Apte Dictionary

V. S. Apte, The Practical Sanskrit–English Dictionary. Look up any word of the Gita in Devanagari, IAST or Harvard-Kyoto, or browse the headwords letter by letter.

Entry शिखण्डिन्

शिखण्डिन्śikhaṇḍina.Crested, tufted. -m. A peacock; नदति स एष वधूसखः शिखण्डी U.3.18; R.1.39; Ku.1.15.
[शिखण्डोऽस्त्यस्य इनि]
1. Crested, tufted. -Masculine A peacock; नदति स एष वधूसखः शिखण्डी Ubbayapada (Parasmaipada and Atmanepada)3.18; R.1.39; Ku.1.15.
2. A cock.
3. An arrow.
4. A peacock's tail.
5. A kind of jasmine.
6. Name of Viṣṇu.
7. Name of a son of Drupada; शिखण्डी च महारथः Bg.1.17. [Śikhaṇḍin was originally a female, being Ambā born in the family of Drupada for wreaking her revenge upon Bhīṣma; (see Ambā). But from her very birth the girl was given out as a male child and brought up as such. In due course she was married to the daughter of Hiraṇyavarman, who was extremely sorry to find that she had got a veritable woman for her husband. Her father, therefore, resolved to attack the kingdom of Drupada for his having deceived him; but Śikhaṇḍin contrived, by practising austere penance in a forest, to exchange her sex with a Yakṣa and thus averted the calamity which threatened Drupada. Afterwards in the great Bhāratī war he proved a means of killing Bhīṣma, who declined to fight with a woman, when Arjuna put him forward as his hero. He was afterwards killed by Aśvatthāman.]
In the Gita1·17

काश्यश्च परमेष्वासः शिखण्डी च महारथः ।

kāśyaśca parameṣvāsaḥ śikhaṇḍī ca mahārathaḥ — And Kashya of the great bow, and Shikhandi of the great prowess, Dhrishtadyumna, Virata and Satyaki blew their respective conchs. 1·17
- शिखण्डीśikhaṇḍīnominative singular of the masculine noun śikhaṇḍin (Shikhandi, the elder son of king Drupada).
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Headwords under श

Part 5 of 10 शिक्ष् – शीघ्रीयAll parts