The Prophecy That Made Kamsa a Prisoner-Keeper
Vasudeva and Devaki's wedding was, by the Bhagavata Purana's account, a lavish affair, with Devaki's own cousin Kamsa, then still merely a prince, personally driving the newlyweds' chariot as a gesture of affection toward his sister.
A celestial voice, an akashvani, interrupted the celebration. It announced to Kamsa directly that the eighth child born to this couple, Devaki and Vasudeva, would be the one to kill him. Kamsa, seized by immediate terror, drew his sword to kill Devaki on the spot, and was only stopped by Vasudeva's desperate intervention.
Vasudeva's bargain was specific and, in hindsight, costly. He promised Kamsa that he would personally hand over every child born to Devaki, as soon as it was born, so that Kamsa could deal with the prophecy himself rather than killing Devaki now and losing whatever grace period remained. Kamsa, satisfied with this arrangement, imprisoned the couple instead of killing them outright, and set about waiting.
Six Births, Six Deaths, in the Same Cell
Over the years that followed, Devaki gave birth to six sons, one after another, in the prison Kamsa kept them in. True to Vasudeva's promise, each child was handed to Kamsa as soon as it was born, and Kamsa, unwilling to take any chances with a prophecy he did not fully understand, killed every one of them, dashing each infant against a stone according to the Bhagavata's account.
The Bhagavata Purana gives these six children a specific identity that most retellings skip past entirely: they were not ordinary souls born and killed for the first time. According to the text, they were the six sons of a Prajapati named Marichi's descendant Kalanemi's line, or in a more commonly cited version, six sons of the Daitya king Hiranyakashipu's lineage who had, in a previous cosmic cycle, insulted the sage Narada and were cursed to be repeatedly born and killed by a demon across several lives, before finally being liberated. Vishnu himself, in this reading, arranged for these six particular souls to take birth here specifically so that being killed by his own manifestation of divine will, indirectly through Kamsa, would finally release them from the curse's cycle and grant them liberation, rather than the deaths being purposeless tragedy.
This detail matters because it reframes an otherwise grim sequence of infanticide. The Bhagavata does not ask a reader to simply accept six deaths as senseless cruelty absorbed for the sake of the plot. It offers a cosmological explanation: these were beings whose specific liberation required exactly this sequence of events, playing out across a much longer span of time than the immediate story of Kamsa's fear suggests.
The Seventh Escape and the Eighth Arrival
The seventh child, conceived after the six deaths, did not follow the same pattern. This pregnancy was mystically transferred from Devaki's womb to that of Rohini, Vasudeva's other wife who was living safely at Nanda's home in Gokul at the time, an intervention attributed to the goddess Yogamaya acting on Vishnu's instruction, covered in its own dedicated story elsewhere in this series. The child born from this transferred pregnancy was Balarama, and Kamsa, told that Devaki had simply miscarried, did not pursue the matter further.
The eighth pregnancy was Krishna himself, born under famous circumstances that need no repeating here in full: the midnight birth, the prison locks falling open, Vasudeva's crossing of the flooded Yamuna, and the exchange of the newborn Krishna for Yashoda's own daughter, who would herself turn out to be no ordinary infant.
Kamsa's eventual death did come at the hands of the eighth child, exactly as prophesied, though not until Krishna had grown to manhood in Gokul and Vrindavan and returned to Mathura specifically for that purpose, a sequence of events covered across several other entries in this series.
The six earlier deaths are, in the Bhagavata's own telling, not a footnote to Krishna's story but a structurally necessary prelude to it, establishing both the depth of Kamsa's fear and the specific cosmic mechanics the tradition uses to explain why apparently senseless deaths in scripture are so often reframed as liberations rather than pure tragedies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Kamsa kill Devaki's first six children?+
A celestial prophecy told Kamsa that the eighth child born to Devaki and Vasudeva would kill him. To avoid taking any chances, and bound by Vasudeva's promise to hand over every child, Kamsa killed each of the first six infants as soon as they were born.
Who were the six children according to the Bhagavata Purana?+
The Bhagavata identifies them as souls under an old curse from a previous cosmic cycle, requiring them to be born and killed across several lives before liberation. Being killed by Kamsa, as part of Vishnu's own design, is presented as the final act that freed them from that cycle.
How did Balarama, the seventh child, survive?+
The seventh pregnancy was mystically transferred from Devaki's womb to Rohini's, Vasudeva's other wife living in Gokul, through the intervention of the goddess Yogamaya. Kamsa was told Devaki had miscarried and did not investigate further.
Did Krishna avenge his six brothers?+
The tradition frames Kamsa's eventual death at Krishna's hands as fulfilling the original prophecy rather than as revenge specifically for the six brothers, though the earlier deaths are part of why Kamsa's fear and cruelty toward Devaki's family is understood as long-standing by the time Krishna returns to Mathura as an adult.
About the author
Anjali Mehta · Editor, M.A. Religious Studies
Anjali is the managing editor for Vandnaa and oversees the festival and vrat coverage. She holds an M.A. in Religious Studies and reviews every published article for accuracy, accessibility, and tradition-fidelity.
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