Gāṇḍīva: The Divine Bow of Arjuna

Gāṇḍīva is the divine bow of Arjuna, the great archer of the Mahābhārata. It is counted as the greatest of all weapons and is the most famous āyudha (weapon) in the whole epic. It was made with divine skill and was kept by a line of divine guardians over thousands of years. Varuṇa, deva of the waters, gave it to Arjuna through Agni, deva of fire, and it became the means of Arjuna’s unmatched skill in battle.

The Virāṭa Parva of the Mahābhārata describes the bow in rich detail when it is taken down from a śamī tree before the battle of the Uttara Gograhaṇa (the cattle raid on the north side of King Virāṭa’s city).

What the Bow Was Like

The Virāṭa Parva calls Gāṇḍīva the highest of all bows, more powerful than a hundred thousand ordinary bows. When Prince Uttara took it down from the śamī tree, it was seen to be:

Decorated with a hundred golden markings
Adorned with gold-coloured patterns like indragopa insects (small red velvet mites)
Marked with three bright sun-discs shining at its centre
Made from black aguru (a fragrant dark wood) and decorated with gold
Huge in size, as tall as a tāla (palm tree)
Never bending under any load
Frightening in its sound when the string is drawn
Able to destroy even those who have received divine blessings

When its bowstring (jyā) alone was drawn and let go, it made a sound like mountains crashing together.

Its Line of Keepers

Gāṇḍīva was not made for Arjuna alone. It passed through the hands of divine beings over vast spans of time:

Brahmā held it for one thousand years
Prajāpati held it for five hundred and three years
Indra held it for eighty-five years
Candra (the Moon) held it for five hundred years
Varuṇa held it for one hundred years
Arjuna received it from Varuṇa (through Agni) and used it for thirty-two and a half years

Arjuna’s thirty-two and a half years with the bow cover his digvijaya (campaign of conquest in all directions) before the Rājasūya sacrifice, the twelve years of exile in the forest, the one year of ajñātavāsa (living in disguise) and all the campaigns before these.

How Arjuna Received It

Agni wished to burn the Khāṇḍava forest and sought divine help, so Varuṇa gave Gāṇḍīva to Agni. Agni, disguised as a brāhmaṇa, then gave it to Arjuna, along with two divine quivers that never ran out of arrows and a chariot drawn by white horses. This is why Arjuna is so closely tied to Gāṇḍīva and is called Gāṇḍīvī, “the one who carries the Gāṇḍīva”.

Hiding the Bow and Taking It Back

During the ajñātavāsa, the five bows of the Pāṇḍavas, Gāṇḍīva first among them, were wrapped in cloth and tied in the branches of a great śamī tree outside Virāṭanagara, the city of King Virāṭa. Nakula climbed the tree and tied them with ropes in places sheltered from the rain. A human corpse was placed nearby to keep people away. The cowherds were told that the bundle held the body of the Pāṇḍavas’ aged mother, who had lived 180 years.

When the crisis of the Uttara Gograhaṇa forced Arjuna to reveal himself, Prince Uttara went down to the śamī tree. As he took down the bows, divine light streamed from them in every direction like rising planets, and Uttara trembled with awe at what he held.

In the Battle of the Uttara Gograhaṇa

Arjuna took up Gāṇḍīva to face the whole Kaurava army alone. The sound of the bow alone, its string drawn and let go with no arrow, made the earth tremble, the sky shake and the trees sway. The Kaurava soldiers knew at once that they were facing Arjuna. Droṇa recognised the sound straight away and said that this was the sound of Gāṇḍīva and no other.

In the battle, Arjuna used Gāṇḍīva against Kṛpa, Droṇa, Karṇa, Aśvatthāmā, Bhīṣma and Duryodhana one after another, and defeated each of them in turn.

Gāṇḍīva in Varuṇaloka (Udyoga Parva)

The Mātali Upākhyāna (the story of Mātali) in Chapter 98 of the Udyoga Parva gives a separate mention of the Gāṇḍīva bow. It comes during the visit of Mātali and Nārada to Varuṇaloka, the world of Varuṇa. There the bow is described as kept in Varuṇaloka, before it was given to Arjuna. This agrees with the Virāṭa Parva, which names Varuṇa as one of the bow’s keepers. The Udyoga Parva passage confirms the bow’s divine origin and its place in Varuṇa’s treasury, as part of the story’s larger description of the worlds.

The Bow Falls Silent at Pañcanada (Mausala Parva)

The last account of Gāṇḍīva is also the most humbling. After the Vṛṣṇis destroyed one another at Prabhāsa and Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa left the world, Arjuna led the surviving women and children of the Yādavas out of Dvārakā, which was about to be lost. At Pañcanada, mere cowherd robbers, the Ābhīras, armed only with sticks, attacked the travellers to carry off the women. Arjuna had once faced whole armies alone with this bow. Now he could hardly bend Gāṇḍīva enough to string it. His divine astras (weapons called up by mantra) would not come to his memory, and his once-endless arrows were used up in a moment. The strength of his arms had also left him. Unable to protect them, he watched the mlecchas (outsiders) carry away many of the Vṛṣṇi women, and he was overcome with shame.

When he later told this to Vyāsa, the ṛṣi explained that the astras had finished the work they were meant for and had gone back to their divine sources. They would come again only when their time came. The same Kāla (Time) that had given Arjuna his power had now taken it away. So even the greatest of bows is shown to be a tool of time, powerful only in the hour set for it.

Gāṇḍīva Returns to Varuṇa (Mahāprasthānika Parva)

The long story of Gāṇḍīva ends on the shore of the eastern sea, Lauhitya, during the Pāṇḍavas’ great final journey. Even as he gave up the world, Arjuna still carried the bow and its two endless quivers, out of attachment to their value. There Agni appeared in a towering form with seven flames and told him to give up the bow, since its purpose was now wholly complete. Agni reminded him that long ago it was he who had got the Gāṇḍīva for Arjuna from Varuṇa, for the burning of the Khāṇḍava forest, which was done through Arjuna’s strength and the power of Nārāyaṇa (Kṛṣṇa). Now the bow had to go back to Varuṇa, its true keeper, just as Kṛṣṇa’s own discus had gone and would return only at its appointed time. At his brothers’ urging, Arjuna threw Gāṇḍīva and the two quivers into the waters, and Agni vanished. So the divine bow, which had come out of Varuṇa’s keeping to serve a divine purpose, went back at last into the deep from which it came, its work in the world complete.

Sources

Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapters 40–43 and 46
Mahābhārata, Udyoga Parva, Chapter 98 (Mātali Upākhyāna)
Mahābhārata, Mausala Parva, Chapters 7–8
Mahābhārata, Mahāprasthānika Parva, Chapter 1