Sanjaya turns to the Pandava side: Krishna blows the Panchajanya, Arjuna the Devadatta, and Bhima the great conch Paundra.
The verse reads at first as a plain roll call of warriors and their named conches, the answering blast going up from the Pandava ranks. Yet the names are not arbitrary; each conch and each title carries a story the commentators pause to unpack.
Krishna blew the Panchajanya. Arjuna blew the Devadatta. Bhima, doer of terrible deeds, blew the great conch Paundra.
Sanjaya has been naming the conches of the gathered armies, and here he turns from the other side to the Pandavas, letting their answering blast sound after the Kaurava call.
Where they agreethe convergence
Across schools and centuries the commentators come to the same ground. These are the points they share, and the voices that hold each one.
Sanjaya keeps naming them, now from the Pandava side: Krishna sounds the Panchajanya, Arjuna the Devadatta, and Bhima the great Paundra.
Across Advaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, and the modern voicesĀnandagiri · Dhanapati · Vallabha · Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara · Tilak · RamsukhdasIn Ānandagiri, Dhanapati, and 5 others’ words
Sanjaya keeps naming the conches, now turning to the Pandava side. Krishna blew his conch, the Panchajanya; Arjuna blew his, the Devadatta; and Bhima, the man of terrible deeds, blew the great conch called Paundra. The plain sense of the verse is simply this roll call of warriors and their named conches as the answering blast goes up from the Pandava ranks. Almost every commentator on file treats the line first as this straightforward catalogue before drawing anything further from it.
These names are not idle: Krishna governs the senses; his Panchajanya was once a slain demon; Arjuna, winner of wealth, sounds the god-given Devadatta that terrifies the foe.
Across Advaita, Bhakti, Śuddhādvaita, and the modern voicesDhanapati · Ramsukhdas · Ānandagiri · Śrīdhara · PuruṣottamaIn Dhanapati, Ramsukhdas, and 3 others’ words
The names in this verse are not arbitrary; each one carries a story or a meaning that the commentators unpack. Krishna is called Hrishikesha, the Lord of the senses, the one who governs the sense organs. The conch Panchajanya is named after a demon, Panchajana, who had taken the form of a conch and whom Krishna slew, taking up the demon's body as his instrument. Arjuna is called Dhananjaya, conqueror of wealth, because he subdued many kings and gathered great riches; his conch Devadatta, meaning given by the gods, was a gift from Indra during the war with the Nivatakavacha demons, and its sound terrified the enemy.
Bhima's names mark his ferocity: doer of terrible deeds who felled demons and mighty enemies, and wolf-belly, fed by an inner fire that devours all he eats.
Across Advaita, Bhakti, and the modern voicesDhanapati · Ramsukhdas · Ānandagiri · Tilak · ŚrīdharaIn Dhanapati, Ramsukhdas, and 3 others’ words
Bhima is given two epithets, and the commentators read both as pointing to his fearsome nature. Bhima-karma means the doer of terrible deeds, earned by his slaying of demons such as Hidimba, Baka, and Jatasura and of mighty foes such as Kichaka and Jarasandha. Vrikodara means wolf-belly, and the explanation offered is that within his stomach burned a special fire named vrka, a wolf-fire, by which an enormous quantity of food could be digested. So the names quietly mark Bhima out as a figure of immense, almost ferocious capacity, fitting for the man who blows the great conch Paundra.
This is the shared ground; it can be carried as it is.
Carry this with youwhat stays
Return to this verse over the coming days. Read once, it stays a phrase; sat with, it begins to settle.
Even a roll call of names and conches is laid down with care, each title carrying its long memory; so it is worth reading slowly before the deeper word is spoken.
Read deeper
Everything a full study holds, folded below.
Word by word
All the commentary, woven together
The commentary, woven together
machine-assisted draft, pending review
Convergence
anjaya keeps naming the conches, now turning to the Pandava side. Krishna blew his conch, the Panchajanya; Arjuna blew his, the Devadatta; and Bhima, the man of terrible deeds, blew the great conch called Paundra. The plain sense of the verse is simply this roll call of warriors and their named conches as the answering blast goes up from the Pandava ranks. Almost every commentator on file treats the line first as this straightforward catalogue before drawing anything further from it.
Braided from 7 commentators
Śrī Ānandagiri · Dhanapati Sūri · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
The names in this verse are not arbitrary; each one carries a story or a meaning that the commentators unpack. Krishna is called Hrishikesha, the Lord of the senses, the one who governs the sense organs. The conch Panchajanya is named after a demon, Panchajana, who had taken the form of a conch and whom Krishna slew, taking up the demon's body as his instrument. Arjuna is called Dhananjaya, conqueror of wealth, because he subdued many kings and gathered great riches; his conch Devadatta, meaning given by the gods, was a gift from Indra during the war with the Nivatakavacha demons, and its sound terrified the enemy.
Dhanapati Sūri · Swami Ramsukhdas · Śrī Ānandagiri · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Puruṣottama
Bhima is given two epithets, and the commentators read both as pointing to his fearsome nature. Bhima-karma means the doer of terrible deeds, earned by his slaying of demons such as Hidimba, Baka, and Jatasura and of mighty foes such as Kichaka and Jarasandha. Vrikodara means wolf-belly, and the explanation offered is that within his stomach burned a special fire named vrka, a wolf-fire, by which an enormous quantity of food could be digested. So the names quietly mark Bhima out as a figure of immense, almost ferocious capacity, fitting for the man who blows the great conch Paundra.
Dhanapati Sūri · Swami Ramsukhdas · Śrī Ānandagiri · Lokmanya Tilak · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Divergence
Here the commentators are of one mind.
All the translations and commentary
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