Scholars approach the dating of the Bhaktamal and its redactions much as a careful pilgrim approaches a sacred landscape: by attending to many converging signs rather than a single marker. The core text, attributed to the Ramanandi saint Nabhadas, is generally placed in the late sixteenth to very early seventeenth century, often narrowed to around 1585–1600 (sometimes extended slightly beyond 1600). This placement rests on internal references to bhakti figures whose lives are independently known, as well as the style of Brajbhasha employed in the verses. The saints mentioned provide a terminus post quem, while the absence of clearly later figures suggests a terminus ante quem. By the time the next major layer of tradition appears, this core had already acquired enough authority to invite extensive commentary.

The most influential of these early expansions is the commentary by Priyadas, which transforms Nabhadas’s terse couplets into fuller hagiographical narratives. Scholars generally date this work to the early eighteenth century, with a commonly cited specific date of 1712. This dating is supported by colophons and manuscript evidence, and by the internal horizon of historical and sectarian references that clearly postdate Nabhadas yet still belong to the late Mughal milieu. The language and prose style likewise reflect a later phase of Braj usage, distinct from that of the original verses. In this way, Priyadas’s work stands as a bridge between the compact, mnemonic Bhaktamal and the more elaborate hagiographical traditions that follow.

Beyond Priyadas, the text’s history becomes a story of gradual accretion and regional adaptation. Later redactions and commentaries, largely from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, are dated through a combination of manuscript colophons, paleographic features, and the inclusion of saints and events that clearly belong to a later historical horizon. Linguistic shifts—from more classical Braj toward forms closer to modern Hindi, along with regional lexical coloring—also help to place these recensions in time. Cross-textual comparison with other hagiographies and historical sources further clarifies the relative sequence of layers. Through this cumulative scholarly effort, the Bhaktamal emerges not as a single frozen artifact, but as a living textual tradition whose growth can be traced across several centuries.