The story behind the day
Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭamī is the birthday of Kṛṣṇa, whom Hindus revere as an incarnation of Viṣṇu. It falls on the eighth day of the dark fortnight in August or September, a lunar month called Śrāvaṇa in some reckonings and Bhādrapada in others. By tradition Kṛṣṇa was born at midnight in a prison at Mathura, so devotees fast through the day, keep awake at night and celebrate his birth at midnight. In Maharashtra the day after is marked by the hanging and breaking of pots of curd, now called Dahi Handi.[1–6]
Origins
The story the festival keeps is told in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and, in outline, in the standard reference works. Kaṃsa, king of Mathura, was warned that the eighth child of his sister Devakī would kill him, so he imprisoned Devakī and her husband Vasudeva and killed their children. At midnight, in thick darkness and under the constellation Rohiṇī, Kṛṣṇa was born, and Vasudeva saw before him a four-armed child and knew him as the Lord. Vasudeva then carried the infant out through the opened prison gates, sheltered from the rain by the serpent Śeṣa, crossed the Yamunā, which made way for him, and reached Nanda's Vraja. There he laid the child on Yaśodā's bed and returned with her newborn daughter, the goddess Yogamāyā.[2–3, 7–8]
What it marks
The day celebrates the birth of Kṛṣṇa, whom Hindus usually count as the eighth avatāra of Viṣṇu and whom some traditions revere as the supreme deity himself. It also recalls the childhood in Nanda's village that followed, where Yaśodā and Nanda raised him. The Bhāgavata describes Nanda's birth festival there, with gifts of cows to brahmins, music and a decorated village, and the child is remembered above all as a mischievous butter-thief, stealing curd that the gopīs hung high out of his reach.[4, 7, 9–10]
How it came to be
Kṛṣṇa first appears in the Mahābhārata, as friend and adviser of the Pāṇḍavas. The Harivaṃśa and the Bhāgavata Purāṇa turn instead to his birth, childhood and youth among the cowherds, and it is this part of his story that the festival keeps. His worship is older than these books: the Chāndogya Upaniṣad already names a Kṛṣṇa, son of Devakī, as a pupil of the sage Ghora Āṅgirasa, though scholars debate whether that is the same figure. The month depends on the reckoning: the day falls in Śrāvaṇa where months end at the new moon and in Bhādrapada where they end at the full moon, on the same night.[1, 11–12]
How it is kept
The main parts of the observance are a fast, worship of Kṛṣṇa, a night vigil of hymns and stories of his exploits, and the breaking of the fast. Since he is held to have been born at midnight, devotees stay awake with singing, chanting and dramas until then. In Maharashtra, on the day after, young people hang pots of curds and buttermilk above the street and break them, getting drenched; the custom, once called Gopālakālā and now Dahi Handi, echoes the Bhāgavata's picture of the cowherds splashing one another with curds and butter at the birth festival. It is not kept everywhere: Kane notes that it is not observed in Saurāṣṭra.[5–6]
Sources
Each statement above was checked against published sources; the verdict says whether it stood as written, was corrected or was hedged.
- VerifiedJ. G. Lochtefeld, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism; P. V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. V part 1; Encyclopedia.com.
- VerifiedJ. G. Lochtefeld, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism; Wisdom Library.
- VerifiedWisdom Library; vedabase.io; P. V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. V part 1.
- VerifiedJ. G. Lochtefeld, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism; P. V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. V part 1.
- VerifiedP. V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. V part 1; J. G. Lochtefeld, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism; Encyclopedia.com.
- VerifiedP. V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. V part 1; vedabase.io.
- VerifiedJ. G. Lochtefeld, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism; Wisdom Library; vedabase.io.
- VerifiedWisdom Library; Cleveland Museum of Art, A Serpent Protects Vasudeva Taking His Infant Son Krishna to Safety; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Scenes from the Life of Krishna, Folio from a Bhagavata Purana.
- Verifiedvedabase.io; Cleveland Museum of Art, Celebrations of Krishna's Birth, from a Bhagavata Purana.
- VerifiedJ. G. Lochtefeld, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism; vedabase.io.
- VerifiedJ. G. Lochtefeld, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism; P. V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. V part 1.
- VerifiedWisdom Library; P. V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. V part 1.