जृम्भितं तद्धनुर्द्रृष्ट्वा शैवं विष्णुपराक्रमै:। अधिकं मेनिरे विष्णुं देवा स्सर्षिगणास्तदा ।
Meaning
'Seeing Shiva's bow rendered inert by Vishnu's might, the gods and sages from that day regarded Vishnu as the greater.'
Word-by-word (pada-artha)
| Word | Devanagari | Meaning | Grammatical role |
|---|---|---|---|
| jṛmbhitam tat dhanuḥ dṛṣṭvā | जृम्भितम् तत् धनुः दृष्ट्वा | having seen that bow rendered gaping | Accusative / Accusative / Accusative / Gerund |
| śaivam viṣṇu-parākramaiḥ | शैवम् विष्णु-पराक्रमैः | of Shiva, by the powers of Vishnu | Accusative / Instrumental plural |
| adhikam menire viṣṇum | अधिकम् मेनिरे विष्णुम् | deemed Vishnu superior | Accusative / Verb (perfect, middle) / Accusative |
| devāḥ sa-ṇṣi-gaṇāḥ tadā | देवाः स-ण्षि-गणाः तदा | the gods, together with the hosts of sages, then | Nominative plural / Nominative plural / Adverbial |
Scholar commentary
valmikiramayan.net Prose Commentary
Desiraju Hanumanta Rao's prose rendering with embedded explanatory notes
The source acknowledges this episode plainly proposes Vishnu's superiority over Shiva, but insists this is not meant as an absolute or permanent ranking between the two long-rivalrous traditions of Vaishnavism and Shaivism. It cites the Vishnu Purana and the Mahabharata's Drona Parva describing Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva as three names for a single being, alongside several Rig Vedic mantras on the underlying oneness of the divine, arguing that Puranic stories like this one exist to illuminate the Vedas' deliberately open-ended statements about the Absolute, not to settle sectarian rank once and for all.
1 of 16 traditions have commentary on this shloka. Traditions without a verse-specific commentary here are omitted rather than filled in.
Reference: 1.75.19 · Bāla Kāṇḍa