Materials for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect c8.245

c8.245

As regards Dāmodara we need only point out that it, too, occurs as an epithet of Vishṇu in the *Bodhāyana Dharma Sūtra*, before the identification of the deity with Kṛishṇa was thought of. The word does not necessarily mean "the God with a cord round his belly." It is used in an altogether different sense in the epic:—