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544 The Philosophy of the Bhagavad-gitā [cH. characteristics of the god Vasudeva. The word Krşņa occurs several times in the older literature. Thus Krsna appears as a Vedic rși, as the composer of Rg-Veda, VIII. 74. In the Mahā-bhārata Anukramaņi Krsna is said to have descended from Angiras. Krşņa appears in the Chāndogya Upanişad (111. 17) as the son of Devakī, as in the Ghața-jātaka. It is therefore probable that Vāsudeva came to be identified with Krşņa, the son of Devaki. The older conception of Krşņa's being a stvij is found in the Mahā-bhārata, and Bhīşma in the Sabhā-parva speaks of him as being a ștvij and well-versed in the accessory literature of the Vedas (vedānga). It is very probable, as Dr Ray Chaudhury points out, that Krşņa, the son of Devaki, was the same as Vāsudeva, the founder of the Bhāgavata system; for he is referred to in the Ghața-jātaka as being Kanhāyana, or Kanha, which is the same as Krşņa, and as Devakī-putra, and in the Chāndogya Upanişad, III. 17. 6, also he is referred to as being Devakī-putra. In the Ghața-jātaka Krsna is spoken of as being a warrior, whereas in the Chāndogya Upanişad he is a pupil of Ghora Angirasa, who taught him a symbolic sacrifice, in which penances (tapas), gifts (dāna), sincerity (ārjava), non-injury (ahimsā) and truthfulness (satya-vacana) may be regarded as sacrificial fees (dakșiņā). The Mahā-bhārata, 11. 317, describes Krşņa both as a sage who performed long courses of asceticism in Gandhamādana, Puskara and Badari, and as a great warrior. He is also described in the Mahā-bhārata as Vāsudeva, Devakī-putra and as the chief of the Sātvatas, and his divinity is everywhere acknowledged there.. But it is not possible to assert definitely that Väsudeva, Krşņa the warrior and Krsna the sage were not three different persons, who in the Mahā-bhārata were unified and identified, though it is quite probable that all the different strands of legends refer to one identical person.
If the three Krsnas refer to one individual Krşņa, he must have lived long before Buddha, as he is alluded to in the Chāndogyà, and his guru Ghora Angirasa is also alluded to in the Kauşītakibrāhmaṇa, xxx. 6 and the Kāthaka-samhitā, 1. 1, which are preBuddhistic works. Jaina tradition refers to Krsna as being anterior to Pārsvanātha (817B.c.), and on this evidence Dr Ray Chaudhury thinks that he must have lived long before the closing years of the ninth century B.c.1
1 Early History of the Vaişnava Sect, p. 39.
