The Bhāgavata Purāṇa (Book 10) tells how Kṛṣṇa was born at midnight in the prison of King Kaṃsa in Mathurā, the eighth child of Devakī and Vasudeva. To save him, Vasudeva carried the newborn across the flooded Yamunā to Gokula and left him with Yaśodā and Nanda, where he grew up among the cowherds.
His birth is celebrated at the same hour. Smārta and Vaiṣṇava communities sometimes keep it on different days, because some follow the tithi and others also require the Rohiṇī nakṣatra, under which he was born.
