Sauptika and Stri Parva Summary: After the War

Quick answer: The Sauptika Parva and the Stri Parva are the tenth and eleventh books of the Mahabharata. In the Sauptika Parva, "the book of the sleeping warriors", Ashvatthama attacks the Pandava camp at night and kills almost everyone in it. In the Stri Parva, "the book of the women", the widows and mothers come to the battlefield, Gandhari curses Krishna, the dead are given funeral rites, and Kunti reveals that Karna was her son.

In the critical edition of the Mahabharata (Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune), the Sauptika Parva has 18 chapters and the Stri Parva 27. References below are book.chapter.verse in that edition.

Sauptika Parva

The owl and the crows

At the end of the eighteenth day only three Kaurava warriors were left alive: Drona's son Ashvatthama, Kripa and Kritavarma. Resting under a banyan tree in the forest, Ashvatthama lay awake and watched an owl swoop on a tree full of sleeping crows and kill them one after another (10.1.35 to 42). He took it as his lesson: he would attack the Pandava camp at night, while they slept. Kripa urged him to wait and take counsel from Dhritarashtra, Gandhari and Vidura; Ashvatthama, bent on avenging his father's killing, would not wait (10.2 to 10.5).

Shiva at the gate

At the entrance to the camp a huge being barred his way, and Ashvatthama's weapons were swallowed by it. He took refuge in Mahadeva, offered himself as a sacrifice, and Shiva entered his body (10.6 to 10.7).

The massacre

Inside, Ashvatthama found Dhrishtadyumna, the killer of his father, asleep, and killed him by trampling and strangling him like a sacrificial animal (10.8.18), refusing him death by a weapon. He went on to kill Shikhandi, the five sons of Draupadi and the sleeping warriors of the Panchala and Pandava armies, while Kripa and Kritavarma cut down those who fled through the gate (10.8). Of the Pandava army, only the five brothers, Krishna and Satyaki survived; on Krishna's advice they had spent that night outside the camp (9.61.35 to 36). See who survived the Kurukshetra war.

The three went to the dying Duryodhana with the news. He praised them, and died (10.9.55).

The jewel and the brahmashira

Draupadi, grieving for her sons, said she would fast to death unless Ashvatthama was killed and she saw the jewel he wore on his head (10.11.20). Bhima set out after him, followed by Krishna, Arjuna and Yudhishthira. Cornered by the Ganga near Vyasa's hermitage, Ashvatthama released the brahmashira weapon; Arjuna released his own to counter it (10.12 to 10.14). Vyasa and Narada stood between the two weapons. Arjuna withdrew his. Ashvatthama could not, and turned it instead on the wombs of the Pandava women (10.15.31 to 33).

Krishna's curse

Krishna told Ashvatthama that the child in Uttara's womb would be born dead and yet live, and he would revive him: this would be Parikshit. He cursed Ashvatthama to wander the earth for three thousand years, alone, friendless and diseased (10.16.1 to 12). Ashvatthama gave up his jewel and went into the forest. The Pandavas brought the jewel to Draupadi, who gave it to Yudhishthira to wear on his head (10.16.32 to 35). See Drona and Ashwatthama.

The idea that Ashvatthama is one of the seven chiranjivi, the "long-lived ones", comes from a later list, not from this curse.

The last chapters explain how Ashvatthama could do what he did: Krishna tells Yudhishthira the story of Shiva's anger at a sacrifice of the gods, to show the power that had entered Ashvatthama (10.17 to 10.18).

Stri Parva

Vidura consoles Dhritarashtra

Dhritarashtra, hearing that all his sons are dead, collapses. Vidura consoles him with teachings on the nature of death, including the parable of a man who has fallen into a well in a terrible forest and still reaches for drops of honey from a hive above him: the well is the body, the forest the world, and the honey the small pleasures for which people forget their danger (11.5 to 11.6).

The iron Bhima

Dhritarashtra went out to meet the Pandavas. When he asked to embrace Bhima, Krishna, guessing his intention, pushed Bhima aside and put an iron statue of Bhima in his place. Dhritarashtra crushed it to pieces in his arms, and then wept, thinking he had killed Bhima. Krishna told him it was only the image (11.11.15 to 23). See Bhima in the Mahabharata.

Gandhari and the Pandavas

Gandhari was ready to curse the Pandavas. Vyasa restrained her. Bhima admitted that he had fought unfairly against Duryodhana, and Yudhishthira came forward to accept her curse. From under her blindfold her glance fell on his toes, and his fine nails turned black and ugly (11.15.7). Then her anger passed.

The lament on the battlefield

With divine sight given by Vyasa, Gandhari looked over the battlefield, and the women of both sides went among the dead. Gandhari's long lament to Krishna, describing each fallen hero and the widows beside him, is the heart of the book (11.16 to 11.25). At the end she blamed Krishna for letting the war happen and cursed him: in the thirty-sixth year his own kinsmen would destroy one another and he would die in the forest (11.25.36 to 42). Krishna answered with a slight smile that he already knew no one but he could destroy the Vrishnis (11.25.43 to 44). See Krishna in the Mahabharata.

The funeral rites and Karna

Yudhishthira had the dead cremated and the water rites performed at the Ganga (11.26 to 11.27). As the women offered water, Kunti told her sons to offer water for Karna too, for he was their elder brother (11.27.6 onward). Yudhishthira grieved bitterly. In the next book he says that from that day women would not be able to keep a secret (12.6.10). See Karna's story and Kunti.

What comes next

The Shanti and Anushasana Parvas follow Yudhishthira's grief and Bhishma's teachings from the bed of arrows.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Sauptika Parva?

The tenth book of the Mahabharata, about Ashvatthama's night attack on the sleeping Pandava camp.

Whom did Ashvatthama kill in the night raid?

Dhrishtadyumna, Shikhandi, the five sons of Draupadi and the sleeping warriors of the camp (10.8).

What curse did Krishna give Ashvatthama?

To wander for three thousand years, alone and diseased (10.16.10 to 12).

What is the Stri Parva?

The eleventh book, in which the women of both sides mourn their dead, Gandhari curses Krishna, and the funeral rites are performed.

When did the Pandavas learn that Karna was their brother?

At the water rites after the war, when Kunti told them (11.27).

What is the parable of the man in the well?

Vidura's image of human life: a man hanging in a well, threatened from all sides, still tasting drops of honey (11.5 to 11.6).

Related reading

• Mahabharata: The Complete Guide
• Mahabharata story summary
• Who survived the Kurukshetra war?
• Drona and Ashwatthama
• Draupadi in the Mahabharata
• Vidura in the Mahabharata

Sources

1. The Mahabharata, critical edition (Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, 1933 to 1966); electronic text BORI 1999, via Indology: indology.info/bombay/mahabharata. References are book.chapter.verse in this edition.

Last reviewed: 12 November 2026.