Rohini (wife of Vasudeva)

For other uses, see Rohini (disambiguation).

In Hinduism, Rohini Devi (Sanskrit: रोहिणी, rohiṇī) is a consort of Vasudeva. She is the surrogate mother of Balarama and the mother of Subhadra, and played a prominent role in the nurture of Krishna. She was a partial incarnation of Mother Surabhi, the mother of the cows.

Vasudeva's imprisonment

Rohini's husband, Vasudeva, was also married to another lady, Devaki. Immediately after the wedding of Devaki and Vasudeva, an oracle predicted the death of Devaki's evil brother Kamsa at the hand of "the eighth son of Devaki". Kansa then resolved upon killing all the progeny of Devaki immediately upon birth, and imprisoned the newly-wed couple without further ado. This left the distraught Rohini alone, albeit at liberty.

Kansa proceeded to personally kill each child born to the imprisoned couple immediately after its birth. In due course, Devaki found herself pregnant for a seventh time. However, this seventh child was not to meet the fate of the six previous infants; the unborn child was miraculously transferred from the womb of Devaki to the womb of Rohini, who had long been craving a child of her own. The child thus born was named Balarama, and grew to be a great warrior and support of his younger brother Krishna.

Nurture of Krishna

Krishna, who was the much-anticipated eighth child of Devaki, was moved immediately after birth to Gokula in secrecy. Rohini also then moved to the same region, to be able to keep an eye on her beloved stepson Krishna, who was raised in another family due to the threat of him being killed by Kansa. It is due to this proximity that the two brothers, Balarama and Krishna, grew up together.

Posterity

After the slaying of Kamsa by Krishna and the consequent release of Vasudeva and Devaki from prison, Rohini was blessed with the birth of another child, a daughter named Subhadra. This daughter married her first cousin Arjuna, the Pandava, who was a nephew of Vasudeva. Subhadra and Arjuna were the parents of Abhimanyu; thus, Rohini Devi was the ancestress of every subsequent monarch from the "Kuru" dynasty.