| ABOUT THE BOOK : | The Kumaratantra, ascribed to Ravana, is a work on a particular class of demons afflicting children, and their appeasement. This short treatise, written in a mixture of verse and prose, describes twelve demons, called mātrka, who attack children on the first day after birth and in the first month or year of their lives, on the second day and in the second month or year, etc., up to the twelfth day, month, or year. Their names are Nandana, Sunandā, Pūtanā, Mukhamundikā, Kataputanā, Šakunikā, Suskarevati, Aryakā, Bhūsūtikā, Nirṛtā, Pilipicchikā, and Kāmukā. The symptoms of children who are seized by these demons are enumerated, followed by magico-religious procedures destined to appease them and usually consisting of fumigations, bali offerings, the presentation of food to brahmanas, etc. Each of the twelve sections of the text ends with a mantra in which Ravana is invoked. |
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