Vaishnavism, Shaivism and Minor Religious Systems v2.c12.57
Vaiṣṇavism, Śaivism and Minor Religious Systems v2.c12.57
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v2.c12.57.1
§ 8. Thus then Vāsudeva appears to be a proper name and not a patronymic, and when the Vāsudeva religion or the Bhāgavata school took its rise, that was the name by which the Supreme Deity was known. The conception of Vasudeva as his father must have arisen afterwards, as appears to me from the example Vāsudevaḥ given in the Mahābhāṣya in the sense of "son or descendant of Vāsudeva", and not "of Vasudeva", as must be inferred from the analogous instance of Bāladeva from Baladeva. Baladeva was associated with Vāsudeva and not with Vasudeva. Kṛṣṇa, Janārdana, and Keśava do not appear to be Vṛṣṇi names and were given to Vāsudeva in subsequent times when his worship had widely spread. All these three occur in Patañjali also, but the two latter only once so far as I know. But of these the name Kṛṣṇa is more important than the other two and many others that are used. It appears to be as much a proper name as Vāsudeva, though the latter has a religious signification specially attached to it. How then did this name Kṛṣṇa come to be used? It was the name of one of the Vedic Ṛṣis, the composer of hymn 74 of the eighth Maṇḍala. He speaks of himself as Kṛṣṇa in verses 3 and 4 of the hymn. The author of the Anukramaṇī calls him an Āṅgirasa or descendant of Āṅgiras. In the KB. (XXX, 9) apparently the same Kṛṣṇa Āṅgirasa is alluded to and is represented to have 'seen' the evening libation in its connection with the Brāhmaṇacchamsin priest. Kṛṣṇa occurs in a Gaṇa attached to P. IV, 1, 96.
v2.c12.57.2
In the Gaṇa connected with P. IV, 1, 99 Kṛṣṇa and Raṇa are represented to form the Gotra names Kārṣṇāyana and Rāṇāyana, these mere Brāhmaṇa Gotras falling under the group of Vāsiṣṭhas. The former is the Gotra alluded to by the commentator on the verses in the Jātakas noticed above. But he apparently does not confine it to the Brāhmaṇa class. Then the name Kṛṣṇa as the son of Devakī occurs in the Chāndogya-Upaniṣad (III, 17). He was the pupil of Ghora, who was an Āṅgirasa. If Kṛṣṇa was also an Āṅgirasa, which is not improbable, it must be inferred that there was a tradition about Kṛṣṇa as a sage from the time of the Ṛgvedic hymns to the time of the Chāndogya-Upaniṣad, and about a Gotra of the name of Kārṣṇāyana, which literally means collection of Kṛṣṇas, of which the original Kṛṣṇa was the founder. This tradition gave rise to the identification of the sage Kṛṣṇa with Vāsudeva, when he was raised to the rank of the supreme deity. Just as the name Janamejaya, the son of Parikṣit, which occurs in the AB., was in subsequent times used as the name of the person to whom the Mahābhārata was narrated and a genealogy was given to him from Arjuna, the Pāṇḍava, so it is possible that Vāsudeva was identified with the sage Kṛṣṇa and a genealogy given to him in the Vṛṣṇi race through Śūra and Vasudeva.
v2.c12.57.3
Perhaps the best explanation of the fact of Vāsudeva having been called Kṛṣṇa is that given by the commentator of the Gāthās or verses of the Jātakas, supported, as it appears to me, by the author of the Gāthās himself, that Kṛṣṇa was a Gotra name. The Gotra Kārṣṇāyana which corresponds to Kaṇhāyana is not only mentioned as a Brāhmaṇa Gotra belonging to the Vāsiṣṭha group in the Gaṇa alluded to above, but is stated to have belonged to the Pārāśara subdivision of that group in the Matsyapurāṇa (ch. 200)¹. Though this was a Brāhmaṇa and Pārāśara Gotra, it could be assumed for sacrificial purposes by a Kṣatriya, for according to Āśvalāyana (Śr. S. XII, 15) the Gotra and the ancestors invoked of the Kṣatriyas are those of their priests or chaplains, and the only Ṛṣi ancestors that all the Kṣatriyas have, are Mānava, Aila and Paurūravasa. The names of these do not distinguish one Kṣatriya family from another and, to answer the purposes of such a distinction, the Gotra and ancestors of the priest are assumed. Vāsudeva therefore belonged to the Kārṣṇāyana Gotra, though it was a Brāhmaṇa and Pārāśara Gotra, and as belonging to this Gotra he could be called Kṛṣṇa by name.
v2.c12.57.4
Having come to be known by that name, all the traditions about the learning and spiritual insight of the old Kṛṣṇa and also of his being the son of Devakī were engrafted on him, and thus in the Sabhāparvan 38 Bhīṣma says that one of the two reasons for giving the highest honours to Kṛṣṇa was that he possessed the knowledge of the Vedas and dependent treatises (Vedāṅgas), and that he was also a sacrificial priest (Ṛtvij). The Hindu habit of thought of identifying one god with others by regarding the latter either as forms or incarnations of the former and thus evolving monotheism out of polytheism led to the identification of this Vāsudeva with other gods and with the boy Kṛṣṇa of Gokula. These we will notice later on.