Pradyumna, the Vṛṣṇis, and the Bhāgavatas

Abstract Chapter 1 establishes the earliest evidence of Pradyumna’s presence and importance in the South Asian landscape, largely on the basis of physical materials from the period of circa 300 bce–300 ce. These materials reveal a cult of devotion to certain heroes of the Vṛṣṇi clan—that is, the larger family group of Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa associated with the Mathurā area in North-Central India. Those who venerated the Vṛṣṇi heroes referred to themselves as the Bhāgavatas, and the objects of their devotion included Vāsudeva (Kṛṣṇa), his brother Saṃkarṣaṇa, Vāsudeva's son Pradyumna, as well as other Vṛṣṇi figures. While a later sectarian development would fix upon a set of four particular Vṛṣṇi names, it is noted here that a number of figures appear in various configurations in the earliest phase of Bhāgavata devotion.