Devalok
From the epics · 1 telling · Pan-India

Sudarshana, son of Agni, conquers Death

Who is in it

Texts: Mahabharata

The story, beat by beat

  1. Sudarshana, son of Agni and the princess of Mahishmati, vows to conquer Death as a householder through hospitality.
  2. He tells his wife Oghavati never to refuse a guest anything.
  3. Death follows him, waiting for the vow to break.
  4. A brahmin guest makes an extreme demand of Oghavati while her husband is away.
  5. Sudarshana returns and, without anger, affirms his vow by an act of truth.
  6. The guest reveals himself as Dharma; Death is defeated; Oghavati becomes a river with half her being.

hospitality test death householder

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Primary text (translation)

Mahabharata, Anushasana Parva 2

Pan-India All traditions

Bhishma's example of a householder who defeated Death: Agni's son Sudarshana keeps the vow of unlimited hospitality even when a guest, who is Dharma in disguise, tests it through his wife Oghavati. Dharma declares her untouched and protected by her virtue, and she becomes the river Oghavati.

The Mahabharata, tr. K. M. Ganguli (1883-96), sections read for the Vedic layer § anushasana.2

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

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