Here's a solution using Devel::StackTrace:

use Devel::StackTrace;

sub calling_object {
  my $t = Devel::StackTrace->new;
  my $f;
  $f = $t->next_frame for (1..4);
  ($f->args)[0]
}

sub e {
  my $x = shift;
  print "x = $x\n";
  d('humma');
}

sub d {
  print "I was called by object ", calling_object(), "\n";
}

e('a', 'b', 'c');
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Holy crap. That's exactly what I wanted. I should have asked years ago.

-Paul

This may work, depending on what happened to @_:

package DB;

sub get_calling_object
{
    my @foo = caller(2);
    return $DB::args[0]
}
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Update: This needs the package declaration.

I do not understand what $DB::args[0] is, but I suspect this is intended to return the package name of the caller, not the instance of the caller object.

-Paul

Did you try it? This is the trick Devel::StackTrace uses.