Janmashtami is Krishna's birthday, kept on the eighth day of the dark half of Bhadrapada. Devotees fast all day and wait up for midnight, the hour he was born in Kamsa's prison at Mathura, when the image of the baby is bathed, dressed and rocked in a cradle. The next day is Nandotsav, and in Maharashtra young men build human pyramids to break the Dahi Handi.
Also calledJanmashtamiGokulashtamiKrishnashtamiAshtami RohiniShrikrishna Jayanti
Next, in 2027Wednesday 25 August 2027
25 to 26 August 2027
Prime godKrishna
with 2 more
WhereAll India, above all Mathura and Vrindavan, Dwarka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha, Manipur, Udupi and Guruvayur, and Nepal
How longTwo days, the fast and midnight birth, then Nandotsav and the Dahi Handi
The eighth day of the dark half of Bhadrapada (Shravana in the south), in August or September
Why it is kept
Janmashtami is the night of Krishna's birth, the eighth of the dark fortnight of Bhadrapada, in the rains. It is kept by waiting. Devotees fast through the day and gather in temples and homes as the night goes on, and at midnight, the hour Krishna was born in a prison cell at Mathura, the conches sound and the baby god is laid in his cradle.
Kamsa, king of Mathura, was told by a voice from the sky that the eighth child of his cousin Devaki would kill him. He threw Devaki and her husband Vasudeva into prison and killed every child she bore. The eighth was Vishnu himself. At his birth the guards fell asleep, the chains dropped and the doors opened, and Vasudeva carried the baby through a storm across the flooded Yamuna to Gokul, where he left him with Yashoda and Nanda and brought back their newborn daughter. Krishna grew up in safety in the cowherds' village and in time came back to kill Kamsa.
Janmashtami keeps that night: the god who came to end a tyrant's rule, born in the darkest place and the darkest hour. The fast is the vigil kept with Devaki in the prison, and the midnight joy is Vasudeva's when the doors opened.
Vishnu born as the eighth child of Devaki and Vasudeva, at midnight in the prison of Mathura, and carried across the Yamuna to grow up as the cowherd boy of Gokul. The festival is his birth, and the baby Krishna, Laddu Gopal or Bal Gopal, is the image worshipped.
D
Devaki and Vasudeva, Yashoda and Nanda
His two mothers and two fathers. Devaki and Vasudeva bore him in prison; Yashoda and Nanda raised him in Gokul, and Nandotsav is Nanda's feast for the child he thought was his own.
The goddess born to Yashoda the same night and carried to the prison in Krishna's place, who slipped from Kamsa's hands and rose into the sky as the Goddess. She is worshipped as Vindhyavasini.
The two days of Janmashtami
1
Janmashtami
The eighth day of the dark half of Bhadrapada, ideally with the Rohini star · Wednesday 25 August 2027
GokulashtamiAshtami Rohini
The fast day. Devotees eat nothing, or only fruit and milk, and the temples are decorated with jhankis, scenes of Krishna's life. Bhajans and the reading of the Bhagavata's tenth book go on all evening. At midnight, the hour of his birth, the image of the baby is bathed in milk, curd, ghee, honey and water, dressed in new clothes and laid in a cradle, the conch is blown and the fast is broken with sweets of milk and butter.
The ninth day of the dark half of Bhadrapada · Thursday 26 August 2027
Gopalkala
The day after, Nanda's festival for the birth of a son. In Braj curd and turmeric are thrown in the temple courtyards and gifts are given. In Maharashtra pots of curd are hung high over the streets, and teams of Govindas build human pyramids to break them, as Krishna and his friends broke the pots of Gokul.
The heart of the festival. The Krishna Janmabhoomi temple at Mathura stands where the prison is said to have been, and the city fills with pilgrims for the midnight. In Vrindavan the Banke Bihari temple holds its one mangala arati of the year at the birth, and the jhankis and Raslila plays run for days before.
MaharashtraDahi Handi
The Govinda teams of Mumbai, Thane and Pune practise for weeks to climb seven or eight tiers high and break pots hung over the streets, for prize money and the crowd's cheers.
GujaratDwarka
The Dwarkadhish temple, Krishna's own city as king, keeps the birth at midnight, and Gujarati homes play cards and games through the night of waiting.
Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra PradeshGokulashtami
Small footprints of the baby are drawn in rice flour from the door into the house, as if Krishna had walked in, and seedai, murukku and butter are offered. At Udupi the Krishna Matha holds the Vitla Pindi festival the next day, with the pots broken by men dressed as cowherds.
KeralaAshtami Rohini
Kept by the star, on the day of the Rohini star in the month of Chingam. Guruvayur, the greatest Krishna temple of Kerala, holds its great feast for the child god.
Odisha, Bengal and Assam
Kept at midnight with fasting, and the next day as Nanda Utsav. At Puri the Jagannatha temple performs the birth as a play.
Manipur
The Meitei Vaishnavas keep Krishna Janma at the Shri Govindaji temple at Imphal with the Raslila dances of Manipur.
Nepal
The Krishna Mandir of Patan, in stone, is the centre, and Nepalis keep the day with fasting and midnight singing.
ISKCON and the Gaudiya VaishnavasSri Krishna Janmashtami
For the Gaudiya Vaishnavas, Krishna is God himself, not an avatar, and Janmashtami is their greatest day. ISKCON temples across the world fast until midnight, read the Bhagavata's tenth book and hold an abhisheka of the deity, and the next day keep the birth of their founder, Srila Prabhupada, as Nandotsav.
JainsKrishna in the Jain tradition
Jain tradition counts Krishna as the ninth Vasudeva and a cousin of the Tirthankara Neminatha, and his story is told in Jain Harivamshas, though the day is a Hindu festival.
How it is kept
The house and temple are cleaned and the cradle decorated with flowers. Many fast without water until midnight. Jhankis, scenes of Krishna's life with dolls and lights, are set up in temples and in homes, and children dress as Krishna and Radha. Through the evening bhajans are sung and the birth chapters of the Bhagavata read. At midnight the image of the baby is bathed in the five nectars, dressed, offered fifty-six dishes in the great temples, and rocked in the cradle, and the fast is broken with panjiri, makhan mishri and sweets of milk.
The next day is Nandotsav, the father's feast. In Maharashtra it is the Dahi Handi, and in the south the little footprints drawn into the house mark that the child has come home.
In the old texts
The birth is told in the tenth book of the Bhagavata Purana, the most read of all the Krishna texts, and earlier in the Harivamsha, the appendix to the Mahabharata, and the Vishnu Purana. The Harivamsha has Vishnu plan the night with the goddess Nidra, who agrees to be born to Yashoda and become the goddess of the Vindhyas. The Bhagavata names the hour, midnight, and the star, Rohini.
The fast of Krishna's eighth is described in the Bhavishya and Vishnudharmottara Puranas and set out by the medieval authors of the vrat books, who argued over whether the day should be kept by the lunar day alone or with the Rohini star. That is why Vaishnava groups and almanacs sometimes keep it on two different days.
Where this page comes from. Written by Devalok from the Bhagavata Purana (Skandha 10), the Harivamsha (Vishnu Parva), the Vishnu Purana, and accounts of the festival across India and Nepal, as recorded in the Devalok Lore. Our own words throughout.
