Pañcajana

Pañcajana · pañca-jana

Śaṅkha has other meanings too: see all meanings of Śaṅkha.

Pañcajana was a great asura who lived in the ocean. He was a sea-asura in the form of a conch-creature. He is best known as the one for whom Kṛshṇa‘s divine śaṅkha (conch), Pāñcajanya, is named. The tradition says that Kṛshṇa killed him, and the great Pāñcajanya conch came from the meeting with him. Its sound alone could shake svarga and earth.

Pañcajana is also linked with the waters near Prāgjyotisha, and with the gurukula of Sāndīpani. The Agni Purāṇa calls him a daitya, and tells that Śrī Kṛshṇa slew him and was honoured by Yama.

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa calls him a great rākshasa of the line of Diti who moved about inside the ocean at Prabhāsa in the form of a conch. He carried off the son of Sāndīpani, the guru of Kṛshṇa and Balarāma. Śrī Kṛshṇa entered the water and slew him, took the Pāñcajanya that was born from his body, and with its sound brought the boy back from the city of Yama. Uddhava remembers the deed when he tells Vidura of Śrī Kṛshṇa’s līlās, Nārada Maharshi foretells it, and Sūta names Pañcajana among those slain in Skandha 10.

The gurukula account

Kṛshṇa and Balarāma finished their studies at the gurukula (the teacher’s school and home) of Sāndīpani Muni in Avantī. They asked their guru what gift, called gurudakshiṇā (a student’s gift to his teacher), they should give him. Sāndīpani was moved by their devotion. He asked for something that seemed impossible: the return of his son, who had drowned in the ocean at Prabhāsa.

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa tells it in full. Śuka Maharshi tells Parīkshit that the guru, Sāndīpani, was born in the Kāśyapa gotra and lived in the city of Avantī, that is Ujjayinī. Balarāma and Śrī Kṛshṇa served him with reverence and bhakti, as one serves a devatā, showing the world the faultless way to live with a guru. He taught them the four Vedas with the Upanishads and the six Vedāṅgas, Dhanurveda with its mantras and their devatās, the Dharmaśāstras, Mīmāṃsā and the other ways of reasoning, Tarka-vidyā and the six kinds of rājanīti; they grasped every vidyā the moment it was told, and learned the sixty-four kalās, beginning with singing, in sixty-four days. Then they asked the ācārya to name his gurudakshiṇā. Seeing their wondrous greatness, the guru consulted his wife. Their son had fallen into the great ocean at Prabhāsa kshetra and died, and they asked, as their vara, that the boy be brought back.

Saying “So be it,” the two mahārathas mounted a ratha, reached Prabhāsa and sat for a moment on the shore. Samudra, the devatā of the ocean, came to them with articles of pūjā. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa said to him: “Here, with a great wave, you swallowed the boy, the son of our guru. Hand him over to us at once.” Samudra answered: “O Deva, Śrī Kṛshṇa! I did not carry off that boy at all. A great rākshasa named Pañcajana, of the line of Diti, moves about inside the water in the form of a conch. He carried off the boy. This is the truth.” Hearing that, Śrī Kṛshṇa entered the water swiftly and slew Pañcajana, but the boy was not to be seen in his belly.

Kṛshṇa and Balarāma went to the ocean, and Kṛshṇa went down into its depths. There he found Pañcajana, a great sea-asura in the form of a conch-creature. Pañcajana had swallowed Sāndīpani’s son. Kṛshṇa killed Pañcajana, but the boy was not inside him. Kṛshṇa then went to the realm of Yama and brought the boy back to his guru.

From this meeting Kṛshṇa took the great conch Pāñcajanya. It is named after the asura.

Per the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa, the punisher of the wicked, took the conch that was born from the body of the rākshasa, the Pāñcajanya, and came back to the ratha. With Balarāma, whose weapon is the plough, he went to Saṃyamanī, the city dear to Yama, and blew the conch. Hearing its sound, Yama, who rules all living beings, performed for the two of them a great pūjā full of bhakti, bowed and said: “O Vishṇu! You have taken a human body for līlā. What shall I do for you two?” Śrī Kṛshṇa said: “O Yamarāja! The son of our guru was brought here, his own karma being his bond. By my command, bring him.” Yama brought the boy, and the two gave him to their guru. Sāndīpani said that they had fully repaid the debt to the guru, and blessed them with fame that purifies people and with vidyās that would bear fruit in this world and the next.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 45

Pañcajana and the Narakāsura campaign

In the account of the defeat of Narakāsura, Pañcajana, or his conch, appears again in connection with the waters around Prāgjyotisha. By then the Pāñcajanya śaṅkha was already with Kṛshṇa. Its blast alone could frighten the armies of asuras. Its sound opened the Prāgjyotisha campaign and told all the worlds that Kṛshṇa had come.

In the other accounts of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa

When Uddhava tells Vidura of Śrī Kṛshṇa‘s līlās, he says that after slaying Kaṃsa in Mathurā, Śrī Kṛshṇa studied the Veda with its six aṅgas, and brought back the guru’s long-dead son from the belly of the rākshasa Pañcajana and gave him to the guru as dakshiṇā.

After Śrī Kṛshṇa had slain Keśī, Nārada Maharshi came to him and, in his stuti, foretold his coming deeds: after Kaṃsa he would slay Śaṅkha, Kālayavana, Mura and Naraka.

In his summary of the whole Purāṇa, Sūta names, among those whose prowess and slaying Skandha 10 tells, Śiśupāla, Pauṇḍraka, Śālva, Dantavakra, Śambara, Dvivida, Pīṭha, Mura, and Pañcajana and his son.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 3; Skandha 10, Chapter 37; Skandha 12, Chapter 12

In the Agni Purāṇa

In the Agni Purāṇa, Agni tells the Harivaṃśa. After Śrī Kṛshṇa had built Dvārakā, slain Narakāsura and brought the Pārijāta tree from Svargaloka, he learned the śastras and astras from Sāndīpani, and he brought back his teacher’s dead son and gave him to his teacher. He slew the daitya Pañcajana and was honoured by Yama. Then he slew Kālayavana and was honoured by Mucukunda.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 12

Per Brahma Purāṇa

Vyāsa tells the munis that after the slaying of Kaṃsa, Balarāma and Kṛshṇa, though they knew all knowledge and were knowledge itself, went to study the astras under Sāndīpani, who was born in Kāśī-kshetra and lived in Avantī-pura, that is, Ujjayinī, to show the world how a disciple should live. Serving their guru, they learned the dhanurveda with its secrets and its compendium in sixty-four days, and received the whole collection of astras at a single word of teaching. Sāndīpani thought that Candra and Sūrya had come to him. When they asked him to name his gurudakshiṇā, he saw by the sight of tapas what they were, and asked for his son, who had died long before in the salt ocean at Prabhāsa tīrtha.

The two took their weapons, went to the ocean and said to Sāgara: “Give us our guru’s son.” The Ocean, with folded hands, answered: “I did not take Sāndīpani’s son. A daitya named Pañcajana, who lives in the form of a conch, carried the boy off. He is in my waters.” Hearing this, Śrī Kṛshṇa entered the waters, killed Pañcajana, and took the excellent conch that had grown from his bones. By its sound the daityas lose their strength, the tejas of the devas grows and adharma wanes. Śrī Hari raised that Pāñcajanya, blew it and went to Yamapurī. With Balabhadra he conquered Yama, took the boy, who was suffering the torments of Yama, and the two gave him back to his father in his human body as before.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 194

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Sabhā Parva, dākshiṇātya pāṭha, Chapter 38
• Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 12
• Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 3; Skandha 10, Chapters 37, 45; Skandha 12, Chapter 12
• Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 194