Viśalyakaraṇī
Viśalyakaraṇī · viśalya-karaṇī, “the herb that draws out the arrow”
Viśalyakaraṇī is a divine healing herb. It is known in the Mahābhārata for its power to draw arrows out of wounds and heal the injuries they cause. The name means “that which removes the śalya“, the arrow-shaft stuck in the body. The Brahma Purāṇa tells that it fell from the mountain of herbs Hanumān carried back to the Himālaya, on the bank of the Gautamī where Hari dwells as Yogeśvara, and that a branch of the tree where it fell restored the merchant Maṇikuṇḍala.
In the account of the war in the Bhīshma Parva, Bhīshma Pitāmaha (the grandsire) gave Viśalyakaraṇī to Duryodhana on the seventh day of battle. It was an act of care from the old grandsire to the Kaurava prince in his charge, in the middle of the slaughter of war.
The Herb and What It Does
Viśalyakaraṇī, also simply called viśalyā, is the herb that draws arrows out of wounds. In Sanskrit medical writings and in the Purāṇas, taking an arrow out of the body was one of the hardest and most important tasks of battlefield surgery. An arrow lodged in flesh, with a barbed head or entering at an angle, could not just be pulled out without doing great harm. Viśalyakaraṇī was understood to make this easier, or to let the arrow come free without tearing the flesh around it any further.
In later tradition, most famously the Rāmāyaṇa, a herb named Viśalyakaraṇī was one of the four divine healing plants that Hanumān brought from Droṇagiri in the Himālaya to revive Lakshmaṇa after Indrajit struck him with the Śakti weapon. The use of the same herb, or a related one, in the Mahābhārata‘s account of the Kurukshetra war shows the shared tradition of battlefield herbs in the itihāsas.
Bhīshma’s Gift on the Seventh Day
On the seventh day of the Kurukshetra war, the fighting had caused heavy losses on both sides, and Duryodhana had been wounded. Bhīshma Pitāmaha gave him Viśalyakaraṇī. Bhīshma was himself the supreme commander, and here he was offering a healing herb to the king he served. This shows the complicated bond between Bhīshma and Duryodhana. Bhīshma was bound by duty and was fighting at great cost to himself, yet he still cared personally for the well-being of the man for whom he was spending his own divine strength.
The gift also shows Bhīshma’s character. Even in the middle of war, and even knowing that the Kaurava side was not supported by dharma, he acted with a grandfather’s care. He fought for Duryodhana and he also healed Duryodhana’s wounds. In Bhīshma, loyalty and personal tenderness could not be separated.
Per Brahma Purāṇa
Where the herb fell
In the Gautamī Māhātmya, Brahmā tells Nārada the account of Cakshustīrtha on the southern bank of the Gautamī, where the deity is Yogeśvara, Hari, the master of yoga. The brāhmaṇa Gautama of the city of Bhauvana, son of Vṛddhakauśika, led his friend, the rich merchant Maṇikuṇḍala, away from home to seek wealth. Three times he wagered against him whether dharma or adharma is stronger in the world, and each time the people said adharma. So Gautama took Maṇikuṇḍala’s wealth, cut off his hands and, in front of Yogeśvara, plucked out his eyes and left him. Still the merchant held to dharma: “Dharma alone is the mother, father, friend and kinsman of all embodied beings.”
On every śukla ekādaśī Vibhīshaṇa came there at night after moonrise with his son and the rākshasas, bathed in the Gautamī and worshipped Yogeśvara. His son Vaibhīshaṇi saw the merchant, and Vibhīshaṇa told him of the herb: “When the need arose, Hanumān, the friend of my guru Rāma, brought a great mountain, a store of all healing herbs, and when the purpose was served he carried it back to Himavān. Its chief herbs were Viśalyakaraṇī, which rids one of pain, and Mṛtasañjīvanī, which brings the dead back to life. As Hanumān went swiftly, the herb Viśalyakaraṇī fell on the bank of the Gautamī, where the deity is Hari, the master of yoga. Bring that herb and, remembering Hari, place it on this merchant’s heart.”
The healing
Vaibhīshaṇi recited the Vedic mantra ishe tvā and cut a branch of the tree. “The tree where the herb fell has become powerful,” Vibhīshaṇa said; “place a branch of it on his heart, and as soon as it touches him he shall regain his former form.” Vaibhīshaṇi placed it on the merchant’s heart, and Maṇikuṇḍala regained his hands and his eyes. “No one can fully understand the power of gems, mantras and healing herbs.”
Maṇikuṇḍala kept the twig, bathed in the Gautamī and bowed to Yogeśvara. In the city of Mahāpura, King Mahārāja had vowed to give his blind daughter and his kingdom to whoever restored her sight; at the mere touch of the twig the princess saw. Maṇikuṇḍala became king, sought out his old friend, who had lost all to gamblers, honoured him and had him bathe in the Gaṅgā to remove his pāpas, and both families performed yajñas near Yogeśvara and went to svarga.
From then on the tīrtha is called Mṛtasañjīvana, Cakshustīrtha and Yogeśa. It bestows puṇya even when remembered, gives delight to the mind and destroys all miseries.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 100
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Bhīshma Parva, Chapters 76–80 (Bhīshma Parva, Part 3)
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 100