Chapter 1 · Verse 16·Spoken by Sanjaya
अनन्तविजयं राजा कुन्तीपुत्रो युधिष्ठिरः। नकुलः सहदेवश्च सुघोषमणिपुष्पकौ
anantavijayaṁ rājā kuntī-putro yudhiṣhṭhiraḥ nakulaḥ sahadevaśhcha sughoṣha-maṇipuṣhpakau
King Yudhishthira, son of Kunti, blew the Anantavijaya. Nakula and Sahadeva blew the Sughosha and the Manipushpaka.
Word by Word
Saved for this reading session
Three movements · tap a label to switch
Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
Audio from the Gītā Supersite, IIT Kanpur
Synthesis · a glossed leaf
machine-assisted draft, pending review
Convergence
anjaya keeps reading out the roll call of conches, now naming three more of the Pandava brothers and the conch each one blew. King Yudhishthira blew the conch called Anantavijaya, a name that means 'endless victory.' Nakula blew Sughosha, 'the sweet-sounding,' and Sahadeva blew Manipushpaka, 'the jewel-flower' or jewel-studded conch. At the plain level the verse is simply this identification: which warrior sounded which named conch. The commentators who gloss the line agree on the matching and add nothing that overturns it.
Braided from 6 commentators
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Puruṣottama · Lokmanya Tilak · Dhanapati Sūri · Swami Ramsukhdas · Śrī Ānandagiri
The blowing follows an order of seniority, and that order is itself part of the meaning. Yudhishthira, the eldest, blows in approval of what his side is doing, taking the lead among the brothers. Then the two youngest, Nakula and Sahadeva, follow. One commentator reads this as deliberate: after the elder brother sets the example, the younger ones join because following the lead of the elders is the right thing to do. So the verse is not just a list. It quietly shows a household acting in concord, the senior man approving and the juniors falling in behind him.
Śrī Ānandagiri · Dhanapati Sūri
Yudhishthira is given two pointed epithets, and the commentators agree neither is decorative filler. He is called 'son of Kunti' (kunti-putra), which marks him off as one of Kunti's sons rather than Madri's: Arjuna, Bhima, and Yudhishthira were born to Kunti, while Nakula and Sahadeva, named right after in this same verse, were born to Madri. Naming a man by his mother can sometimes be a slight when the father is unknown, but here it is pure praise, because his father is known and is none other than Dharma, the god of righteousness; by this account Kunti also won such a son through great austerity in worshipping dharma. The matronymic, then, honors both his mother and the exalted line he comes from.
Swami Ramsukhdas · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrī Bhāskara
The second epithet, 'raja' or king, is read as a real claim about Yudhishthira's standing, not loose courtesy. He is the rightful king: he had ruled his half of the realm from Indraprastha before the exile, and by the terms agreed upon he was to take the throne again once the twelve years of forest exile and the one year in disguise were over. By marking him 'king' here, Sanjaya hints at what is coming: this is the man who will in time rule, and indeed become sovereign of the whole earth. On this reading the epithet carries the weight of a conqueror of enemies, the performer of the great royal sacrifice, the foremost king whose kingdom will be free of every thorn.
Swami Ramsukhdas · Dhanapati Sūri
The very names of the conches are heard as auspicious and fitting, not as random labels. Yudhishthira's 'Anantavijaya' announces endless or boundless victory, suiting the firm, righteous king who will stand unshaken in battle and conquer. The names of the brothers and their conches are spelled out one by one, and naming each conch and its sounder is itself a way of signaling the distinction and excellence on this side of the field.
Dhanapati Sūri · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Divergence
Here the commentators are of one mind.
A Seeker Asks
If this verse is just a list of conch names, why do the commentators dwell so much on the two small words attached to Yudhishthira, 'son of Kunti' and 'king'?
Because in this kind of text nothing in the wording is treated as accidental, and the two epithets each do real work. 'Son of Kunti' draws a clean line through the five brothers named here: it tells you that Yudhishthira belongs with Kunti's sons, distinct from Madri's two sons, Nakula and Sahadeva, who are named in the very same verse. So the matronymic is a quiet act of sorting and of honor in one stroke.
Swami Ramsukhdas · Dhanapati Sūri
Calling him by his mother is also pure praise here, not a slight. A matronymic can shame a man when his father is unknown, but Yudhishthira's father is known to be Dharma himself, the god of righteousness, and by one account Kunti won such a son through severe austerity; so the word lifts him rather than lowers him.
Śrī Bhāskara · Dhanapati Sūri
And 'king' is a forward-looking claim, not flattery. Yudhishthira had already ruled at Indraprastha and was due by agreement to reign again after the thirteen years were served; the title hints that this righteous, steady man will return to the throne and in time rule the whole earth. Read together, the two small words tell you who is blowing the conch named 'endless victory': the rightful king, of exalted birth, on the side whose victory the verse already calls boundless.
Swami Ramsukhdas · Dhanapati Sūri
Pull up a chair.
You have come to sit with this verse. When you are ready to hear the translators and the commentators in full, tap a name in The seating.