Materials for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect c8.236

c8.236

*Gopā* may mean “protector of cows,”² or “herdsman.”³ According to the *Ṛig Veda*⁴ the highest step of Vishṇu is the dwelling of the “many horned swiftly moving cows.” In the *Bodhāyana Dharma Sūtra*⁵ Vishṇu is called Govinda and Dāmodara, but not yet Kṛishṇa or Vāsudeva. This probably suggests that the pastoral association of Vishṇu was independent of his identification with Kṛishṇa, and Govinda was *originally* an epithet of Vishṇu and possibly not of Kṛishṇa. Attention may in this connection be invited to the significant name “Vishṇu-gopa” occurring in the Allahabad Pillar Inscription of Samudra Gupta, belonging to the fourth century A.D.