(1) Birth of Krishna
Kamsa, an evil prince, imprisoned his father to usurp the throne. As a punishment, it was prophesied that his sister’s eighth child would be the reason for his downfall. On hearing this, he threw his sister Devaki and her husband Vasudeva in a dungeon on their wedding day. The evil Kamsa killed each and every child of Devaki’s. It was by God’s grace that their seventh child, Balram was saved by being taken into Rohini’s womb.
The eighth child was born on a moonless stormy night. After the birth of the baby boy, Vasudeva realised that the gates of their prison were opened and all the guards were fast asleep. A divine voice advised Vasudeva to carry the child, Krishna, in a basket and walk into the water. As soon as Vasudeva stepped into the river, the water level of the river subsided allowing him to wade through the water to Gokula. A serpent protected Krishna from the rain with its large hood.
On reaching Gokula, Vasudeva left Krishna in Nanda’s house with Nanda’s wife, Yashoda. Vasudeva took Yashoda’s newborn baby girl back to the dungeon. When Kamsa heard about the birth of Devaki’s eighth child, he stormed into the dungeon. He snatched the baby from them. The baby slipped and in a flash of light took the form of Goddess Durga. The Goddess broke the news to Kamsa that Krishna is in safe hands and that his doom is nearing.
(2) Putana’s failed attempt to kill Krishna
Kamsa was in utmost distress on hearing that Devaki’s eighth child was safe. He decided to find a way to kill the baby boy and sought the help of fearful demoness named Putana. Putana was a scary-looking demoness with long hair, long nails, teeth protruding out of her mouth and blood-red tongue. Since Kamsa did not know where Krishna is, he asked Putana to kill all children below the age of 10 days in his kingdom.
Putana readily accepted the task as the killings would make people in the kingdom fear her. She then went about killing all babies around Krishna’s age. She then finally reached Krishna’s village and heard about Yashoda’s son who was believed to be special. The evil demoness realised that the child must be Krishna.
Kamsa had warned Putana that Krishna is no ordinary child and that it would not be able to kill him easily. So, she transformed herself into a beautiful maiden to deceive the villagers and Krishna’s parents. Before she went to his home, she poisoned her breasts with the venom of a deadly snake.
On reaching Krishna’s house, she greeted everyone politely and asked Yashoda if she could feed the young boy. Unaware of the ill intentions of the disguised demoness, Yashoda allows her to feed him. Putana takes Krishna to the backyard and starts feeding him poisonous milk. She then felt like the baby was sucking the life out of her. She tried to release the baby’s mouth but Krishna had held on to her tightly. She then transformed herself into a demoness to scare the baby. Krishna did not budge. So she flew up in the air, hoping to get the boy to let go. But Krishna sucked the life out of her and she fell to the ground.
The villagers were petrified by the scene and rushed to save Krishna. They found the little boy happily smiling and playing on the demoness’ body.
