Indian traditions, Nivedita and Coomaraswamy
Nachiketas
Nachiketas challenges the inadequacy of his father’s offering and is told he is given to Death. He goes to Yama’s home and waits three days without welcome while the host is absent. Yama grants three boons to repair the failure of hospitality. For the third, Nachiketas asks what follows death and refuses wealth, descendants, pleasures and long life offered as substitutes for an answer.
Also known as Naciketas · Nachiketa
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In the sources
Principal account
TraditionalNachiketas challenges the inadequacy of his father’s offering and is told he is given to Death. He goes to Yama’s home and waits three days without welcome while the host is absent.
Further detail
TraditionalYama grants three boons to repair the failure of hospitality. For the third, Nachiketas asks what follows death and refuses wealth, descendants, pleasures and long life offered as substitutes for an answer.
Context & interpretation
The entry follows the collection’s Nachiketas and Yama retelling and reproduced teaching. It does not supply a complete translation or philological treatment of the Katha Upanishad. The encounter with Death is an attributed religious narrative, distinct from a documented death experience.
Original passages
Source 1
Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists
waited there three daysOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Nivedita and Coomaraswamy, Myths of the Hindus & Buddhists (1914), active reader leaf 404
Exact passage checked against the active edition text and original-leaf mapping; whitespace and scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0109-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0109-E001-P0404
- Original scan leaf
- 404
- Recorded leaf number
- 404
- Current Reader position
- 395
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists
The great mystery of what cometh after deathOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Nivedita and Coomaraswamy, Myths of the Hindus & Buddhists (1914), active reader leaf 407
Exact passage checked against the active edition text and original-leaf mapping; whitespace and scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0109-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0109-E001-P0407
- Original scan leaf
- 407
- Recorded leaf number
- 407
- Current Reader position
- 398
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Illustrations
Continue exploring
Yama
The figure of Death who receives Nachiketas as a guest and responds to Savitri’s persistence.
Same subject and traditionArjuna
The Pandava archer whose skill and moral hesitation make him central to the Mahabharata.
Same subject and traditionBhagiratha
The royal descendant whose persistence brings Ganga to his ancestors’ ashes.
Same subject and traditionBharata
The brother who refuses to profit from Rama’s exile and waits for his return.