VASUDEVA

in Hindu mythology, the patronymic of Krishna (Krsna), who, according to one tradition, was a son of Vasudeva. The worshipers of Vasudeva, or Krishna, formed one of the earliest theistic devotional movements within Hinduism. When they merged with other groups, namely the Bhagavata, they represented the beginnings of modern Vaisnavism, or worship of Lord Vishnu. A significant 2nd-century-BC inscription at Besnagar, near Vidisha (Bhilsa), Madhya Pradesh, refers to a column topped by a figure of Garuda (the emblem or mount of Lord Vishnu), erected in honour of Vasudeva by the Indo-Greek ambassador Heliodorus, who termed himself a Bhagavata. Though, in the earliest parts of the great Indian epic the Mahabharata, the divinity of Krishna appears to be still open to doubt, by the time of the writing of the Bhagavadgita (1st2nd century AD), Vasudeva-Krishna was clearly identified with the Vedic god Vishnu.