Vidhis of Dhanurvidhya || Types of Archery in Mahabharat

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In Mahabharat, we often read about advanced warfare technologies into use. So, today in this article we will try to understand what are the different types of Archery's used in Mahabharat. In this post we would be excluding Lord Shri Krishna as we all are aware of the fact that he himself was the reincarnation of Lord Vishnu, therefore having the knowledge of all the Astra/celestial weapons, types of archery and other warfare knowledge.

There are 4 Vidhis of Dhanurveda which are Mukta, Amukta, Muktamukta and Mantramukta. 

These were Known by all the Major Archers of that era

The following quote was said by Yudhistra to Arjun when he came back. It is important to Note that Kripacharya had taught these methods to the Kuru princes. Let us understand them

1) MUKTA

This includes all the weapons that can be released. The art of shooting arrows comes Under this, Arjun had taught the Upa Pandavas and other children of the Pandavs Panimukta which is the art of shooting spears or Darts with or without a Bow.

2) AMUKTA

Any weapon that cannot be released comes under this. It includes Sword Skills which can be used to cut an arrow. Only Arjun and Dhristidyumna were masters of these 21 Arts others were experts of only 7 to 8 of these styles.

3) MUKTAMUKTA

Any weapon that can be released and called back falls under this category. This mainly includes Celestial Weapons Not all the warriors had this Knowledge Krishna, Arjun, Karna, Bheema and Satyaki are few examples.

4) MANTRAMUKTA

This is a Branch of Archery where the weapons are released only by the use of Mantras but cannot be revoked. A very popular example would be that of Ashwathama and his Brahmshira. It is not advised to use this type of archery

There are 5 methods of using Celestial Weapons as per Mahabharat and they are:- 

1) Prayoga Vidhi

2) Upsanhara Vidhi

3) Avarti Vidhi

4) Prayashachitya Vidhi

5) Pratighat Vidhi

Now let's, try to understand who all knew these types of archery or vidhis of dhanurvidhya. We would not be talking about all the archers in Mahabharat but would be only including important ones such as Arjun, Karn, Bheesma, Drona and Ashwathama.

1) Prayoga Vidhi:-

It is the simple use of the shastra or weapon. In Mahabharat, all the archers were aware of this vidhi

2) Upsanhara Vidhi:-

In this vidhi the archer calls back/recalls the Astra or the celestial weapon that he has launched from his bow. In Mahabharat, out of the 5 main archers only Drona, Arjun, Bheesma and Karn knew about it.

Now, if Ashwathama had the knowledge of this vidhi then he would have been able to recall his Bhramsheer and would have not been cursed by Lord Shri Krishna

3) Avarti Vidhi:-

In this vidhi the archer is taught to prevent the astras or the celestial weapons of the enemy from hitting him. This is done by creating a sort of protective forcefield which would prevent the weapons from attacking him.

In Mahabharat Drona, Arjun, Bheesma and Karn had the knowledge of this vidhi.

4) Prayashachitya Vidhi:-

In this vidhi the archer is able to revive any person who has been killed by him by an accident. In Mahabharat, only Arjun was aware of this vidhi.

A lot of people are going to put forward that Karn had the knowledge of this Vidhi, but nowhere in the Mahabharat, it is written that Karn had the knowledge of this vidhi. In addition to this, if there was any sort of cross-reference, then why was Karn not able to revive the Cow he had killed by Accident (Because of this Incident Karn got a curse/shrap that he would die like a defenceless animal)?? This proofs the point that Karn was not aware of this vidhi.

Lord Shiva himself had taught Arjun about this vidhi. In the Mahabharat, we get to see some uses of this vidhi and they are:-

(1) Indra dev to revive the Gandharvas who were killed by Arjun and other Pandavas

(2) When Lord Krishna revived Parikshit (Son of Abhimanyu) was killed by the Bhramsheersh of Ashwathama.

Now a lot of people would be thinking that why didn't Arjun revive them if he had the knowledge of this vidhi, so the answer is pretty simple:-

(1) Till now Arjun was not aware of this vidhi, he had gone to do Tapasya after one year of this Incident. Apart from this, Indra had used Amrit to revive the Gandharvs and not and Vidhi of Dhanurveda, Infact he did not even knew all the vidhis.

(2) Now, as clearly mentioned above, this vidhi can only be used by the archer who had fired the celestial weapon or the divya astra and we all know that Lord Krishna was the incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Lord Krishna used Yogic Shakti to revive Parikshit

5) Pratighat Vidhi:-

In this vidhi, the archer is able to use the power of the astra or celestial weapon launched by the opponent against him. In simpler word, if you fire a celestial weapon against me then using this vidhi I would be able to use the energy of the weapon against you only and instead of it hitting me, it would hit you.

"That fierce weapon, known by the name of Brahmasira which arose after Amrita, and which Rudra had obtained by means of ascetic austerities, hath been acquired by Arjuna together with the Mantras for hurling and withdrawing it, and the rites of expiation and revival."

Source: Vana Parva: Tirtha-yatra Parva: Section XCI

Again in the Mahabharat, only Arjun had the knowledge of this vidhi and here is the Proof from the Bori Critical. Arjun got the knowledge of this vidhi from Mahadev himself.

Therefore we conclude that out of all the warriors, Arjun was the only one to have knowledge of all the vidhis of archery, making him the strongest

Also Read:-

https://dhananjayparth.blogspot.com/2021/03/was-satyaki-able-to-defeat-karna.html

https://dhananjayparth.blogspot.com/2021/03/who-were-teachers-of-karn-in-mahabharat.html https://dhananjayparth.blogspot.com/2021/03/was-there-any-secret-of-draupadi.html