What are all the celestial and destructive divine weapons of Karna?

 

• Being one of the supreme archer in Dwapar Yuga and the greatest student of Parashurama, Karna had many celestial weapons.

In Rangabhoomi Arena, Karna displayed all the celestial weapons which are already displayed by Arjuna

*** Agneyastra, Varunastra, Vayavyaastra, Parjanyastra, Bhaumastra, Parvatyastra, Antardhanastra.

When the spectators, excited with delight, had somewhat regained their equanimity, Vibhatsu began to display his lightness in the use of weapons. By the Agneya weapon, he created fire, and by the Varuna weapon he created water, by the Vayavya weapon, he created air, and by the Parjanya weapon he created clouds. And by the Bhauma weapon, he created land, and by the Parvatya weapon, he brought mountains into being. By the Antardhana weapon all these were made to disappear.

ADI PARVA : SECTION CXXXVII : KMG MAHABHARATA

Then with the permission of Drona, the mighty Karna, delighting in battle, there did all that Partha had done before.

ADI PARVA : SECTION CXXXVIII : KMG MAHABHARATA

*** All sorts of Brahma weapons i.e Brahmastra, High Brahmastra, Brahmashirastra etc

O Bharata, the whole science of arms dwelleth in Bhishma, and Drona, and Kripa, and Karna, and Drona's son. They fully know all sorts of Brahma and celestial and human and Vayavya weapons, together with the modes of using and warding them off.

VANA PARVA : SECTION XXXVII : KMG MAHABHARATA

*** Vasavi spear given by Indra for donating Kavach and Kundals

Do thou give me thy ear-rings, and the coat of mail born with thy body, and in return take this dart on these terms! When I encounter the Daitya in battle, this dart that is incapable of being baffled, hurled by my hand, destroyeth enemies by hundreds, and cometh back to my hand after achieving its purpose. In thy hand, however, this dart, O son of Suta, will slay only one powerful enemy of thine. And having achieved that feat, it will, roaring and blazing, return to me!

VANA PARVA : SECTION CCCVIII : KMG MAHABHARATA

*** Aindrastra

At that time, Arjuna shot many weapons including Aindrastra and Karna baffled with his own weapons

Beholding the brahmastra, Arjuna invoked the Aindra weapon with proper mantras.

…

The son of Radha baffled with his own weapons those of Savyasaci.

KARNA PARVA : SECTION 90 : KMG MAHABHARATA

*** Sarpamukhi Baan

Karna possessed the deadly Sarpamukhi Baan which is generated in Airavata race. That Sarpamukhi Baan destroyed the Arjuna's indestructible daidem (it would've killed him too if Shri Krishna didn't press the chariot)

Karna affixed an extremely sharp and flaming arrow that was capable of slaying the enemy. This had a serpent in its mouth. That terrible arrow had been carefully preserved and washed well, protected well for Partha’s destruction. It had been worshipped and laid down on a bed of sandalwood paste. That immensely virulent weapon was lying down in a golden quiver.

KARNA PARVA : CHAPTER 66 : BORI CE MAHABHARATA

*** Bhargavastra

Bhagwan Bharagava Parshurama give his unique personal weapon to his beloved disciple Karna. When Karna invoked this weapon it release billions of arrows. Even Arjuna accepts his inability to counter this weapon. According to Jamini Mahabharata it destroyed 1 Akshouhini sena.

The immensely strong one with an immeasurable soul took a pledge of truth and invoked the bhargava weapon. O king! In the great battle, thousands, millions, billions and crores of extremely sharp arrows issued from it.

KARNA PARVA : CHAPTER 45 : BORI CE MAHABHARATA

*** Atharvastra

Bhagwan Bharagava Parshurama give another unique weapon Atharvastra to Karna. Karna used this weapon to counter Arjuna’s weapon.

KARNA PARVA : ADHYAYA 90 : Verse 8 : GITA PRESS MAHABHARATA

*** Sthunakarna, Indrajala and Mahadev’s Pasupatastra

Karna will urge the immensely strong sons of Dhritarashtra towards Partha. He will shroud the king with sthunakarna, indrajala and pashupata and the maharathas will follow him

KARNA PARVA : CHAPTER 43 : BORI CE MAHABHARATA

*** Vijaya Dhanush of Bhagwan Parashurama

Having spoken these words, the powerful and brave son of a suta, picked up Vijaya, his ancient and excellent bow. O great king! Having strung it, he repeatedly rubbed thestring. He asked the warriors to return.

KARNA PARVA : CHAPTER 45 : BORI CE MAHABHARATA

*** Apart from that Karna gained the entire Dhanurveda knowledge and celestial weapons from Bhagwan Parashurama what latter had obtained from Mahadeva

He obtained the weapons and all the boons that he wished for. Having obtained these diverse objects, Rama lowered his head before Shiva. The immensely ascetic one took the permission of the lord of the gods and departed. This is the ancient account that was told by the rishi.

‘ “‘Bhargava imparted all his knowledge of dhanurveda to the great souled Karna, tiger among men, having been extremely pleased with him. O king! Had Karna not been a deserving person, the descendant of the Bhrigu lineage would not have given him those celestial weapons.

KARNA PARVA : CHAPTER 25 : BORI CE MAHABHARATA

*** Karna even obtain many celestial weapons from Gods, Gandharvas, Yaskhas at Mt Mahendragiri

While residing on the Mahendra mountains that resembled heaven itself, Karna met and mixed with many Gandharvas, Yakshas, and gods. Residing there he acquired all the weapons duly, and became a great favourite of the gods, the Gandharvas, and the Rakshasas.

SANTI PARVA : SECTION II : KMG MAHABHARATA

Now some funny people claim that Karna didn't possess any supreme weapons beyond Brahmastra. Even the archers like Yudhisthira, Kekeya King Brihadkshatra etc had the arsenal which limits to Brahmastra. It is funny claim that supreme archers like Karna didn't possess any weapons beyond Brahmastra.

Karna had many supreme weapons which are beyond Brahmastra but he never used celestial weapons carelessly like Ashwatthama.

• See what Bhagwan Narada and Vyasa Deva says about usage of celestial weapons by Kuru Maharathas when Ashwatthama and Arjuna invoked Brahmashirastra

‘The two rishis said, “The maharathas who have fallen down earlier were knowledgeable about many weapons. These weapons should never be used against humans. Why have you invoked them?”’

SOUPTIKA PARVA : CHAPTER 14 : BORI CE MAHABHARATA

• Even after the fall of Karna, King Dhritarastra lamented that Karna should've invoked many divine weapons (Fun Fact is before his death, Karna used Brahmastra atleast for three times)

Karna must have unleashed many divine weapons.

KARNA PARVA : CHAPTER 5 : BORI CE MAHABHARATA

This instances itself proves that Karna had many celestial weapons beyond Brahmastra. But he never invoked them due to some pride issues or may be fear of catastrophic affect among Humans. And are you expecting that Karna will use supreme level weapons who rarely use mid level celestial weapons like Agneyastra, Varunastra, Vayavyaastra etc

OM NAMO BHAGWATE VASUDEVA 🙏🙏🙏

HAR HAR MAHADEV 🙏🙏🙏

What are all the celestial and destructive divine weapons of Karna?

 

• Karna possessed Agneyastra, Varunastra, Parjanyastra, Vayavyastra, Bhoumyastra, Parvatastra and Antardhanastra.

During the Rangbhumi, Arjuna demonstrated multiple astras and Karna did the exact same thing

He created fire with an agneya weapon. He created water with a varuna weapon. He created winds with a vayavya weapon. He created rain with a parjanya weapon. He entered the ground with a bhoumya weapon. He created mountains with a parvata weapon. He made everything disappear with an antardhana weapon.

-Mahabharata, Jatugriha-Daha Parva, Chapter 125

With Drona’s permission, Karna, always eager to do battle and immensely strong, exhibited all that Partha had displayed before.

• He had Bhargavastra

The immensely strong one with an immeasurable soul took a pledge of truth and invoked the bhargava weapon. O king! In the great battle, thousands, millions, billions and crores of extremely sharp arrows issued from it. They were extremely terrible and blazed, shafted with the feathers of herons and peacocks. The Pandava soldiers were mangled and nothing could be seen. O lord of the earth! Great sounds of lamentation arose among the Panchalas. In the encounter, they were afflicted by the power of the bhargava weapon.

-Mahabharata, Karna-Vadha Parva, Chapter 1195(45)

• He had received Brahmastra from Parashurama, Indra’s spear in exchange of his Kavacha and he also has Nagastra

He possessed a divine spear that was as radiant as lightning. It was decorated with gold and was capable of killing the enemy. Purandara gave him that in exchange for the earrings. Among the arrows in his quiver, there was a divine arrow, decorated with gold. It was lying there and was smeared with sandalwood paste. It had a serpent in its mouth and the slayer of enemies did not use it. The brave one ignored maharathas like Bhishma and Drona and learnt the extremely terrible brahmastra from Jamadagni’s son.

-Mahabharata, Karna-Vadha Parva, Chapter 1155(5)

• Had the divine Vijaya bow given to him by Parashurama which he used on the 17th day

My bow, Vijaya, is supreme among all weapons. Vishvakarma constructed it for Indra’s sake. It was with this that Shatakratu vanquished large numbers of daityas. In the ten directions, the daityas were confounded because of its roar. Shakra gave that revered weapon to Bhargava and Bhargava gave that divine and supreme bow to me. With this, I will fight against the mighty-armed Arjuna, foremost among victorious ones, like Indra fighting in a battle against all the assembled daityas. Rama gave me this terrible bow and it is superior to Gandiva. It was with this bow that he conquered the earth twenty-one times. Bhargava told me about this bow’s divine deeds and Rama gave it to me. I will use it to fight against Pandava.

-Mahabharata, Karna-Vadha Parva, Chapter 1172(22)

These were the weapons which Karna had without a shadow of doubt. Other weapons were subject to interpretation as there are several statements saying Parashurama giving all his weapons to Karna (such statements existed for Arjuna and Drona as well, saying Drona imparted all weapons to Arjuna, but Arjuna doesn’t seem to have Narayanastra)

|| Namō Veṅkaṭeśāya || 🛞 U 🐚

The enormous celestial squid

 The giant squid is one of the most fascinating and mysterious animals on Earth. It lives in the depths of the oceans, making it very difficult to photograph, but specimens up to 18 meters long have been found. Probably known since ancient times, its figure has given rise to various legends, including that of the Kraken, an enormous sea monster capable of destroying entire ships. However, both the giant squid and the Kraken are nothing compared to the Celestial Squid, whose dimensions are instead 50 light-years!

The Celestial Squid is obviously not an animal but a nebula whose shape resembles that of the ocean giant. More specifically, the Squid Nebula, also known by the less fanciful name Ou4, is a faint bipolar emission nebula located within another larger nebula, in the direction of the constellation Cepheus. The outer nebula also takes the name of an animal, the Flying Bat.

Both nebulae are very faint and can only be captured through long-exposure photography and in specific wavelengths, so much so that the Squid Nebula was discovered very recently, in 2011. The Squid Nebula appears blue due to the emission of doubly ionized oxygen atoms, while the background nebula appears red due to the emission of ionized hydrogen.

Due to their very low luminosity, it is very difficult to determine their physical properties. According to the most recent studies, the system should be located 2300 light-years from Earth, and the structure of the Squid Nebula should be due to a complex interaction between a system of three stars expelling material into space.

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Image Credit: Alex Linde.

Who were the warriors who had the most number of celestial weapons in the Mahabharata?

 In terms of possession of celestial weapons, here’s the list:

1] Arjuna:

Of course he has the most number of celestial weapons.

tadastramaptam parthena rudradapratimam mahat |

yattadbrahmashiro nama tapasa rudramagatam ||10||

amrritadutthitam raudram tallabdham savyasachina |

tatsamantram sasamharam saprayashchittamangalam ||11||

vajram chanyani chastrani dandadini yudhishthira |

yamatkuberadvarunadindrachcha kurunandana ||12||

astranyadhitavanpartho divyanyamitavikramah ||12||

On your words, the mighty-armed one went out for weapons. Partha has obtained from Rudra a great and unrivalled weapon. It is known as Brahmashira and Rudra obtained it after great austerities. That terrible weapon arose with the ambrosia and Savyasachi has now obtained it, together with the mantras for withdrawing, repulsing and releasing it. O Yudhishthira! O descendant of the Kuru lineage! The infinitely powerful Partha has obtained other divine weapons too—like vajra and danda—from Yama, Kubera, Varuna and Indra.

Arjuna had the following weapons

1. Pashupatastra/Roudrastra.
2. Vajrastra.
3. Yama Danda and mace.
4. Yama paasha.
5. Samoohanastra, Praswapastra.
6. Brahmasira
7. Vaishnavastra.
8. Aindrastra.
9. Gandiva.
10. Adityastra, Kiranastra, Lomakesha.
11. Agneyastra, Varunastra, Vayavyastra.
12. Brahmastra.
13. Gandharvastra.
14. Indrajala, Sthunakarna, Prajapatastra.
15. Anjalikastra, Anjali astra.
16. Nagastra, Garudastra, Anthardhana.

and many more…..

Arjuna was a power house of celestial weapons and he was almost invincible when combined with his immense skill.

2]Karna:

Lord Parashurama had given Karna every celestial weapon known to him(including the Vijaya bow which Lord Parashurama had used to route kshatriyas 21 times).

tatoastrani samastani varanshcha manasepsitan |

labdhva bahuvidhanramah pranamya shirasa shivam ||155||

anujnam prapya deveshajjagama sa mahatapah |

evametatpuravrrittam tada kathitavanrrishih ||156||

bhargavo apyadadatsarvam dhanurvedam mahatmane |

karnaya purushavyaghra supritenantaratmana ||157||

He obtained the weapons and all the boons that he wished for. Having obtained these diverse objects, Rama lowered his head before Shiva. The immensely ascetic one took the permission of the lord of the gods and departed. This is the ancient account that was told by the rishi.

‘ “‘Bhargava imparted all his knowledge of dhanurveda to the great-souled Karna, tiger among men, having been extremely pleased with him. O king! Had Karna not been a deserving person, the descendant of the Bhrigu lineage would not have given him those celestial weapons.

Lord Parashurama was a student of Lord Shiva himself. Therefore, Karna had all celestial weapons of Lord Parashurama.

Therefore, Karna had the following weapons:

1. Nagpash, Garudastra.
2. Bhargavastra.
3. Shakti spear.
4. Pashupataastra(SriKrishna also mentions this).
5. Brahmastra, Brahmasira.
6. Nalika, Krounchastra, Souparnika.
7. Aardrastra, Mohanastra.
8. kaala paasha, Antardhana, kubera weapon.
9. Aditya weapon, Indrajala, Sthunakarna, Tej-prabha
10. Agneya, Varuna, Vayavya, Parjanya.
11. Sushkastra.
12. Taamasa, Soumanastra.

And many more..

I have listed weapons that Lord Parashurama according to the Puranas.

Also, it is again mentioned in Shanti Parva that Karna had obtained all weapons from Lord Parashurama.

3]Drona:

He had many weapons in his arsenal. The most noticable weapon is the “Narayanastra” which he had obtained by doing severe penance of Lord Vishnu.

He also had many weapons but the epic does not specifically mention the weapons he had.

My guess is he had many astras, like Agneyastra, Varuna, Parjanya, Vayavya.

And also Drona was the disciple of Sage Bharadwaj. Bharadwaj Muni is one of the Sapta Rishis with unlimited/infinite power.

Source: Bori Ce, Vishnu Purana

How tiny is the earth compared to other celestial objects in space?

 Solar system planets:

Now, if you add Sun:

And compare it to bigger stars:

And compare those stars to even bigger stars:

This would give you perspective and show how tiny the earth is in comparison to everything else.

The Celestial Weapons Arjuna Learned in Heaven and Their Powers: A Detailed Analysis

Introduction

Arjuna, the third Pandava and one of the greatest warriors in the Mahabharata, was not only a master of earthly weaponry but also learned to wield celestial weapons (Divyastras). During his visit to Indra’s heavenly realm, he received powerful astras (divine missiles) that played a crucial role in the Kurukshetra War. This analysis explores these celestial weapons, their origins, powers, and significance.

Arjuna’s Journey to Heaven

After proving his prowess on Earth, Arjuna was taken to Indraloka (the abode of the king of gods, Indra) to train under celestial beings. There, he learned the use of divine weapons from Indra, the Ashvins, and other gods.

Major Celestial Weapons and Their Powers

1. Pashupatastra

• Source: Lord Shiva
• Power: Considered the most destructive weapon in existence, capable of annihilating entire worlds.
• Usage: Could only be used against powerful divine enemies; not to be used against ordinary mortals.
• Significance: Arjuna was granted this weapon by Shiva after proving his devotion and martial skill through penance.

2. Vajra (Thunderbolt of Indra)

• Source: Indra, the king of gods
• Power: Could destroy any target instantly, capable of cutting through anything.
• Usage: Primarily used against demons (asuras) and powerful warriors.
• Significance: Indra, Arjuna’s divine father, gifted this weapon to him, symbolizing his divine heritage.

3. Brahmastra

• Source: Lord Brahma
• Power: An immensely powerful weapon that could annihilate large portions of land and armies.
• Usage: Needed great knowledge to use and could not be withdrawn once invoked.
• Significance: Arjuna possessed the knowledge to use it but refrained due to its devastating effects.

4. Brahmashirsha Astra

• Source: Lord Brahma
• Power: Four times stronger than Brahmastra, capable of reducing the entire world to ashes.
• Usage: Used only against opponents wielding equally powerful weapons.
• Significance: Arjuna learned to invoke and withdraw this weapon, unlike Ashwatthama, who misused it.

5. Narayanastra

• Source: Lord Vishnu
• Power: Released a storm of arrows, fire, and divine energy upon enemies.
• Usage: Could not be countered, but it would stop if the enemy surrendered.
• Significance: Arjuna learned about this weapon but did not use it in battle.

6. Varunastra

• Source: Varuna, the god of water
• Power: Created massive floods, extinguishing fire and opposing weapons.
• Usage: Effective against enemies wielding Agneyastra (fire weapons).
• Significance: Used to counteract destructive fire-based attacks.

7. Agneyastra

• Source: Agni, the god of fire
• Power: Unleashed a firestorm capable of incinerating armies.
• Usage: Best used against ice and water-based weapons.
• Significance: Used tactically in battles to overpower enemies.

8. Vayavyastra

• Source: Vayu, the god of wind
• Power: Created devastating cyclones and wind storms.
• Usage: Effective against aerial and heavily armored enemies.
• Significance: Could disrupt formations and battlefield strategies.

9. Twashtastra

• Source: Twashta, the celestial architect
• Power: Created weapons or destroyed enemy weapons.
• Usage: Used for precision strikes and disabling enemy defenses.
• Significance: Highlighted Arjuna’s versatility in warfare.

Conclusion

The celestial weapons Arjuna learned in heaven granted him unparalleled power, but his wisdom in their usage was equally important. These divine gifts played a crucial role in his victories while emphasizing the responsibility that comes with immense power. Arjuna’s mastery of these astras symbolized his divine favor and his rightful claim to uphold dharma in the great war of Kurukshetra.