तस्य सञ्जनयन् हर्षं कुरुवृद्धः पितामहः। सिंहनादं विनद्योच्चैः शङ्खं दध्मौ प्रतापवान्॥
tasya sañjanayan harṣaṃ kuruvṛddhaḥ pitāmahaḥ / siṃhanādaṃ vinadyoccaiḥ śaṅkhaṃ dadhmau pratāpavān
A grandfather blows his conch to lift a grandson's spirits — love and war entangled.
Word by word (9)
- tasya
- — his (Duryodhana's)
- sañjanayan harṣam
- — to raise his spirits / to cause joy in him · Bhishma's act is explicitly to cheer Duryodhana — not a battle cry, but a gesture of emotional support from grandfather to grandson.
- kuru-vṛddhaḥ
- — the eldest of the Kuru clan / the grandsire
- pitāmahaḥ
- — grandsire / grandfather (literally 'father's father')
- siṃha-nādam
- — lion's roar
- vinadya uccaiḥ
- — sounding loudly / roaring aloud
- śaṅkham
- — conch shell
- dadhmau
- — blew / sounded
- pratāpavān
- — the powerful / the glorious one
The grandsire Bhishma — the eldest and mightiest of the Kuru clan — wanting to cheer up the worried Duryodhana, blew his conch shell with a sound like a lion's roar.
A modern analogy
A father, sensing his adult son's nervousness before a major presentation, gives him a firm pat on the back and says, loudly enough for the whole room to hear: 'We've got this.' Bhishma's conch is that gesture — amplified to battlefield scale. It is not military strategy. It is emotional support.
Take with you
- Even the greatest warriors feel the weight of those they love watching — and watching them.
- An act of encouragement before a challenge often matters more than additional preparation.
- Bhishma blows his conch 'to cheer Duryodhana' — the grandsire sees the young man's anxiety and responds with presence, not strategy.
Verse 12 marks the shift from speech to action. The cataloguing is over; the battle begins — not with a sword but with a sound. The conch shell (śaṅkha) is one of the most sacred instruments in Hindu tradition: its sound is said to drive away evil, purify space, and announce divine presence. The fact that a battle opens with conches rather than weapons tells us this is not merely a military engagement — it is a ritual event. Bhishma's motivation is explicitly stated: 'sañjanayan harṣam' — to raise Duryodhana's spirits. This is tender and deeply human. Bhishma is not strategizing; he is being a grandfather. The Mahabharata shows us that even the most complex political and moral situations are lived by people who love each other — imperfectly, across competing obligations. The phrase 'siṃhanādam' — lion's roar — is traditionally associated with the proclamation of truth or power. The śārdūlavikrīḍita (tiger's play) meter of Sanskrit poetry was considered to capture exactly this kind of resounding assertion. Bhishma's roar fills the field.
Advaita lens
The sound (śabda) is significant in the Advaita tradition — the primal sound (nāda) is considered the closest sensory analog to the formless Brahman. The conch's sound, in this reading, is both material (it is a physical shell producing vibration) and transcendent (it announces something beyond the merely physical). Even on a field of adharma, the sacred persists.
Bhakti lens
In the Vaishnava tradition, the conch is one of the four principal attributes of Vishnu/Krishna alongside the discus (chakra), mace (gada), and lotus (padma). Bhishma's conch here anticipates Krishna's conch on the Pandava side — the sacred and the worldly are woven together in this moment.
Modern parallels
The symbolic power of opening ceremonies in high-stakes events — the Olympic flame, a national anthem, a judge's gavel — functions similarly to the conch. These rituals mark the threshold between ordinary time and sacred time, signaling that what happens here matters differently than what happens in ordinary life. The conch blowing is the Gita's version of this threshold marker.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
Then the grandsire (Bhishma), the oldest of the Kurus, in order to cheer Duryodhana, blew his conch, sounding loudly like a lion's roar. [4]
Then the grandsire, the ancient Kuru chief, to cheer Duryodhana, blew his conch aloud, and the sound was like a lion's roar. [6]
Then the aged Kuru chief, his grandsire, meaning to cheer Duryodhana, blew his conch, and the peal went rolling, lion-like. [7]
Then the grandsire — the most venerable of the Kurus — to cheer Duryodhana, loudly sounded a conch, with a sound like a lion's roar. [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
The battlefield erupts into sound — and the point of no return passes.
The divine chariot answers — Krishna and Arjuna's conches fill the sky.
Duryodhana catalogues the Pandava heroes — naming his fears, one by one.
The sound of righteous forces pierces the hearts of those who know they are on the wrong side.
Cast off this petty weakness of heart — rise. This is not who you are.
Yoga is the disconnection from suffering — practise it with firm resolve and a mind that does not despond.