Janmashtami

Festival on the eighth day (ashtami)
of the dark (waning) half of the lunar
month of Bhadrapada (August–
September), which is celebrated as the
god Krishna’s birthday. As with all
314
Janardana
holidays connected with Krishna, this
festival is particularly observed in the
Braj region, where Krishna is supposed to have lived, although it is also
celebrated throughout the country.
Devotees (bhakta) often stay up late
into the night, since Krishna is said to
have been born at midnight, and the
observances are often punctuated with
singing, chanting, parades, and dramas
enacting events in Krishna’s life. It is
during the month around Janmashtami
that the dramas known as the Krishna
lilas are presented in the town of
Brindavan, traditionally believed to
have been Krishna’s childhood home.
According to tradition, Krishna is the
eighth son of Devaki and Vasudeva. He
is born in a prison in the city of Mathura
in which his parents are held by Devaki’s
brother, the wicked king Kamsa. Kamsa
has imprisoned the pair in an attempt to
thwart the prophecy that he will be
killed by his sister Devaki’s eighth son.
Kamsa has killed all of Devaki’s older
children at birth and intends to do the
same with Krishna, but when Krishna is
born wondrous things begin to happen:
the jailers fall into a deep sleep, the
locked prison doors miraculously
open, and Vasudeva is able to spirit the
infant out of the prison to the home of
the couple who will become his foster
parents, Nanda and Yashoda. Vasudeva
returns that night, bearing Yashoda’s
new-born baby girl, who is really the
goddess Bhadrakali in disguise. The
next morning Kamsa kills the child by
dashing her against a stone, but from
the body arises a fearsome form of the
Goddess, who taunts Kamsa by telling
him that the person who will slay him
has already escaped.