Materials for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect c8.192

c8.192

The Greek writers, Megasthenes and Arrian, mention Herakles as one held in special honour by the Sourasenoi, an Indian tribe who possessed two large cities Methora and Kleisobora.² Bhandarkar identifies the Sourasenoi with the Sātvatas and Herakles with Vāsudeva. According to Lassen, McCrindle and Hopkins, Methora and Kleisobora are Mathurā and Kṛiṣhṇapura.³ Now, Megasthenes lived full two centuries before Patañjali. The name of the second city (Kṛiṣhṇapura) mentioned by him is a certain indication of the early and inseparable connection of Kṛiṣhṇa with the Sourasenoi (Sūrasenas) or Sātvatas.