About
Variyasi — Wife of Parjanya, Mother of Nanda
Variyasi
Variyasi was the wife of Parjanya, a Yadava chieftain descended from Devamidha of Mathura who headed a pastoral branch of the Yadava community. She is recorded solely as the mother of Parjanya's five sons, the youngest but most celebrated of whom, Nanda, became chief of the cowherd settlement of Gokula and the foster-father of Krishna. No independent episodes or additional details of Variyasi's own life are recorded in the sources that mention her, and she appears only within the account of her husband's household.
✦ Lineage
- Spouse: Parjanya, Yadava cowherd chieftain, son of Devamidha and half-brother of Shurasena.
- Children: five sons — Upananda, Abhinanda, Nanda, Sannanda, and Nandana.
✦ Connection to the Wider Genealogy
As the wife of Parjanya and mother of Nanda, Variyasi stands as the mother-in-law of Yashoda and, through Nanda's fostering of Krishna, as an ancestress of the Gokula cowherd household in which Krishna was raised. Through her husband's descent from Devamidha, she is connected by marriage to the same Yadava lineage that produced Vasudeva and the royal house of Mathura.
✦ References
- The Harmonist, "The Glory of Krishna's Birth": secondary Gaudiya Vaishnava commentarial account naming Variyasi as Parjanya's wife and mother of his five sons.