Form · Shakta · Pan-India

Kalaratri

Also called: Death-Night

The Night of death or of the world's ending. In the Mahabharata's Sauptika Parva the warriors see her in the camp as a dark woman with a noose leading away the dead; in the Devi Mahatmya Brahma gives the name to the great Goddess; today it is the name of the form of Durga honoured on the seventh day of Navaratri.

Sources: The Mahabharata, tr. K. M. Ganguli (1883-96), sections read for the Vedic layer; The Markandeya Purana, tr. F. E. Pargiter (Bibliotheca Indica, 1904); Kalaratri (Wikipedia) · see Kalaratri's web

Relations 1

Kalaratri form of

Ratri (God) Shakta
The Night of death or dissolution; a later, fierce figure joined to the Vedic Night by name and by the use of the Ratri Sukta.

Stories 2

Brahma praises the Goddess as the Great Night
Legend · as a name given to the Goddess in the hymn · 1 telling
The Death-Night seen in the sleeping camp
From the epics · as the Death-Night who leads away the slain · 1 telling

Cited

The Mahabharata, tr. K. M. Ganguli (1883-96), sections read for the Vedic layer § sauptika.8 Primary text (translation)
The Markandeya Purana, tr. F. E. Pargiter (Bibliotheca Indica, 1904) § 81.59 Primary text (translation)
Kalaratri (Wikipedia) Encyclopedia