Dharmaraj has been linked with many gods such as Sun-god
Surya,
Varuna,
Vishnu,
Yama,
Shiva and even with
Buddhism. Fundamentally, it all started with the magical beliefs related to harvesting in the primitive days and thereafter layers of
Aryan Hindu and Buddhist beliefs transformed it in many ways at different places and has now become too complex to trace its roots properly.
Suniti Kumar Chatterji says, "Dharma who is however described as the supreme deity, creator and ordainer of the Universe, superior even to Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and at times identified with them, and he has nothing of the abstractions of Buddhist Dharma about him." He has further opined that the songs and dances linked with
Gajan of Dharma is clearly non-Aryan in origin. It could be
Dravidian or
Tibeto-Chinese. the
Dharmamangal of Mayura Bhatta,
Ramdas Adak, Manik Ganguly, Ghanarama, Sahadeva Chakravarty, and Ruparama. Perhaps the Ghanarama festival, in which modern-day adherents worship Dharmaraj is named after the Brahmin Ghanarama Chakravarti. Frank Korom, a Professor of Religion and Anthropology at Boston University, wrote his PhD dissertation on Dharmaraj. He found that Dharmaraj is perceived and worshipped differently from district to district. ==Vahan==