Both Devi Mahatmya and Devi Bhagavata Purana have been very influential texts of the Shakta tradition, asserting the supremacy of the female and making goddess a figure of devotional ( bhakti) appeal. The Devi Bhagavata Mahapurana is not the earliest Indian text that celebrates the divine feminine, the 6th-century Devi Mahatmya embedded in Markandeya Purana asserts the goddess to be supreme, and multiple archaeological evidence in different parts of India such as Mathura and Bengal suggests that the concept of divine feminine was in existence by about the 2nd-century CE. These words may just refer to hill tribes, but the details contained in the description of Mlecchas within these verses, state some scholars such as Hazra, that the writer of these parts knew about Islam and its spread in India, leading scholars date these parts of the ninth book to 12th to 15th century compared to the older core of the ninth book. The ninth canto of the Srimad Devi Bhagavata Mahapurana contains many verses that reference Mlecchas (barbarians) and Yavanas (foreigners). He suggests that this portion of the text was probably composed by the 13th century and may be later but before the 16th century. This handout may have been composed with the original text, or it might be a later interpolation, states C Mackenzie Brown. The handout from Book 7 of this Purana is called Devi Gita. The last ten chapters (31 to 40) of the seventh canto consist of 507 verses, a part which has often circulated as an independent handout just like the Bhagavad Gita of the Mahabharata circulates independently. Tracy Pintchman dates the text to between 10 CE.
Rajendra Hazra suggests 11th or 12th century, while Lalye states that the text began taking form in the late centuries of the 1st millennium, was expanded over time, and its first complete version existed in the 11th century. However, this early date has not found wide support, and most scholars to date it between the 9th and the 14th century. A few scholars suggest an early date, such as Ramachandran who suggested that the text was composed before the 6th-century CE. The Srimad Devi Bhagavata Mahapurana has been variously dated. This Purana lists Saraswati (above) as the creative aspect of the supreme Goddess, the Shakti of Brahma.