Āgneyāstra

The Āgneyāstra is a divine weapon that calls on the power of Agni, the deva of fire. In the Vana Parva of the Mahābhārata, King Kuvalāśva of the Ikṣvāku line uses it to kill the asura Dhundhu, who lay buried in the Ujjalaka desert. This blow ended Dhundhu’s reign of terror and gave Kuvalāśva the name Dhundhumāra, “slayer of Dhundhu”.

The Āgneyāstra is one of the great astras. An astra is a weapon brought to life and guided by mantra. It carries the śakti (power) of its presiding devatā, here Agni, and is far more than a physical missile.

What an Astra Is

In the Mahābhārata and the Purāṇas, astras are different from śastras. Śastras are ordinary physical weapons such as swords, spears and arrows. An astra is activated through mantra and carries the power of a devatā. The warrior calls on the devatā, places that śakti into a physical object (often an arrow), and releases it. The astra then works with the devatā’s own power, beyond any merely physical force.

The Āgneyāstra

The Āgneyāstra carries the śakti of Agni, the deva of sacred fire, who connects all levels of existence through the yajña (fire offering). Because it is a weapon of fire, it is especially suited to burning enemies whom ordinary weapons cannot touch, and it purifies through fire on the widest scale.

In the story of Dhundhumāra, Kuvalāśva and his army dug down to the place in the Ujjalaka desert where Dhundhu lay resting. Dhundhu woke and let loose his own terrible fire, which burned up most of Kuvalāśva’s twenty-one thousand sons. Kuvalāśva himself was protected by the divine tejas (radiant power) of Viṣṇu, which had entered him. He answered with the Āgneyāstra. Filled with both Agni’s śakti and the yogabala (yogic strength) of Viṣṇu within Kuvalāśva, the weapon destroyed Dhundhu completely.

The wider story of Dhundhumāra also mentions the Brahmāstra as one of the great astras known to the Ikṣvāku warriors.

The Āgneyāstra in Other Accounts

The Āgneyāstra appears in many stories of the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa as one of the usual weapons of great warriors. Many texts pair it with the Vāruṇāstra, the water-weapon of Varuṇa, which is the only weapon that can counter it. Teachers passed it on together with other divine weapons. Droṇa, for example, taught Arjuna the whole range of astras, including the Āgneyāstra.

Aśvatthāmā’s Āgneyāstra in the Droṇa Parva

Aśvatthāmā had first launched the Nārāyaṇāstra against the Pāṇḍavas. It failed, because Kṛṣṇa told the Pāṇḍavas to give up and lay down their weapons, and this made the weapon powerless. Still burning with grief at the death of his father Droṇa, Aśvatthāmā then launched the Āgneyāstra against the Pāṇḍava army. The weapon blazed through their ranks and destroyed a whole akṣauhiṇī (a full army division), burning warriors, horses and elephants alike. The fire was terrible.

Arjuna called up a Brahmāstra to meet it, and the two astras clashed with divine force. When the weapons had died down, Aśvatthāmā was confused: Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna had come out of the destruction unharmed. Then Vyāsa appeared and told Aśvatthāmā the hidden reason. Kṛṣṇa is Nārāyaṇa himself, the source from which every astra draws its power. No weapon born from that source can harm its own origin.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 201–204
• Mahābhārata, Droṇa Parva, Chapter 200