The Sauptika Parva is the tenth book (parva) of the Mahābhārata. In seventeen chapters it tells of one night of the war and what followed it. Vaiśampāyana tells it to Janamejaya, and within the narrative Sañjaya tells it to Dhṛtarāshṭra.

It has two sub-parvas. The Sauptika sub-parva proper (chapters 1–9) tells of the night attack by Aśvatthāmā on the sleeping Pāñcāla army. The Aishīka sub-parva (chapters 10–17) tells of the pursuit of Aśvatthāmā, the clash of the Brahmāśiras astras, the naming of Parīkshit, and the śāpa (curse) laid on Aśvatthāmā and his exile.

Key figures

Aśvatthāmā: the central figure of the Sauptika; Bhagavān Śiva fills him with āveśa (divine possession).
Kṛpācārya: argues against the night attack; guards the exit of the camp.
Kṛtavarman: the third survivor; guards the exit of the camp.
Dhṛshṭadyumna: the first to die in the attack; killed by crushing.
Draupadī: demands Aśvatthāmā’s maṇi (jewel) or his death.
Bhīmasena: pursues Aśvatthāmā.
Arjuna: fires the answering Brahmāśiras and withdraws it.
Kṛshṇa: protects Parīkshit; lays the śāpa on Aśvatthāmā.
Vyāsadeva: steps in when the astras clash.
Nārada: appears with Vyāsa when the astras clash.
Uttarā: her womb becomes the target of the turned Brahmāśiras.
Parīkshit: named and protected by Kṛshṇa; the future Kuru king.
Duryodhana: hears the news and dies at peace in chapter 9.

Chapters

The Sauptika sub-parva (chapters 1–9)

Chapter 1. Dhṛtarāshṭra asks Sañjaya what the three surviving Kaurava warriors did after Duryodhana fell. Sañjaya tells how the three, Aśvatthāmā, Kṛpa and Kṛtavarman, fled to a forest. At night Aśvatthāmā sees an owl silently killing sleeping crows. From this he resolves on a night attack against the sleeping Pāñcāla camp.

Chapter 2. Kṛpa speaks against the night attack on grounds of dharma and philosophy. Attacking sleeping men breaks all the yuddha-niyamas (rules of war). Daiva (fate) is supreme and has already destroyed the Kaurava cause. It is better to go to Dhṛtarāshṭra and Gāndhārī for counsel. He speaks at length on daiva against purushakāra (human effort).

Chapter 3. Aśvatthāmā rejects Kṛpa’s arguments. The Pāṇḍavas themselves left all the norms of dharma when they killed Droṇa by deceit. Dhṛshṭadyumna has lost every claim to protection by slaying an unarmed teacher sitting in yoga-samādhi. The chance given by the sleeping enemy is itself a gift of daiva.

Chapter 4. Kṛpa speaks again, a second and longer argument against the night attack. He proposes that they wait for dawn and fight openly. Kṛtavarman says he will follow Aśvatthāmā wherever he leads.

Chapter 5. Aśvatthāmā refuses Kṛpa’s counsel for the last time and sets out toward the enemy camp. Kṛpa and Kṛtavarman follow.

Chapter 6. A terrifying being, more than human, guards the entrance to the Pāñcāla camp. Aśvatthāmā fires all his weapons at it, and it swallows every astra (divine weapon). Left without weapons, he reflects, sees this as a block set by daiva itself, and resolves to pray to Mahādeva Śiva. He begins his stuti (praise).

Chapter 7. Aśvatthāmā’s long stuti to Mahādeva, with the names and forms of Śiva listed in full. He offers himself as havis (the oblation) in a fire altar that appears by wonder. The Pramatha-gaṇas, Śiva’s attendants in their hundreds of terrifying forms, appear. Bhagavān Śiva appears and explains that he had been protecting the Pāñcālas out of love for Kṛshṇa, but their time is over. He fills Aśvatthāmā with āveśa and gives him a divine sword. The Pramathas follow Aśvatthāmā unseen into the camp.

Chapter 8. The attack. Aśvatthāmā enters the camp and kills Dhṛshṭadyumna by trampling and crushing; the text says plainly that no weapon was used. He kills Uttamaujas and Yudhāmanyu, then uses the divine sword and the Rudrāstra to slaughter warriors by the thousands. The upa-Pāṇḍavas (the sons of Draupadī: Prativindhya, Sutasoma, Śatānīka, Śrutakarmā and Śrutakīrti) wake and fight back, but they are killed one by one. Śikhaṇḍī and the Prabhadraka warriors are killed. Kālarātri appears, the dark devī of destruction, with her noose, dragging the jīvas (living beings) of the slain to Yama. Kṛpa and Kṛtavarman guard the exits and kill all who flee. By dawn the whole Pāñcāla-Sṛñjaya army is dead. The three survivors meet and tell each other what they have done.

Chapter 9. The three warriors go to the dying Duryodhana. Kṛpa laments over Duryodhana’s fallen state. Aśvatthāmā tells all that happened in the camp. Duryodhana, deeply moved, declares himself equal to Indra in this moment of satisfaction, bids them farewell and dies. Vaiśampāyana, the narrator, tells that Dhṛtarāshṭra fell into grief and reflection.

The Aishīka sub-parva (chapters 10–17)

Chapter 10. Dawn. Dhṛshṭadyumna’s charioteer, the one survivor of the attack, rides to Yudhishṭhira’s camp and gives the report. Yudhishṭhira collapses. The Pāṇḍavas hold him up. He rises, weeping, and makes a long lament: he won the war and yet lost everything; his enemies defeated him from beyond the grave.

Chapter 11. Nakula is sent to bring Draupadī from Upaplavya. She arrives, hears the full account and falls to the ground. Rising, she makes her demand: Aśvatthāmā’s saha-ja maṇi (the jewel he was born with), or she will die by prāyopaveśa (fasting to death). She appeals to Bhīma directly, recalling all the times he protected her. Bhīma arms himself and sets out alone to find and kill Aśvatthāmā.

Chapter 12. Kṛshṇa warns Yudhishṭhira that Aśvatthāmā knows the Brahmāśiras astra and that Bhīma is in danger. Kṛshṇa tells of Aśvatthāmā’s visit to Dvārakā: how he asked for the Sudarśana Cakra in exchange for the Brahmāśiras, how Kṛshṇa offered it but he could not lift it, and how he left without the exchange. Kṛshṇa, Arjuna and Yudhishṭhira mount Kṛshṇa’s chariot and go after Bhīma.

Chapter 13. They overtake Bhīma on the bank of the Bhāgīrathī, where Aśvatthāmā sits among ṛshis near Vyāsa. Aśvatthāmā sees armed enemies and no escape. He charges a blade of grass (ishīkā) with the Brahmāśiras mantra and releases it with the intent “Let there be no Pāṇḍavas.” Fire that fills the worlds bursts from the astra.

Chapter 14. Kṛshṇa at once tells Arjuna to answer with his own Brahmāśiras. Arjuna steps down from the chariot, offers his respects and releases his astra. The two weapons meet. The ṛshis Vyāsa and Nārada appear between the clashing astras. Seeing them, Arjuna withdraws his astra, an act possible only for a man of the highest brahmacarya (self-restraint) and discipline of mind.

Chapter 15. Arjuna explains to the ṛshis that he withdrew his astra so as not to destroy the world. Vyāsa asks Aśvatthāmā to withdraw his. Aśvatthāmā confesses that he cannot: he fired the astra in desperation, and he does not know enough to withdraw it. Vyāsa tells him to turn it to the wombs of the Pāṇḍava women. Aśvatthāmā does so, and the astra turns toward the womb of Uttarā, who carries the last heir.

Chapter 16. Kṛshṇa speaks: the child in Uttarā’s womb will live. Kṛshṇa will bring him back to life by the power of his own truth (satya-vīrya) and the power of his tapas (tapas-vīrya). The child will be named Parīkshit, because he was tested (parīkshita) in the womb, and he will reign for sixty years. Kṛshṇa then lays his śāpa on Aśvatthāmā: three thousand years of lonely wandering, disease and stench, with no welcome anywhere. Aśvatthāmā accepts the śāpa, takes the saha-ja maṇi from his forehead and gives it to the Pāṇḍavas. He leaves for the forest. Draupadī receives the maṇi and, with a large heart, says that she sees Aśvatthāmā as the son of their teacher and does not want his death. Yudhishṭhira wears the maṇi. Draupadī rises from her grief.

Chapter 17. Yudhishṭhira asks Kṛshṇa how one man could kill so many great warriors: Dhṛshṭadyumna, the upa-Pāṇḍavas, Śikhaṇḍī. Kṛshṇa answers that Mahādeva’s āveśa made it possible. He then speaks of Mahādeva’s supremacy over all the worlds and turns aside to tell of creation: how Śiva sank into the waters of the cosmos, how Brahmā first found him there and asked him for creation, how Śiva’s liṅga came to be established, and how the sons of Daksha were created and multiplied.

Sources

Mahābhārata, Sauptika Parva, chapters 1–17