Scholarly detective work places the Avadhūta Gītā firmly in the medieval era of India’s spiritual landscape, most likely between the 12th and 15th centuries CE. While tradition attributes its verses to Dattātreya, that legendary sage’s timeless aura makes dating tricky. Manuscript evidence and linguistic style, however, reveal unmistakable markers of the same period when śaiva and vaiṣṇava currents were weaving rich strands into non-dual thought.

Fragments of the text emerge in commentaries from the 16th and 17th centuries, hinting at a vibrant oral circulation long before scribes put quill to palm leaf. Its Sanskrit, studded with colloquial flourishes and fearless paradoxes, bears the stamp of medieval poets who weren’t afraid to break the mold. Those echoes of everyday speech—“drop the world like a hot potato”—give away a post-classical sensibility rather than the austere grammar of early Upaniṣads.

This timeframe also syncs with the rise of the Nāth and Kaula traditions, where wandering adepts celebrated spontaneous revelation over ritual drudgery. Their influence seeps into the Gītā’s every line, celebrating the boundless Self with a clarity that still gives modern seekers a shot in the arm. Today’s global interest in non-dual awareness—from weekend mindfulness retreats to viral social-media threads—stands on the shoulders of such medieval gems.

So, while the Avadhūta Gītā speaks as if echoing from primeval wisdom, its actual composition blooms in those bustling centuries when India’s bhakti, tantra and haṭha yoga movements were cross-pollinating like never before. That blend of spontaneity and scholarship, stitched together by charismatic mendicants, produced the radiant text that keeps inspiring fresh generations.