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arjuna and gandiva bow, arjuna mahabharata, Arjuna's conquests, invincible Arjun, Shaheer sheikh as arjuna
Would you credit Sachin’s bat with all of his devastating cricket innings? Would you bestow sole glory of Steffi’s formidable forehand to her tennis racquet? Would you credit Shakespeare’e quill with every literary masterpiece?
No?? You say they are mere instruments to transmit the finesse & the genius of its owners!!
Right! Then why is the Gandiva bow given near-total credit for Arjun’s martial triumphs?
Arjun & Gandiva were indeed an Invincible Team. However, Arjun was gifted the Gandiva only before Khandav dahan. His chain of triumphs began much, much prior to the Gandiva phase of his life.
Here is an impressive list of Arjun’s conquests without Gandiva bow:
1] Drona’s Gurudakshina – where Arjun conquered Drupad’s Panchal army, while the entire Kaurava force failed.
2] Drona’s best disciple – ‘Ever since his student days, Arjuna became celebrated for the firmness of his grasp (of weapons), for his lightness of motion, precision of aim, and his proficiency in the use of the Kshura, Naracha, Vala and Vipatha weapons.’
3] Drona sprung surprise tests on his students. Arjun aced them all without the Gandiva. These tests include hitting the wooden bird’s head, rescuing Drona from the deadly crocodile attack and imbibing Sonic Archery. (The latter inspite of Drona trying his darned best to prevent Arjun learning it)
4] Conquests for Hastinapur – After Gurudakshina was complete, Arjun expanded and enriched Hastinapur’s sovereign.
‘He defeated the great Sauvira King, Yavana King (whom Pandu could not defeat), King Vipula and King Sumitra. Also, Arjun assisted by Bhima on only a single car subjugated all the kings of the East backed by ten thousand cars. In the same way, having conquered on a single car the whole of the south, Dhananjaya sent unto the kingdom of the Kurus a large booty.’
5] Defeating Gandharva Angaraparna : This incident occurred enroute to Draupadi swayamwar, when the Pandavas were in Brahmin disguise. On being challenged by Angaraparna, Arjun did not even possess a bow! Arjun converted a mere torch into a weapon. In defeating Angaraparna, Arjun also nobly spared Angaraparna’s life.
6] Draupadi swayamwar – Drupad had installed a mighty bow which most couldn’t lift, let alone string or shoot with. This was the massive bow which Arjun effortlessly wielded to achieve Drupad’s impossible task.
7] Post-swayamwar skirmish – Arjun fought the disgruntled, sore losers of Drauapdi swayamvar, using the same Drupad bow, which crumbled many a Kshatriya pride beneath its massive weight .
8] Savior for Apsaras – During his lonesome 12 year exile, Arjun rescued 5 Apsaras who had been cursed into crocodile forms.
Thus, Arjun’s prowess was never solely dependent on the Gandiva bow. Their was a SYMBIOTIC ALLIANCE, which brought as much glory to Gandiva bow as it did to Arjun.
The Gandiva was Shiva’s bow handed down though multiple hands to Varuna. Yet, it remains embedded in our minds as uniquely associated with Arjun – and no other master.
Ultimately, a bow is only as good as its wielder.
Impractical Dreamer 
I do agree that a weapong is as good as the hands that use it but somwhere that weapon or instrument also needs to be well built … and is a great help
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Of course. The sturdy instrument is a given. My point is its leap of power based on who is the user.
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Your admiration for Arjun appears to be boundless which is fine but it does not mean Arjun is invincible. Gandiva, with its quivers assuring an endless supply of arrows, is indeed the weapon that makes the wielder invincible. Created by Brahma, the first recipient of Gandiva was the almighty Shiva himself who held it for longest duration of a thousand years; thereafter it passed on to Prajapati, followed by several change of hands for progressively lesser duration before it finally reached Arjuna through Varuna. Capable of firing multiple arrows at a time from its 108 strings, the Gandiva is truly a weapon of mass destruction the wielding of which required specialized skills. as soon as the war was over, Agni appears to take possession of the weapon from Arjun. The implication clearly is that even Arjun would perish if he is in the line of fire from Gandiva…..):)….):)….
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Thanks for the re-visit!
Success has 2 factors here – the user & the instrument. My point is that Arjun was adept at achieving victories much prior to getting the Gandiva. So the Gandiva simply acted as further catalyst to his finesse.
Secondly, 108 strings would be useless in lesser hands. Arjun specified why he deserved the Gandiva at the time of Khandav-dahan. He said he wanted a bow that was ‘capable to withstand the power of his arms & a bow that could match the speed at which he fired arrows.’ So, if used by a lesser warrior, the 108 strings would remain pretty much unused & hence redundant. The Gandiva found its match in its user, which is why I termed it a ‘symbiotic relation.’
A case to illustrate would be Ashwatthama attempting to get Sudarshan chakra from Krishn. When Krishn actually gave it for a few moments, Ashwatthama had to admit he couldn’t handle its power & return it to its rightful owner.
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Your point is well taken. But the fact is also that there was a more powerful bow, called Vijay, and an even mightier warrior, called Karna, in Mahabhartata. The epic has it that Karna was the only warrior who conquered the entire world through Digvijaya Yatra. He would have easily vanquished Arjun but for the machination of Indra and the scheming of Krishna. In fact Karna is the alpha male, the greatest of all warriors, and the complete man, combining the righteousness of Yudhisthir, strength of Bhima, archery skills of Arjuna, handsomeness of Nakula and wisdom of Sahadeva. Even defeat failed to detract from his glory as he remained as lustrous as a thousand suns even in defeat…
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With all due respect to Parshuram, I have to clarify that the famous Vijaya bow never faced as much defeat & ignominy as at Karna’s hands. On day 17, Yudhishtir was the first to knock karna unconscious, before Shalya ferried him away to safety. Then Bheem beat karna black & blue at least thrice on the same day. Then came the final encounter with Arjun. TV serials have distorted all facts out of proportion for TRPs. Anybody who reads the extensive text will realize exactly how many times karna had to be saved from death by Ashwatthama, Kripacharya, drona, Duryodhan and bros.
Secondly, dijvijay itself is an interpolation as per BORI. In addition, if at all done, it was done in the ABSENCE of Pandavas, notably Arjun, who were in 13 year exile. On the other hand, at Rajsuya yagna Pandavas conquered all directions inspite of all existing enemy warriors. Bheem especially, in his eastern conquest defeated karna fair & square at Rajsuya. This was inspite of karna’s kavach-kundal and karna’s vijaya bow being very much in his possession.
karna had his kavach-kundal when Drupad defeated him at ‘gurudakshina’ war, when Gandharvas defeated him at ghosh-yatra war and even when Arjun defeated him at Virat war. So the whole kavach hyperbole stands nullified.
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I love reading your posts about religious/spiritual matters. I know very little of Hindu beliefs and I find it fascinating. As you’ve probably ascertained, I’ve caught up with all your blog posts now! What happened to part II of your retreat though?
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Haha, I was just pondering over the slew of comments from you. I liked your choice of posts. Did the titles help you to zero down on em? Will make it a point to write with catchy titles, if so.
Yes, Hindu texts do tend to have fatalistic tilts. Sometimes, they tend to shift credit from mortals to non-mortals. So I thought of shifting back the focus on the human achievements.
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Excellent post!
Arjuna was simply the best of his time. A peerless archer and a great human being. He performed great feats and endured immense sacrifices. To me, he was quite simply the most charismatic individual in whole of Mahabharata apart from of course Lord Krishna.
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He was indeed. Infact, so near-perfect was he in terms of character, skills, personality and aura, that a renowned Marathi author calls him ‘Fairytale Prince.’ Unfortunately, she meant it in a derogatory sense, since she thought he was ‘too perfect to be relatable’.
Of course, we admirers think otherwise. May our breed expand and flourish. In Kaliyuga, we are the chosen few who still admire the admirable.
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What’s impressive here is how you began with Sachin’s bat and ended with this beautiful line “a bow is only as good as its wielder.” The middle so effectively and charmingly listed Arjun’s conquests without Gandiva bow.
I wonder why Drona did this though: “…these tests include hitting the wooden bird’s head, rescuing Drona from the deadly crocodile attack and imbibing Sonic Archery. (The latter inspite of Drona trying his darned best to prevent Arjun learning it).”
Anyway, if Sachin was a master-blaster, you are Arjun-encyclopedic 🙂
Keep it up, and well done, Sweety.
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Hi Mahesh! What a lovely comment. Indeed I enjoy swimming in Arjun ocean.
Drona had his personal reasons, chief being his love for his son Ashwatthama. No matter how much he gauged the invaluable worth of having Arjun as a student, he had his reservations about giving unto Arjun all he gave his son. He tried to stall Arjun by giving him a narrow pitcher while Ashwatthama got a wide pitcher. So in the time Arjun was delayed at the river, Drona taught his son extra weapons.
He also instructed ashram attendants to keep torches alight, so that Arjun doesn’t think of learning blinded archery. However, Arjun did learn it on his own.
Plus Drona kept back Narayanastra , which however Arjun learnt from Krishn.
Apart from all these Drona tactics, its important that Arjun took each setback as a challenge, rather than get embittered and dejected. He never accused Drona of partiality, nor demanded that he was ‘entitled’ to get everything from Drona. He found his way around problems.
tHE ONLY major side-effect, is that Since he didn’t throw major tantrums, general public doesn’t realize that he too faced many hurdles; instead they think he was the lucky, privileged, favored student . Its just that Arjun chose to leap over hurdles than get enmeshed in them.
There’s truly so much to learn from Arjun.
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Yes – “Arjun took each setback as a challenge, rather than get embittered and dejected.” And it’s great to read this – “general public doesn’t realize that he too faced many hurdles; instead they think he was the lucky, privileged, favored student…” Indeed so much to learn about/from Arjun.
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🙂
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Point well made, Sweety. Liked the caparison of Gandiva with with Sachin’s bat.
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Thank you!
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