Kṛtyā (Yātudhānī)

Kṛtyā was a rākṣasī (a female being of the night) born of sorcery. Her creator, King Vṛṣādarbhi, named her Yātudhānī. He brought her out of a consecrated fire of yajña after the seven great ṛṣis had refused his gifts again and again. He sent her to learn the names of the ṛṣis and their companions and to kill them.

She took up guard over a divine lotus pond. She asked each ṛṣi who came to gather lotus stalks for his name. In the end Indra, who had come in disguise as a companion of the ṛṣis, defeated her with a riddle about his own name and struck her down. She turned to ash.

Her creation

The seven ṛṣis refused Vṛṣādarbhi’s wealth many times. He also tried to deceive them with gold hidden inside fig fruits. He became very angry and went back to his palace. There he took an intense vow and offered consecrated oblations into the havanīya fire (the fire of the sacrifice) with sanctified mantras.

From that fire rose a being who could strike terror into the three worlds. She was a Kṛtyā (a creation of sorcery). Vṛṣādarbhi named her Yātudhānī. She stood before him with joined palms, like an embodiment of Kālarātrī, and asked what task she should do.

Her task

Vṛṣādarbhi gave her these orders:

Go. Learn one by one the names of the seven ṛṣis, of Arundhatī, of the maidservant (dāsī) Gaṇḍā, and of her husband Paśusakha. When you know their names by their true meanings, destroy them all. When they are slain, go wherever you please without hindrance.

The rākṣasī took a form that suited her purpose. She agreed and went to the forest where the travellers were wandering.

Guardian of the lotus pond

Kṛtyā took her place at a beautiful lotus pond that no one had spoiled. Its water was clear, thick trees stood around it, and its lotuses were the colour of the rising sun. Waterfowl lived there. No river fed it, and it had no mud. She guarded it in her fearsome rākṣasī form.

The company of ṛṣis was starving. They came to the pond looking for bisa (lotus stalks). Kṛtyā said that each of them could take stalks only if he first said his own name.

The seven ṛṣis, and also Arundhatī, Gaṇḍā and Paśusakha, each gave a long and learned nirukta (a derivation of the meaning of the name) of his or her own name. These explanations were so full of learning that Kṛtyā could not understand or remember any of them. She let each one go into the pond unharmed to gather stalks.

Her defeat by Śunaḥsakha

The last of the company was a stout ascetic who had joined them earlier. He was called Śunaḥsakha. Kṛtyā asked his name. He gave a riddling derivation of it, “friend of the friends of dharma”. She could not understand it, even when she asked him to say it again.

Śunaḥsakha warned her that if she failed a second time she would be destroyed. She still could not understand. He struck her on the head with his tridaṇḍa (a triple staff). The mighty rākṣasī fell dead on the ground and turned to ash at once.

The revelation

Later Śunaḥsakha showed himself to be Indra. He told the assembled ṛṣis that Kṛtyā was born of Vṛṣādarbhi’s fire. He called her duṣṭa (wicked) and pāpātmā (sinful in nature), and said she had been sent to destroy them. Had he not destroyed her, she would have tormented the whole company. Indra said he had come only to protect them.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 93