Vasudeva (vāsudeva)

Vasudeva means son of Vasudeva, and is the most common patronymic for Krishna, distinguished from his father's name only by a lengthened first vowel. It carries theological weight beyond family, since Vasudeva is also a name of the supreme being in the epic's devotional sections, and the Gita's claim that everything is Vasudeva is its highest statement. Shishupala's tirade at the Rajasuya is an extended attack on precisely this doubling, arguing that a cowherd's foster son cannot be the god of gods.