Krishna Janmashtami, Gokulashtami or Sri Jayanthi celebrates the birth of Krishna with great joy & fanfare. This festival falls in the monsoon month of Shravana, or Aadi/Aavani (Tamil). In some communities, the Ashtami thithi, or the date is celebrated while others prefer to observe the occasion when the star Rohini is in the ascendant.

The puja is traditionally conducted at midnight, when Lord Krishna is said to be born. There is a belief that it rains heavily on Janmashtami, like on the night of His birth.

Colourful kolams and rangolis are drawn outside homes. Krishna’s favourite foods, butter, milk & puffed rice, are offered to the deity along with other traditional sweets & savouries. Young children are often dressed up as baby Krishna, complete with peacock feather crowns & flutes.

In Tamil Nadu, women grind rice into a fine paste & draw tiny feet (symbolic of baby Krishna) walking from the door to the puja room (altar). 

In some places like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, people play an ancient game called Dahi Handi, Gopal Kala or Utlotsava on the day after Janmashtami. They form a human pyramid to break a clay pot with milk or curd that is tied up at a height.

This is a re-enactment of the child Krishna’s mischievous raids on neighbour’s homes to steal their milk & curd.

Images & paintings of baby Krishna often shown the divine child bedecked in jewellery, in the lap of his foster mother Yashoda, or eating butter from a pot. Many Tanjore paintings portray Vatapatrasayi, or baby Krishna lying on a banyan leaf. The divine infant, bedecked in ornaments, lifts his right foot to suck his toe like a child.

In this form, Krishna represents the rebirth of the universe, innocent & curious as He floats calmly in the waters of the Pralayam, the great flood. Vatapatrasayi signifies the cycle of birth & death of man, & the universe.

Janmashtami is a time of joy, of mischief & revelry. It is an occasion to free the playfulness inherent in us, even as we celebrate the birth of the divine child who would redeem the world from evil & establish dharma in the age of Kali.

#cultureshotsindia #krishna #janmashtami #gokulashtami #krishnajanmashtami #srijayanthi #krishnajayanthi #krishnaconsciousness #jagannath #vithoba #govinda #harekrishna #bhagavadgita #mahabharata #vasudeva #yashoda #vrindavan #mathura #gokulam