Vamana Purana — Skanda Slays Taraka & Mahisha, Shloka 77
Skanda’s Svastyayana and the Slaying of Taraka and Mahisha
पञ्चबाहुशतेनापि सुचक्राक्षं बबन्ध सः बलवानपि बाणेन निष्प्रयत्नगतिः कृतः
pañcabāhuśatenāpi sucakrākṣaṃ babandha saḥ balavānapi bāṇena niṣprayatnagatiḥ kṛtaḥ
Auch mit fünfhundert Armen band er Sucakrākṣa; und obgleich stark, wurde Sucakrākṣa durch Bāṇa in seiner Bewegung völlig hilflos gemacht.
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FAQs
Many-armed imagery signals superhuman capacity—simultaneous weapon-use, grappling, and binding—often used for asuras (and sometimes deities) to heighten the epic scale of combat.
It indicates that the victim’s capacity to act effectively is nullified—his ‘movement becomes without (successful) effort,’ i.e., he is constrained so that exertion yields no result.
The diction allows both; Purāṇic narration often blends physical grappling with quasi-magical restraint, especially when many-armed figures ‘bind’ opponents mid-battle.