Vaishnavism, Shaivism and Minor Religious Systems v2.c12.35

v2.c12.35

In the passage in the Mahābhāṣya in which Patañjali, to account for the appearance of the name Vāsudeva in P. IV, 3, 98, says that this is not the name of a Kṣatriya, but that of the Worshipful One, the question to be considered is whether Patañjali means this Vāsudeva to be quite unconnected with the Vāsudeva of the Vṛṣṇi race. From the occurrence of the names Vāsudeva and Baladeva close to each other in the passage from the Niddesa referred to above, and that of Saṃkarṣaṇa and Vāsudeva as worshipful or divine persons in a Dvandva compound in two of the three above inscriptions, it appears that the Vāsudeva referred to by Patañjali as the Worshipful One must be the Vāsudeva of the Vṛṣṇi race. But to account for the appearance of the name in the Sūtra, though the required form can be made up in accordance with the next Sūtra (P. IV, 3, 99), Patañjali says that Pāṇini looks at Vāsudeva in his capacity as a divine person and not as a Kṣatriya. One must take it in this sense, since the Ghosuṇḍi inscription noticed above, in which Saṃkarṣaṇa and Vāsudeva are associated as worshipful persons, must be older than Patañjali himself. Besides, Patañjali begins the discussion of the Sūtra by first taking Vāsudeva as the name of a Kṣatriya and raising an objection against it. This objection is answered in one way, Vāsudeva being still regarded as a Kṣatriya, and it is only optionally that he gives another explanation, that that name is not the name of a Kṣatriya, but of a divine person. This optional explanation given in the last resort must, therefore, be understood in the sense given above. And from all the accounts of the Bhāgavata school contained in the whole literature it is clear that the worshipful Vāsudeva belonged to the Vṛṣṇi race.