VÃÂsudeva (; ), also known as VÃÂsudeva-Krishna () or Krishna-VÃÂsudeva, was a deified Vrishni hero of the Vrishni-clan, and may well have been a historical ruler in the region of Mathura. The movement of VÃÂsudeva was one of the major independent religious movements alongside those of Narayana, Shri and Lakshmi, which later coalesced to form Vaishnavism.
His cult developed after the Vedic period, and was the first expression of what was to become Vaishnavism. It was one of the earliest forms of personal deity worship in India, and is attested from around the 4th century BCE, when he was already considered as a deity, as he appears in PÃÂá¹Âini's writings in conjunction with Arjuna as an object of worship. By the end of the 2nd century BCE, VÃÂsudeva was considered as Devadeva, the "God of Gods", the Supreme Deity, whose emblem was the mythical bird Garuda, as known from the Heliodorus pillar inscription.
After the movement of VÃÂsudeva had been established, the tribe of the Vrishnis fused with the tribe of the Yadavas, who had their own hero-god named Krishna. VÃÂsudeva was fused with Krishna, becoming VÃÂsudeva-Krishna (), or Krishna-VÃÂsudeva. It is unknown at what point of time precisely VÃÂsudeva came to be associated with "Krishna," but the association between the names "VÃÂsudeva" and "Krishna" starts to appear with the Mahabharata and the Harivamsa, both completed in the 3rd century CE, where Krishna is called "VÃÂsudeva," a patronymic referring to his father Vasudeva Anakadundubhi.
The fused religious movement of VÃÂsudeva-Krishna became a major component of the amalgamated worship of Krishna, who was incorporated into Vaishnavism as the 8th incarnation of Vishnu. According to the Vaishnava doctrine of the avatars, Vishnu takes various forms to rescue the world, with VÃÂsudeva-Krishna understood as one of the most popular ones.
The object of the VÃÂsudeva worship was initially the warrior hero VÃÂsudeva of the Vrishni clan. VÃÂsudeva eventually fused with Krishna and became known as VÃÂsudeva-krishna and incorporated into Vaishnavism. According to Srinivasan, the hero deity VÃÂsudeva may have evolved into a Vaishnavite deity through a step-by-step process:
This process lasted from the 4th century BCE when VÃÂsudeva was an independent deity, to the 4th century CE, when Vishnu became much more prominent as the central deity of an integrated Vaishnava movement, with VÃÂsudeva-Krishna regarded as one of his manifestations.
Overall, "Vaishnavite Hinduism is believed to have originated in the 4th century BC in the cult of VÃÂsudeva-Krishna, which was then grafted in the 2nd century AD onto the cult of Narayana. By the 4th century, Vishnu's prominence increased considerably. He was now regarded as a member of the Trimurti, the cosmic triad of Gods, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva".
"VÃÂsudeva" is the first name of a deity to appear in the epigraphical record and in the earliest literary sources such as the writings of PÃÂá¹Âini. The movement of VÃÂsudeva was one of the major independent religious movements alongside those of Narayana, Shri and Lakshmi, which later coalesced to form Vaishnavism.
The cult of VÃÂsudeva developed after the Vedic period, and was the first expression of what was to become Vaishnavism. The cult of VÃÂsudeva may have evolved from the worship of a historical figure belonging to the Vrishni clan in the region of Mathura. It was one of the earliest forms of personal deity worship in India, and is attested from around the 4th century BCE, when he was already considered as a deity, as he appears in PÃÂá¹Âini's writings in conjunction with Arjuna as an object of worship, PÃÂá¹Âini explaining that a vÃÂsudevaka is a devotee (bhakta) of VÃÂsudeva. Some early scholars equate it with Bhagavatism.
By the end of the 2nd century BCE, VÃÂsudeva was considered as Devadeva, the "God of Gods", the Supreme Deity, whose emblem was the mythical bird Garuda, as known from the Heliodorus pillar inscription.
VÃÂsudeva was on of the five "Vrishni heroes." In literature, the Vrishni heroes and VÃÂsudeva are mentioned by PÃÂá¹Âini in Astadhyayi verse 6.2.34 around the 4th century BCE, while Krishna is referred to as Krishna Varshneya in verse 3.187.51 of the Mahabharata. Epigraphically, the deified status of VÃÂsudeva is confirmed by his appearance on the coinage of Agathocles of Bactria (190âÂÂ180 BCE) and by the devotional character of the Heliodorus pillar inscription.
After the movement of VÃÂsudeva had been established, the tribe of the Vrishnis fused with the tribe of the Yadavas, who had their own hero-god named Krishna. VÃÂsudeva was fused with Krishna, becoming VÃÂsudeva-Krishna (), or Krishna-VÃÂsudeva. It is unknown at what point of time precisely VÃÂsudeva came to be associated with "Krishna," but the association between the names "VÃÂsudeva" and "Krishna" starts to appear with the Mahabharata and the Harivamsa, both completed in the 3rd century CE, where Krishna is called "VÃÂsudeva," a patronymic referring to his father Vasudeva Anakadundubhi. The early Krishna is described in the Mahabharata as the chief of the Yadavas kingdom of DvÃÂrakÃÂ (modern Dwarka in Gujarat).
To this day, a group of religious mendicants known as Vasudevs are people believed to be incarnation of Krishna.
The cult of Krishna-VÃÂsudeva ultimately merged with various traditions such as Bhagavatism, the cult of Gopala-Krishna and the cult of Bala-Krishna, to form the basis of the current tradition of monotheistic religion of Krishna:
Over centuries, the cult of VÃÂsudeva transformed into Vaishnavism.
From the 4âÂÂ5th century, VÃÂsudeva-Krsna is identified with Vishnu and Narayana, and fuses with Gopala-Krishna:
The fused religious movement of VÃÂsudeva-Krishna became a major component of the amalgamated worship of Krishna, who was incorporated into Vaishnavism as the 8th incarnation of Vishnu. According to the Vaishnava doctrine of the avatars, Vishnu takes various forms to rescue the world, with VÃÂsudeva-Krishna understood as one of the most popular ones.
The association of VÃÂsudeva-Krishna with Narayana (Vishnu) is confirmed by the Hathibada Ghosundi Inscriptions of the 1st century BCE. It is generally thought that "by the beginning of the Christian era, the cult of VÃÂsudeva, Vishnu and Narayana amalgamated". By the 2nd century CE, the "avatara concept was in its infancy", and the depiction of the four emanations of Vishnu (the Chatur-vyà «ha), consisting in the Vrishni heroes including VÃÂsudeva and minus Samba, starts to become visible in the art of Mathura at the end of the Kushan period.
The Harivamsa describes intricate relationships between Krishna VÃÂsudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha that would later form a Vaishnava concept of primary quadrupled expansion, or chatur vyuha.
VÃÂsudeva is also associated with the qualities of gentleness and strength.
Various early statues showing a deity with the attributes of VÃÂsudeva have long been attributed to Vishnu. But it is now thought that statues dedicated to the worship of Vishnu only started to appear from the 4th century CE during the Gupta Empire period, derived from, and using the attributes of VÃÂsudeva, but adding an aureole starting at the shoulders: the Vishnu Caturbhuja ("Four-Armed Vishnu") statues. The statues before the 4th century CE have been reattributed to VÃÂsudeva, a period during which VÃÂsudeva seems to have been much more important than Vishnu.
Other statues of Vishnu show him as three-headed (with an implied fourth head in the back), the Visnu Vaikuntha Chaturmurti or Chaturvyuha ("Four-Emanations") type, where Vishnu has a human head, flanked by the muzzle of a boar (his avatar Varaha) and the head of a lion (his avatar Narasimha), two of his most important and ancient avatars, laid out upon his aureole. Recent scholarship considers that these "Vishnu" statues still show the emanation VÃÂsudeva Krishna as the central human-shaped deity, rather than the Supreme God Vishnu himself.
A popular short prayer for worshipping VÃÂsudeva is Dvadasakshar<nowiki/>i ("the twelve-syllable mantra"), consisting in the recitation of the phrase "Om Namo Bhagavate VÃÂsudevÃÂya" () (in devanagari: à ¥ à ¤¨à ¤®à ¥ à ¤Âà ¤Âà ¤µà ¤¤à ¥ à ¤µà ¤¾à ¤¸à ¥Âà ¤¦à ¥Âà ¤µà ¤¾à ¤¯), which is one of the most popular Hindu mantras, and one of the most important mantras in Vaishnavism. It means "Om, I bow to Lord VÃÂsudeva", who is variously understood as Krishna or Vishnu.
Arrian in his work Indica (2nd c. CE), quotes the earlier work of the same name by Megasthenes (3rd c. BCE) which claims that Herakles, son of Zeus had come to India and was honoured by the locals as an 'indigenous' Indian deity. This reference is understood to be to VÃÂsudeva.
However Arrian himself does not consider the stories about Herakles credible, stating:
It has been proposed that Megasthenes misheard the words "Hari-Krishna" as "Herakles". According to Upinder Singh, "VÃÂsudeva-Krishna was the Indian God bearing the closest resemblance to the Greek God Herakles."
The cult of VÃÂsudeva soon extended well beyond the area of Mathura, as shown by the Heliodorus pillar, established by an Indo-Greek ambassador to the court of an Indian king in Vidisha, in the name of VÃÂsudeva.
This pillar, offered by the Greek ambassador and devotee Heliodorus, also shows that VÃÂsudeva even received dedications from the Indo-Greeks, who also represented him on the coinage of Agathocles of Bactria (190âÂÂ180 BCE). The Heliodorus pillar, joining earth, space and heaven, is thought to symbolize the "cosmic axis" and express the cosmic totality of the Deity. Next to the pillar, a large Temple of VÃÂsudeva was discovered, where he was celebrated together with his deified kinsmen, the Vrishni heroes.
In the Heliodorus pillar, VÃÂsudeva is described as Deva deva, the "God of Gods", the Supreme Deity. According to Harry Falk, making dedications to foreign gods was a logical practice for the Greeks, in order to appropriate their power: "Venerating VÃÂsudeva, as did Heliodor in the time of Antialkidas, should not be regarded as a "conversion" to Hinduism, but rather as the result of a search for the most helpful local powers, upholding own traditions in a foreign garb."
A large temple, probably dedicated to VÃÂsudeva or the Vrishni heroes, was also discovered next to the Heliodorus pillar at Vidisha. The Temple measured 30x30 meters, and the walls were 2.4 meters thick. Pottery finds confirmed that the Temple dated to the 2nd century BCE. An earlier and smaller elliptic temple structure underneath probably dates to the end of the 3rd century BCE.
The Vasu Doorjamb Inscription is a significant early Sanskrit inscription from Mathura. The mention of Sodasa's time who, states Salomon, is "dated with reasonable certainty to the early early years of the first century AD". Its mention of Vasu, temple, Vedika and a torana (gateway) is significant as it confirms that the large temple building tradition was in vogue in the Mathura region by at least the start of the common era. Further, it also attests to the popularity of the VÃÂsudeva tradition in this period. The Vasu Doorjamb inscription of Sodasa in Uttar Pradesh viewed with other epigraphical evidence such as the Besnagar Heliodorus pillar in Madhya Pradesh, the Hathibada Ghosundi Inscriptions in Rajasthan, and the Naneghat inscriptions in Maharashtra suggest that the cult of VÃÂsudeva had spread over a wide region by the 1st-century BCE to the start of common era.
According to Quintanilla, the Vasu Doorjamb and the inscription is "one of the most important and most beautiful objects" from the time of Sodasa, likely from a "temple to VÃÂsudeva". The carvings on the doorjamb are three woven compositions. It has a leafy vine that runs along the length of the red sandstone jamb. Along the stem of the vine are curling leaves and blossoms, that wrap along as those found in nature, a rosette added in where the intertwining vines meet. The wider band has lotus rhizome carved in, with subtle naturalistic variations, wherein the lotus flowers are shown in all their stages of bloom, states Quintanilla.
The Naneghat inscription, dated to the 1st century BCE, mentions both Samkarshana and VÃÂsudeva, along with the Vedic deities of Indra, Chandra, and the four Lokapala guardians Yama, Varuna and Kubera and VÃÂsava. This provided the link between Vedic tradition and the Vaishnava tradition. Given it is inscribed in stone and dated to 1st-century BCE, it also linked the religious thought in the post-Vedic centuries in late 1st millennium BCE with those found in the unreliable highly variant texts such as the Puranas dated to later half of the 1st millennium CE. The inscription is a reliable historical record, providing a name and floruit to the Satavahana dynasty.
The first dedicatory sentence in the inscription mentions:
VÃÂsudeva and Samkarshana are also mentioned in the 1st century BCE Hathibada Ghosundi Inscriptions:
At Chilas II archeological site dated to the first half of 1st-century CE in northwest Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border, are engraved two males along with many Buddhist images nearby. The larger of the two males holds a plough and club in his two hands. The artwork also has an inscription with it in Kharosthi script, which has been deciphered by scholars as Rama-Krsna, and interpreted as an ancient depiction of the two brothers Balarama and Krishna.
Some sculptures during this period suggest that the concept of the avatars was starting to emerge, as images of "Chatur-vyà «ha" (the four emanations of Vishnu) are appearing. The famous "Caturvyà «ha Viá¹£á¹Âu" statue in Mathura Museum is an attempt to show in one composition VÃÂsudeva (avatar of Vishnu) together with the other members of the Vrishni clan of the Pancharatra system: Samkarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha, with Samba missing, VÃÂsudeva being the central deity from whom the others emanate. The back of the relief is carved with the branches of a Kadamba tree, symbolically showing the relationship being the different deities. The depiction of Vishnu was stylistically derived from the type of the ornate Bodhisattvas, with rich jewelry and ornate headdress.
Two Kushan Empire emperors were named after VÃÂsudeva: VÃÂsudeva I (191âÂÂ232 CE) and VÃÂsudeva II (275âÂÂ300 CE).
VÃÂsudeva appears prominently in a relief from Kondamotu, Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh, dating to the 4th century CE, which shows the Vrishni heroes standing in genealogical order around Narasimha. VÃÂsudeva follows Saá¹Âkará¹£aá¹Âa, being second from the left in the place of seniority, with a hand in abhaya mudra and the other hand on the hip holding a conch shell. VÃÂsudeva also has a crown, which distinguishes him from the others. Then follow Pradyumna, holding a bow and an arrow, Samba, holding a wine goblet, and Aniruddha, holding a sword and a shield. The fact that they stand around Narasimha suggests a fusion of the Satvata cult with the Vrishni cult at this point.
The Dashavatara Temple in Deogarh is closely related to the iconic architectural temple structure described in the Viá¹£á¹Âudharmottara purÃÂá¹Âa, and can be interpreted as an architectural representation of the Caturvyuha concept and the Pancaratra doctrine, centering on the depictions of the four main emanations of Vishnu: VÃÂsudeva, Samkarshana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. According to Lubotsky, it is likely that the entrance is dedicated to the VÃÂsudeva aspect of Vishnu; the Anantashayana side is his role as the creator (Aniruddha); the sage form of Nara-Narayana side symbolizes his preservation and maintainer role in cosmic existence (Pradyumna); and the Gajendramoksha side represents his role as the destroyer (Samkarsana).