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Yashoda — Wife of Nanda, Foster-Mother of Krishna
Yashoda · Yashodamayi
Yashoda was the wife of Nanda, chief of the cowherd settlement of Gokula and later Vrindavana, and is revered as the foster-mother of Krishna, whom she raised as her own son after he was secretly brought to her household on the night of his birth. She appears extensively in the Bhagavata Purana, the Harivamsha, and later Vaishnava devotional literature as the central maternal figure of Krishna's childhood, celebrated for her boundless and unaffected parental love.
✦ The Name
Yashoda combines the Sanskrit "yashas" (fame or glory) with "da" (giver), meaning "giver of fame." The name is understood in the tradition to reflect how her household's fame grew through the presence of Krishna as her son.
✦ Lineage
- Father: named in later Vaishnava devotional tradition as Sumukha, described as the treasurer and a wealthy trader of Vraja.
- Mother: named in the same tradition as Pataladevi, of a mercantile seafaring family from the city of Patala at the mouth of the Indus.
- Spouse: Nanda, chief of the cowherd settlement of Gokula and Vrindavana.
- Children: Krishna and Balarama, raised as foster-sons; a daughter, identified in the Bhagavata Purana with the goddess Yogamaya, exchanged for the infant Krishna on the night of his birth.
✦ Previous Birth
The Bhagavata Purana relates that Yashoda, in a former existence, was Dhara, wife of Drona, one of the eight celestial Vasus. Together the couple performed prolonged penance directed toward Brahma, and when offered a boon, asked not for heavenly reward but for the opportunity to experience the parental love of holding, feeding, and raising the Supreme Lord as their own child when he descended to earth. Brahma granted the request, and in consequence Dhara was born as Yashoda, with Drona born as Nanda, so that Krishna could be raised in their household as foretold.
✦ The Exchange of Infants
On the night Krishna was born to Devaki and Vasudeva in the Mathura prison, Yashoda's own newborn daughter was secretly exchanged for the infant Krishna by Vasudeva, who carried him across the Yamuna to Gokula. Yashoda woke believing she had given birth to a son and raised him as such, unaware for much of the ensuing narrative of his true parentage or divine nature.
✦ The Vision of the Universal Form
When the young Krishna was accused by his playmates of secretly eating dirt, Yashoda opened his mouth to check and beheld within it the entire cosmos, briefly perceiving his divine nature. Krishna then used his power of illusion (yogamaya) to make her forget the vision, so that her ordinary, unaffected maternal love could continue undisturbed by awareness of his godhood.
✦ The Binding at the Mortar (Damodara-lila)
After the child Krishna broke a pot of butter and fled when caught, Yashoda attempted to bind him with a rope to a wooden grinding mortar as punishment. However much rope she added, it fell short by the same small measure, until Krishna, moved by his mother's exertion and devotion, allowed himself to be bound. This episode is the origin of Krishna's epithet Damodara, meaning "one whose belly is bound with a rope," and while bound he went on to uproot two cursed trees, releasing two celestial beings trapped within them.
✦ Theological Significance
Yashoda is upheld in Vaishnava, and especially Gaudiya Vaishnava, theology as the supreme exemplar of vatsalya-bhava, parental devotion to God. Her love for Krishna, sustained through most of the narrative without awareness of his divinity, is regarded by this tradition as a purer form of devotion than reverential worship offered with full knowledge of his godhood.
✦ Connection to the Wider Genealogy
As wife of Nanda, Yashoda is joined by marriage to the pastoral branch of the Yadava house descended from Devamidha through Parjanya. Because Nanda was first cousin to Vasudeva, Yashoda stands, through her husband, in close relation by marriage to the royal Mathura branch of the same lineage, and is remembered genealogically as Krishna's foster-mother within this collateral cowherd line.
✦ References
- Bhagavata Purana (Canto 10, Chapters 8–9): principal source for Yashoda's role as foster-mother, the infant exchange, the vision of the universal form, and the Damodara-lila binding episode.
- Harivamsha: supporting account of the Gokula household and Yashoda's place within it.
- Wikipedia, "Yashoda": secondary genealogical summary and etymology of the name.
- Hindu Temple Talk, "Yashoda: The Beloved Foster-Mother of Krishna": secondary devotional account, drawing on later Vaishnava tradition, naming her parents as Sumukha and Pataladevi.