Devalok
From the epics · 1 telling · Pan-India

The Death-Night seen in the sleeping camp

Who is in it

  • Kalaratri the Death-Night who leads away the slain

Texts: Mahabharata

The story, beat by beat

  1. Ashvatthama attacks the sleeping camp of the Pandava army by night.
  2. The warriors see the Death-Night in bodily form, dark, in red, with a noose.
  3. She seems to lead away men, horses and elephants bound in a cord.
  4. They had seen her in dreams every night since the war began.

night death omen

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Primary text (translation)

Mahabharata, Sauptika Parva 8

Pan-India All traditions

During Ashvatthama's night attack the warriors see the Death-Night embodied: a black figure with bloody mouth and eyes, in a single red cloth with crimson garlands, noose in hand, like an elderly woman, chanting and leading away men and animals tied in a cord. They had dreamed of her and of Drona's son each night since the battle began.

The Mahabharata, tr. K. M. Ganguli (1883-96), sections read for the Vedic layer § sauptika.8

Sources: The Mahabharata, tr. K. M. Ganguli (1883-96), sections read for the Vedic layer

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