In
Hinduism,
Rohini Devi (
Sanskrit: रोहिणी, rohiṇī) is a consort of
Vasudeva. She is the mother of
Balarama and
Subhadra, and played a prominent role in the nurture of
Krishna. She was a partial incarnation of
Kadru, the mother of the snakes.
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
Kansa 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.
Courtesy: Rohini Devi-Wikipedia