The Origin and Growth of Bhagavatism
Bhagavatism originated in post-Maurya times and centred around the worship of Vishnu or Bhagavata. Vishnu was a minor god in Vedic times. He represented the sun and also the fertility cult. By the second century BC he was merged with a god called Narayana, and came to be known as Narayana-Vishnu. Originally Narayana was a non-Vedic tribal god called bhagavata, [...]