Pātra No. 8
The strongest man on the field…
“…Bhīma of terrible deeds blew his great conch, Pauṇḍra.”
Bhīma is the strongest man on the field, and the Gītā calls him Vṛkodara, wolf-belly, as he blows his great conch Pauṇḍra. Of all his names, the one here is about his appetite.
Arjuna asked his. Samvāda answers yours with the Gītā's own verses.
Samvāda is software, an AI companion tuned to the Bhagavad Gītā. It is not a person. It answers from the verse and shows you which one, and it never pretends to be Kṛṣṇa.
पाञ्चजन्यं हृषीकेशो देवदत्तं धनंजयः।
पौण्ड्रं दध्मौ महाशङ्खं भीमकर्मा वृकोदरः।।
pāñcajanyaṁ hṛṣīkeśo devadattaṁ dhanañjayaḥ pauṇḍraṁ dadhmau mahā-śaṅkhaṁ bhīma-karmā vṛkodaraḥ
Sri Krishna blew his conch, Pancajanya, Arjuna his Devadatta, and Bhima of terrible deeds blew his great conch, Paundra.
1.15 is verse 15 of 700, and verse 15 of 47 in chapter 1.
Vṛkodara (wolf-belly), in any form, appears in exactly one verse of the 700, 1.15.
Bhīma-karmā (of terrible deeds), in any form, appears in exactly one verse of the 700, 1.15.
Counted by Vāṇi on the 700-verse text at getvani.app/gita.
1.14 shows Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna in their great chariot with white horses, blowing their divine conchs. 1.15 then names three conches: Kṛṣṇa's Pāñcajanya, Arjuna's Devadatta, and the great conch Pauṇḍra of Bhīma, who is described as one of terrible deeds. In the same line the Sanskrit calls Bhīma vṛkodara, wolf-belly, and bhīma-karmā, the doer of fearsome deeds. 1.16 continues with Yudhiṣṭhira's Anantavijaya, and with Sughoṣa and Maṇipuṣpaka, the conchs of the twins Nakula and Sahadeva. Each warrior gets a name for his conch and, here, a name for himself. The story points out that the epithet chosen for Bhīma is about his appetite. The Gītā does not explain it, so the verse is best read as a portrait in a roll call. See chapter 1.