According to the story as described in the Bhagavata Purana, Krishna is born as an avatar of the god Vishnu in the town of Mathura (now in Uttar Pradesh) and is the eighth child of his mother, Devaki, and his father, Vasudeva. Because of a prophecy that their eighth child will kill Devaki’s brother, the demonic king Kamsa, the king keeps the couple imprisoned and kills their first six children. Their seventh, Balarama, is miraculously transferred to Vasudeva’s first wife’s womb. When Krishna is born, Vasudeva carries him across the Yamuna River and switches him with the daughter born to Yashoda, who then raises the child deity.