Krishna Janmashtami
The birth of Krishna at midnight on the eighth tithi of dark Shravana — the Smarta reckoning, kept at Nishita Kaal.
Where it is kept All India; especially Mathura, Vrindavan, Dwarka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha and Manipur.
When it falls
Computed from the Moon's elongation from the Sun. The civil day is the one carrying Ashtami running at Nishita Kaal — the Smarta rule.
Overview
The Bhagavata Purana places the birth at midnight, in the Rohini nakshatra, in prison at Mathura. The observance follows the text exactly: the fast runs through the day and is broken after the Nishita puja at local midnight, when the image is bathed, dressed, laid in a cradle and rocked.
This site computes the Smarta date — the one that requires Ashtami to be current at Nishita Kaal. The Vaishnava sampradayas use a different rule and often fall a day later; that observance is listed separately.
Where it comes from
The birth narrative is given in the Bhagavata Purana's tenth book, with the Vishnu Purana and the Harivamsha as the earlier sources. Devaki's eighth child, born to be Kamsa's death, carried across the Yamuna in flood to Gokul on the night of his birth.
Dahi Handi — the pot of curd hung high and broken by a human pyramid — is the Maharashtrian extension, celebrating the child Krishna's raids on the neighbours' butter. It is a nineteenth- and twentieth-century public form of an older household game, and in its competitive version has become a significant source of injury.
Why it matters
The midnight timing is the whole of the observance's structure — a fast that ends at the birth hour rather than at dawn or dusk is unusual in the calendar, and follows directly from the text.
Rohini nakshatra is specified alongside the tithi. Where the two do not coincide, the traditions divide over which to follow, and that divergence is the origin of the two dates.
How to celebrate
- Keep the fast until the Nishita puja at local midnightThe birth hour is the parana; ending earlier is a different observance.
- Do the abhisheka and the cradle rite at midnightThe bathing, dressing and rocking are the sequence given in the tradition.
- Read the tenth book of the Bhagavata, or hear itThe birth chapters are the text of the night.
- Break the fast the next morning if the tradition you follow requires Rohini to have passedSome households wait for both the tithi and the nakshatra to end.
What to avoid
These are not all the same kind of thing. Some are prohibitions from a named text, some are Indian law, some are practical, and some are a confusion worth not repeating. Each item says which it is.
- Do not build a dahi handi pyramid with children in itBombay High Court and Supreme Court orders have restricted participant age and pyramid height after repeated deaths and spinal injuries. This is a legal restriction, not an opinion.
- Do not take grain, and do not break the fast before midnightThe standard vrat rules apply through the day.
- Do not assume your date matches the temple'sSmarta and Vaishnava reckonings differ most years; both are listed on this site.
Where this comes from
Everything above is either computed by this site’s own panchang engine, or drawn from the works listed here. Where a custom is modern, commercial or contested, the page says so rather than presenting it as ancient.
- Bhagavata Purana, Book 10, chapters 1–4, for the birth narrative and the midnight timing.
- Vishnu Purana and Harivamsha, as the earlier sources for the same account.
- Nirnayasindhu, for the Nishita-vyapini rule that fixes the Smarta date.
- Supreme Court of India and Bombay High Court orders on dahi handi height and participant age, for the legal restriction stated above.
Dates are computed for the place named above and will differ elsewhere. Regional traditions vary; where two reckonings are in use, both are named rather than one being chosen silently.
Other festivals
All festivals, with dates for any year · The calendar on the home page