Book 10 of 18 · The Mahabharata
Sauptika Parva
सौप्तिक पर्व
Sauptika Parva
The Book of the Sleeping Warriors
What is the Sauptika Parva?
The Sauptika Parva (सौप्तिक पर्व) is the tenth of the eighteen books of the Mahabharata. Its name means “Book of the Sleeping Warriors”, and this site tells one story drawn from it.
Sauptika Parva Summary
The shortest and darkest book of the epic. Ashvatthama, Kripa and Kritavarma find the dying Duryodhana at the lake, and Ashvatthama vows revenge for his father Drona. Possessed by Shiva, he enters the sleeping Pandava camp at night and butchers Dhrishtadyumna, Shikhandi and the five young sons of Draupadi in their beds while the other two guard the gate. Pursued the next morning, he releases a weapon aimed at the unborn heir in Uttara's womb, and Krishna curses him to wander the earth for three thousand years with his wounds unhealed.
What This Book Is About
- revenge
- night raid
- sacrilege
- curse
- annihilation
Stories from the Sauptika Parva
One story on this site is told inside this book, and it is here in full.
Where This Book Sits
The Sauptika Parva is book 10 of the eighteen parvas. It follows the Shalya Parva, the book of shalya. The Stri Parva, the book of the women, comes next.
See all eighteen parvas of the MahabharataFollow the epic as a timeline