Panchajanya- Hindu ArtifactArtifact"The Divine Conch Shell"
Also known as: Shankha, पाञ्चजन्य, and Pāñcajanya
Titles & Epithets
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Description
The sacred conch of Vishnu, taken by Krishna from the body of the sea-demon Panchajana at the bottom of the ocean. Before Kurukshetra's first arrow flew, Krishna sounded Panchajanya. The roar, Sanjaya told the blind king, shattered his sons' courage before a weapon was raised.
Mythology & Lore
Panchajanya
Krishna obtained the conch as part of his guru-dakshina, the gift a student owes his teacher. His guru Sandipani, grief-stricken over his young son who had drowned in the ocean at Prabhasa, asked Krishna for the only gift that mattered: bring the boy back.
Krishna and Balarama traveled to the shore. Krishna plunged into the dark waters and found the demon Panchajana lurking in a great shell on the ocean floor. He slew the demon and searched the body, but the boy was not inside. Panchajana had already devoured him. Krishna took the massive shell, then descended further still, to the realm of Yama, lord of the dead, and demanded the child's return. Yama yielded without contest. Krishna delivered the living boy to his teacher. The conch Panchajanya never left his side.
Before Kurukshetra
The Bhagavad Gita opens with the conches. Before the first arrow flew at Kurukshetra, Krishna blew Panchajanya and Arjuna sounded Devadatta. Each Pandava brother raised his own named conch, and the combined roar filled earth and sky. Sanjaya, narrating to the blind king Dhritarashtra far from the battlefield, told him the sound had shattered the courage of his sons before a single weapon was raised.