Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 1, Verse 16: Arjuna to Krishna — Arjuna-Viṣāda-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  The twin sons of Pāṇḍu — Nakula and Sahadeva — blew their conches, named Sughoṣa (well-sounding) and Maṇipuṣpaka (jewel-blossomed); and the king Yudhiṣṭhira, son of Kuntī, blew Anantavijaya (endless victory). These are mere names for instruments in the unfolding spectacle of saṃsāra (the turning wheel of conditioned existence). For Śaṅkara the significance of this verse lies entirely in what it does not say: the Self (ātman) that will soon be invoked at 2.11 is not here, not yet — only the parade of embodied warriors sounding their attachment to a world the jñānin (knower) must ultimately renounce.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīma, and the others — including Nakula who blew Sughoṣa and Sahadeva who blew Maṇipuṣpaka — each sounded their own conch in turn. That sound, Rāmānuja notes, pierced the hearts of all Dhṛtarāṣṭra's sons: in that instant they concluded that the Kuru force was already destroyed (adya eva naṣṭaṃ kurūṇāṃ balam). The Pāṇḍavas blow not as autonomous agents but as instruments of the Sarvēśvarēśvara (Lord of all lords) who rides as charioteer — every note of Anantavijaya reverberates with the certainty of His sankalpa (sovereign will), and what sounds like martial noise is kainkarya (devoted service) rendered through the body of battle.

• Madhvadvaita

  Yudhiṣṭhira, the king born of Kuntī, raised Anantavijaya (endless-victory) — a name that is no boast but a factual statement about the side on which Hari stands. Nakula and Sahadeva blew Sughoṣa and Maṇipuṣpaka. For Madhva, each named conch is a sacred object held in trust from Bhagavān: the jīva (individual soul) does not own it, does not win with it — Hari wins through it. The very names map onto Hari's attributes: endless victory belongs to Him alone; the jewel-blossom is His ornamentation. What appears as the agency of five brothers is, at every point, paratantra (dependent reality) expressing what Svatantra (the self-sufficient Lord) has already decreed.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Then Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīma, and the rest — including Nakula with Sughoṣa and Sahadeva with Maṇipuṣpaka — each blew their own conch separately (pṛthak pṛthak). That single collective sound pierced (bibheda) the hearts of Duryodhana and all his allies. Vallabha reads this not as military psychology but as prasāda-līlā: Kṛṣṇa arranges the spectacle so that even the Kaurava heart — closed, rajasic, grasping — is cracked open by sound. The piercing is grace disguised as terror; Duryodhana's dread is the first movement of a śakti (divine energy) he cannot name and will not surrender to. Every conch-blast is Kṛṣṇa's own voice, distributed through His servants.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Nakula blew the conch named Sughoṣa (the well-sounding one); Sahadeva blew the one named Maṇipuṣpaka (jewel-blossom). These names matter: Śrīdhara, the philological-devotional commentator, records them because Bhāgavata tradition treats named sacred objects as persons with histories. A conch is not a horn — it is a śaṅkha (sacred spiral, emblem of Viṣṇu), and to name it is to acknowledge the lineage of grace that placed it in those hands. Yudhiṣṭhira's Anantavijaya (endless victory) completes the trio: three conches, three names, three sons of Pāṇḍu declaring before battle that they hold not weapons but consecrated instruments of dharma.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Yudhiṣṭhira — whose very name Madhusūdana unpacks as 'steady in battle' (yudhi sthiraḥ), born of Kuntī's great tapas (austerity) offered to Dharma, consecrated by the rājasūya-yajña (royal consecration sacrifice) — blew Anantavijaya. Nakula blew Sughoṣa; Sahadeva blew Maṇipuṣpaka. The listing of named conches is not decoration: on the Pāṇḍava side, every conch bears a famous name; on the Kaurava side, not a single conch is renowned by its own name (na eko'pi svanāmaprasiddhaḥ). The asymmetry signals cosmic alignment — where Hṛṣīkeśa (the master of all senses) stands as charioteer, even the instruments carry identity; where He is absent, even the instruments are anonymous.