मृत्यु
[mrtyu] IAST: MṚTYU
The goddess of Death. अग्नि पुराण gives details about the birth of Death. हिंसा was the wife of अधर्म . They got a son named अनृत and a daughter named निकृति . From them were born भय , नरक , माया and वेदना . Of these माया gave birth to मृत्यु , the destroyer of matter.
मृत्यु has been described both as a god and goddess in महाभारत . The statements regarding मृत्यु as a देव are as follows:--
Three sons were born to निकृति , wife of अधर्म . One of them was मृत्यु . मृत्युदेव has neither wife nor children because he is the destroyer of all. [mh-1-66-54 ] .
Once the son of an old गौतमी was bitten by a snake. A hunter seeing it rushed to kill the serpent but गौतमी objected to it. She advised him that it was a sin to injure any living being. The serpent then said, "It is not my fault that I bit the boy. I was persuaded by the god of death to do so." The god of death मृत्युदेव also appeared there then. He confirmed the snake's statement and added that God had programmed all events beforehand and the boy's death was not due to any mistake on anybody's part. [mh-13-1-50 ]
Once मृत्यु followed the King सुदर्शन , but मृत्युदेव had to withdraw after accepting defeat because the King had been living a virtuous life of high standard. (See under Sudarśana) .
The statements regarding मृत्यु as a goddess are the following:
This devatā was born from the body of ब्रह्मा in the shape of a woman. [mh-7-53-17 ] .
ब्रह्मा gave the work of destruction to मृत्यु . When she got that work she wept aloud. [mh-12-257-21 ] .
The goddess of मृत्यु once did severe penance. [mh-7-54-17 ] .
ब्रह्मा assured the goddess of death that any destruction by her would not be deemed as a sin. [mh-7-54-44 ] .
The terrible strength of मृत्युदेवता is described in Chapter 819, शान्ति पर्व , महाभारत .
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