Sanskrit
पाञ्चजन्यं हृषीकेशो देवदत्तं धनञ्जयः । पौण्ड्रं दध्मौ महाशङ्खं भीमकर्मा वृकोदरः ॥
pāñcajanyaṃ hṛṣīkeśo devadattaṃ dhanañjayaḥ pauṇḍraṃ dadhmau mahāśaṅkhaṃ bhīmakarmā vṛkodaraḥ
Translation
Pânchajanya by Hrishîkesha, and Devadatta by Dhananjaya. Vrikodara of terrible deeds blew his mighty conch, Paundra;
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Each conch gets its own name here — Krishna’s Pânchajanya, said to be made from the bones of a slain giant, and Arjuna’s Devadatta, “God-given.” Even the instruments carry mythic weight in this scene; nothing about this moment is incidental.
Study deeper
Word by word
- pāñcajanyaṃपाञ्चजन्यं
- Pāñcajanya — Krishna's conch
- hṛṣīkeśoहृषीकेशो
- Hṛṣīkeśa — Krishna
- devadattaṃदेवदत्तं
- Devadatta — Arjuna's conch
- dhanañjayaḥधनञ्जयः
- Dhanañjaya — Arjuna
- pauṇḍraṃपौण्ड्रं
- Pauṇḍra
- dadhmauदध्मौ
- blew
- mahā-śaṅkhaṃमहा-शङ्खं
- the great conch
- bhīma-karmāभीम-कर्मा
- of terrifying deeds
- vṛkodaraḥवृकोदरः
- Vṛkodara — Bhīma
Commentary
Site Commentary
The text doesn’t just say they blew their conches — it names each one, as though the instrument itself deserved its own small biography. Naming an object turns it from equipment into something with a history and a stake in the outcome, a move available to anyone, not just epic poets.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- An object you've named or attached a story to — an old tool, a well-worn pair of running shoes — carries more motivating weight than an anonymous equivalent; use that deliberately rather than dismiss it as sentimentality.
Professional
- Naming a project or a release internally, rather than leaving it a generic label, can genuinely change how a team relates to it — it's not just branding, it's the same move this verse makes with a conch.
Family & Social
- Family objects that carry names and histories — an heirloom, a recipe passed down — carry weight precisely because they were named and storied; that's worth preserving on purpose, not by accident.
Ask yourself
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