Hinduism - What Is A Dhanus?



(“bow”) The bow is a weapon linked with various Hindu deities in Hindu art. 

It has significant legendary associations to the deity Shiva, who destroys the Three Cities (tripura) with a single arrow in one of his epic feats. 

It's also linked to Rama, the Hindu deity whose unerring arrows destroy Ravana, Lanka's evil ruler. 

Apart from this, it is also one of the weapons carried by powerful Goddess forms, such as Durga. 

The Devimahatmya's charter story, in which the Goddess is made from the combined brightness of all the gods and gets replicas of all their weapons, explains why. 

~Kiran Atma


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