Kṛṣṇa-Devakīputra, a student of the Pāñcarātra

Leaving that aside we come to the question that the Kṛṣṇa of the Mahābhāratra is referred to even in an early work such as the Chandogya Upaniṣad as Kṛṣṇa Devakīputra, which would imply Kṛṣṇas other than this Devakīputra, as perhaps well known persons; the compound name Kṛṣṇa-Vāsudeva, Kriṣṇa, the son of Vāsudeva would similarly imply other Kṛṣṇas besides this particular one. The Chandogya Upaniṣad itself recognises that this Kṛṣṇa-Devakīputra took his religious teaching from a certain Ghora Aṅgirasa. This Ṛṣi Ghora of the Āṅgirasa gotrā which is what the title would mean, was a descendant of the Ṛṣi Āṅgirasa, the most distinguished member ot the Aṅgirasas being Bṛhaspati, and, as such, came into the hereditary line of teachers beginning with Bṛhaspati, the Āṅgirasa, to whom the Pāñcarātra teaching was given charge at one stage. Presumably therefore Kṛṣṇa-Devakīputra had learnt this Bhāgavata teaching, whatever that be, from Ghora Aṅgirasa of the school of the Pāñcarātras. This at once establishes that he was certainly not the originator of the teaching, however distinguished he might have become as the expounder of that teaching later on.