Materials for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect c8.310

c8.310

We have tried to prove that Kṛiṣhṇa Vāsudeva was a man. There remains the further question, “ was he a hero who rose step by step to the rank of divinity, or was he a monotheistic reformer, a theistic Buddha before Buddha’s day, who later like the Buddha himself was deified by his disciples ? ” Dr. Macnicol suggests “ it is possible that he was a famous prince of the Sātvata race and on his death was deified.” We admit that there is much to be said for this view. Kṛiṣhṇa appears as a disciple of a *Rishi* in the *Chhāndogya Upanishad*, but that does not show that he was himself a teacher. The *Ghata Jātaka* knows him only as a prince and a warrior, not as a leader of thought. The teaching contained in the *Gītā* is attributed to him, but that poem by its reference to the *Brahmasūtras* ¹ presupposes the existence of the classical Upanishads, while Kṛiṣhṇa himself is mentioned in one of the oldest Upanishads. The other works attributed to Kṛiṣhṇa, *e.g.*, the *Anugītā* and the *Brāhmaṇagītā* are even later than the *Bhagavadgītā*.