Weapons used in Hindu mythology

The Gandiva

The gandiva is the strongest bow ever created. The bow was supposed to be unbreakable. And it is not just the bow. Along with the bow comes two quivers of arrows. The arrows in the quivers never get over. Thus the user of the gandiva can keep up with a constant and relentless firing of arrows with the gandiva. Whenever the string of the bow was twanged it made a sound like thunder, striking fear in the hearts of the enemies of the user! All the people from the fourteen worlds worshiped the Gandiva.

It is believed that the gandiva was created by the Brahman [the ultimate force that runs within all of us, of which all the Gods in Hindu mythology are manifestations].

The Brahman passed on the bow to Prajapati. Exactly who Prajapati is, is open to many interpretations in Hindu mythology.

In one place it was mentioned that Prajapati is Daksha, the father of Sati [the first wife of Shiva].

In some other cases, Lord Brahma is mentioned as Prajapathi.

Indra, the king of the Devas has also been mentioned as Prajapathi sometimes.

Sometimes, the great rishis in Hindu mythology together are called as Prajapathis.

As Indra and Daksha are the only warriors among the list mentioned above, it is possible that the gandiva was passed on to either of them. 

The Prajapathi then handed over the bow to Soma. Soma, is  Chandra, the Moon God, who was originally called as Soma Deva.

From Somadeva, the bow passed on to Varuna the Sea God.

It is possible that the bow was passed on to each one of Devas, during some great battle which they fought.

Agni, the God of Fire wanted to burn the Khandava forest to sustain himself. In the forest lived Takshak, the king of snakes who was a close friend of Indra, the King of the Devas. Every time, Agni tried to burn down the forest, Indra would send down torrential rains and make sure the forest was safe.

Driven to desperation, Agni approached Arjuna and Krishna for their help to burn down the Khandava forest. When Arjuna and Krishna heard Agni's problem, they were willing to help Agni and stand up against Indra. However they knew that to fight Indra, they needed good weapons and quiet a lot of them. So Arjuna and Krishna requested Agni for weapons to fight Indra.

Agni then meditated on Varuna, the Sea God. When Varuna appeared before him, Agni explained his problem to him. Varuna happily handed over the Gandiva and the quivers to Agni.

Agni offered them to Arjuna. Arjuna was thrilled. The greatest bow in the world was his! However using the bow was no small matter. The bow worked its powers only when it bonded well with its user. 

Arjuna was already a brilliant archer. He practiced archery for six to seven hours daily, without fail. For Arjuna, archery was his prayer, his meditation...

The Gandiva bonded with Arjuna very easily. 

And Arjuna helped Agni burn down the forest with the Gandiva.

It is said that despite having many owners, Gandiva truly became a part of Arjuna, it belonged to Arjuna, the way it never belonged to any of its previous owners... In that sense Arjuna was one with the Gandiva...Even now Gandiva is associated mostly only with Arjuna.

However after the end of the Kurukshetra war, the Gandiva had served its purpose. Agni, the Fire God came and asked Arjuna to return the Gandiva back to Varuna as he no longer needed it. Realizing that its purpose was over, Arjuna returned the Gandiva back to Varuna, with whom, it is rumoured that the Gandiva still lies...

The Sudarshana Chakra

Even more powerful than the Gandiva, is the Sudarshana Chakra which is a spinning discus of Lord Vishnu. It is believed that not only is the Sudarshana Chakra a very powerful weapon and it also bestows good fortune and protection to all those who are under the protection of Lord Vishnu. That is the reason it is called Sudarshana Chakra. ('Su' means good or auspicious and Darshana means 'sight.')

The Sudarshana Chakra is supposed to made of an indestructible metal and has two layers of 108 sharp edges, which rotates in opposite directions. The weapon was invincible and the wielder of the weapon was supposed to be always victorious in war.

There are two versions for the creation of the Sudarshana Chakra.

According to the first version, Lord Shiva was in Kailash when an asura came and challenged him. The asura proclaimed that he was the most powerful being in the world and even Shiva himself was not stronger than him.

Lord Shiva than sat on the top of the mountain, with his legs on the ground. Amused he asked the asura to move some portion of the earth marked by Shiva's toe.

As the asura pulled out the portion of the earth, he pulled it up till his neck...., suddenly the earth started spinning in a powerful circular motion becoming the Sudarshana Chakra, killing the asura immediately.

Subsequently during the war between the Devas and the asuras, the Devas were losing heavily in the battle. The guru of the asuras – Shukracharya was very powerful. He knew of a particular mantra which could even bring the dead back to life. The asuras who had died during the battle, were brought back to life by Shukracharya the next day. But the dead of the Devas stayed dead.

Lord Vishnu being the God of Preservation was worried about this. It was his duty to protect the Devas and the world. As he watched the Asuras fighting, he realized that he needed a powerful weapon, which would destroy the Asuras such that they could not be brought back to life.

Lord Vishnu prayed and meditated on Lord Shiva as Lord Shiva was the Lord of Destruction and the one who had created the Sudarshana Chakra.

Lord Shiva tested Lord Vishnu and found him to be extremely devoted. So it is said that Lord Shiva then handed over the Sudarshana Chakra to Lord Vishnu.

However it is also mentioned that the power of the Sudarshana Chakra was so great, that the power of the weapon was divided into three, whereby Lord Shiva took one portion of it and gave Goddess Parvati another portion and the third was given to Lord Vishnu in the form of the Sudarshana Chakra.

The Sudarshana Chakra helped Lord Vishnu destroy the Asuras once and for all.

That was one version. According to another version of the story the Sudarshana Chakra was created by Vishwakarma, the architect of the Devas.

Vishwakarma had a daughter Sanjana who was married to Surya, the Sun God. However the Sun God was too fierce and bright and Sanjana found it difficult to look at her husband or even live with him. She went to her father and asked him to devise a solution for her problem. Vishwakarma being an engineer, thought about it and arrived at a practical solution. He removed the outer layer of the 'sun dust' from Surya, to make him less fierce.

Sanjanna oversaw as her father removed the sun dust. When she found that she could look at her husband easily, she asked her father to stop removing the layers.

Sanjana went on to live with her husband happily.

Using the removed portion of the sun dust, Vishwakarma designed three things – the Trident of Lord Shiva, the Sudarshana Chakra of Lord Vishnu and the Pushpaka Vimana [the flying chariot] which was given to Kubera. The Pushpaka Vimana was eventually taken over by Ravana, the villain of the Ramayana, when he took over the kingdom of Lanka from Kubera.

The Sudarshana Chakra is also supposed to be a very strong weapon. 

When the Devas and the Asuras churned the ocean for the amrita, it is said that they used Mount Manthara as a churning rod. Mount Mandhara was to be cut to be carried to the ocean. The Sudarshana Chakra was used to cut Mount Mandhara.

There is also another story in connection with the protection offered by Sudarshana Chakra.

Ambareesha was an Iskwaku king and the son of Nabagha. He was a great devotee of Lord Vishnu.

Once Ambareesha had performed a fast and was about to break it when Sage Durvasa appeared before him and asked Ambareesha to wait for him, before breaking the fast.

Sage Durvasa went to the river, washed himself. However as the sage had delayed considerably and the time for breaking the fast was nearing, the king as a token for the took a drop of water and a tulsi leaf and then waited for the sage to come back.

However known for his temper, Sage Durvasa felt offended at his slight of the king. He thought that the king had broken his word about waiting for him, before breaking the fast.

In his anger, Sage Durvasa pulled out a strand of his hair and threw it on the ground. Some versions say that this strand of hair changed into a demon, some other versions say that the strand of hair became a chakra. Whatever the strand transformed into, it went straight for the king trying to the kill the king.

It is said that the Sudarshana came to the king's rescue and destroyed the demon/chakra and after that it started hunting down Sage Durvasa.

No matter where the sage ran, the Sudarshana followed him. The sage ran to the Gods. Lord Shiva and Lord Brahma both expressed their inability to help the sage. Durvasa went to Lord Vishnu himself. Surprisingly even Lord Vishnu said that he could not help the sage. He said that King Ambarisha's devotion had dragged the chakra to him and that it was only Ambarisha who could stop it.

So in the end Durvasa ran back to the king. Looking at the sorry state of the sage, the king prayed for the sudarshana to leave the sage alone. It is said that it was only then that the Sudarshana disappeared from there....

Sudarshana Chakra has always been associated with Lord Vishnu or his avatar Lord Krishna.

The Sudarshana Chakra was handed over to Lord Krishna by Agni. Agni had asked for Arjuna and Krishna's protection from Indra, for burning the Khandava forest. Arjuna and Krishna had agreed to help provided they were given powerful weapons to fight Indra. Agni gave the 'Gandiva' to Arjuna and 'Sudarshana Chakra' to Lord Krishna.

Krishna fought many battles with his Sudarshana Chakra and was victorious in all of them.

In the end:

Queen Gandhari at her anger in losing all her sons, had cursed Krishna and the entire Yadavas clan to die after 36 years from the Mahabharatha war.

As Gandhari's curse came into effect, the Yadavas started seeing terrible omens and events.

It is said that during this time, the Sudarshana Chakra left the earth and flew back to the heavens....