but foreign influence, chiefly from Iranian sources, on the later development of the cult is also probable (see R. G. Bhandarkar, Vaiṣṇavism, etc.,§§ 114–16).
page 672 note 1 Early History of the Vaiṣṇava Sect, p. 26.