The Purana Index v1.c3.s7.2

v1.c3.s7.2

Most vital to our point is the cult of Sankarshana-Vāsudeva which prevailed from the 6th century B C. to about the 3rd century A.D. In the religious system of India, Pāṇini and Patañjali referred to Vāsudeva as a divine being glorified by the Sātvatas, one of the Yādava tribes when Śri Krishna was flourishing. The Bhāgavata says that Vāsudeva and Baladeva were regarded as gods by Sātvatas, corroborated by the Nārāyaṇīya section of the Mahābhārata. Even the Tamil country was familiar with this cult as could be seen from the Śilappadikāram, a Tamil classic of the second century A.D. The cult of Balarāma was slowly given up and in the new system of religion that arose, only Vāsudeva remained as the supreme God who was identified with Nārāyaṇa. We are at some length on this question because the Bhāgavata Purāṇa does not mention in so many words the Sankarṣaṇa-Vāsudeva cult. It would appear then that the Bhāgavata Purāṇa was composed after the Vāsudeva-Sankarṣaṇa cult disappeared, and when the Vāsudeva cult was all in all. This must have been the time when the imperial Guptas were rising into prominence.