Vasudeva

Vasudeva
Mahabharata character
Krishna and Balarama meet their parents (Painting by Raja Ravi Varma)
Information
Family	Shurasena (father) Kunti (sister)
Spouse(s)	Rohini Devi, Devaki
Children	Balarama, Subhadra and Krishna

In the Bhagavad Purana, Vasudeva (Devanagari वसुदेव, IAST Vasudeva) was the father of the eighth incarnation of Vishnu, Krishna, and his siblings Balarama and Subhadra. He was a Yadav Prince. He was the son of great Yadav king Shurasena. He was the brother of Nanda Baba, who took care of Krishna during his early years as a child. His sister Kunti was married to Pandu. Kunti plays a big role later in the war Mahabharata.

The patronymic Vāsudeva (with long ā) is a popular name of Krishna. According to the Harivansa Purana, Vasudeva and Nanda were brothers.^[1] He was said to be 'Gwala' or the person rearing cattle.

Krishna and Bhagvatism

Vasudeva is related to Bhagavatism that was largely formed by the 1st-millennium BCE where Vāsudeva (Krishna, the son of Vasudeva) was worshiped as supreme ultimate reality (Brahman). This is evidenced by texts and archaeological evidence. As textual evidence, the Mahanarayana Upanishad records the verse:

नारायाणाय विद्महे वासुदेवाय धीमहि तन्नो विष्णुः प्रचोदयात्

We endeavor to know Narayana, we meditate on Vāsudeva and Vishnu bestows wisdom on us.

— Mahanarayana Upanishad, Chapter 7,^[2][3]

This verse asserts that Narayana, Vāsudeva (Krishna) and Vishnu are synonymous.^[3] The author and the century in which the above Mahanarayana Upanishad was composed is unknown. The relative chronology of the text, based on its poetic verse and textual style, has been proposed by Parmeshwaranand to the same period of composition as Katha, Isha, Mundaka and Shvetashvatara Upanishads, but before Maitri, Prashna and Mandukya Upanishad.^[4] Feuerstein places the relative composition chronology of Mahanarayana to be about that of Mundaka and Prashna Upanishads.^[5] These relative chronology estimates date the text to second half of 1st millennium BCE.^[4][6] Srinivasan suggests a later date for the composition of the Mahanarayana Upanishad, one after about 300 BCE and probably in the centuries around the start of the common era.^[7]

Other evidence is from archeological inscriptions, where Bhagavan is documented epigraphically to be from around 100 BCE, such as in the inscriptions of the Heliodorus pillar. An Indo-Greek ambassador from Taxila named Heliodorus, of this era, worked at the court of a Shunga king, and addresses himself as a Bhagavata on this pillar, an epithet scholars consider as evidence of Vāsudeva worship was well established in 1st millennium BCE.^[8]

See also

• Heliodorus pillar
• Hathibada Ghosundi Inscriptions
• Naneghat
• Vasu Doorjamb Inscription

• Vasudeva Upanishad

Notes

References

• Feuerstein, Georg (1989). Yoga: The Technology of Ecstasy. Tarcher. ISBN 978-0874775259.
• Hattangadi, Sunder (1999). "महानारायणोपनिषत् (Mahanarayana Upanishad)" (PDF) (in Sanskrit). Retrieved 23 January 2016.
• Olivelle, Patrick (2011), Ascetics and Brahmins: Studies in Ideologies and Institutions, Anthem Press, ISBN 978-0-85728-432-7
• Olivelle, Patrick (1998), Upaniṣads, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0192835765
• Parmeshwaranand, S (2000). Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Upanisads. Sarup & Sons. ISBN 978-81-7625-148-8.
• Hastings, James Rodney (1908). Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, v.4: Behistun (continued) to Bunyan, p. 540. John A Selbie, ed. Edinburgh: Kessinger Publishing, LLC (Reprint 1990). p. 476. ISBN 0-7661-3673-6.
• Srinivasan, Doris (1997). Many Heads, Arms, and Eyes. BRILL Academic. ISBN 978-9004107588.

Further reading

• RG Bhandarkar: "Vasudeva of Panini" 4.3.98. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1910.