Vishnu. As Krishna says: Early Krishnaism already flourished several centuries BCE with the cult of the heroic Vāsudeva Krishna in and around the region of Mathura, which, several centuries later, was amalgamated with the cult of the "divine child" Bala Krishna and the Gopala traditions. While Vishnu is attested already in the Rigveda as a minor deity, the development of Krishnaism appears to take place via the worship of Vasudeva in the final centuries BCE. But, in accordance with Dandekar, the "Vasudevism" marks the beginning of Vaishnavism in whole. In other words, Krishnaism, according to Dandekar, is not an offshoot of Vaishnavism, but, on the contrary, the cult of Vishnu and his avatars is the later transformation of Krishnaism-Bhagavatism. This earliest phase was established in the time of Pāṇini (4th century BCE) who, in his Astadhyayi, explained the word vasudevaka as a bhakta (devotee) of Vasudeva. At that time, Vāsudeva was already considered as a demi-God, as he appears in Pāṇini's writings in conjunction with Arjuna as an object of worship, since Pāṇini explains that a vāsudevaka is a devotee (bhakta) of Vāsudeva. A branch which flourished with the decline of Vedism was centred on Krishna, the deified tribal hero and religious leader of the Yadavas. Worship of Krishna, the deified tribal hero and religious leader of the Yadavas, took denominational form as the Pancaratra and earlier as Bhagavata religions. This tradition has at a later stage merged with the tradition of Narayana. The character of Gopala Krishna is often considered to be non-Vedic. By the time of its incorporation into the Mahabharata canon during the early centuries CE, Krishnaism began to affiliate itself with Vedism in order to become acceptable to orthodoxy, in particular aligning itself with Rigvedic Vishnu. At this stage that Vishnu of the Rig Veda was assimilated into Krishnaism and became the equivalent of the Supreme God. The appearance of Krishna as one of the Avatars of Vishnu dates to the period of the Sanskrit epics in the early centuries CE. The Bhagavad Gita was incorporated into the Mahabharata as a key text for Krishnaism. Early medieval traditions. Southern and Eastern India By the Early Middle Ages, Krishnaism had risen to a major current of Vaishnavism. According to Friedhelm Hardy, there is evidence of early "southern Krishnaism," despite the tendency to allocate the Krishna-traditions to the Northern traditions. South Indian texts show close parallel with the