Nāgapāśa

Nāgapāśa is a mysterious weapon that turns serpents into arrows. Its defining effect is not simply to wound: those struck lose their senses and their power of movement. In the account of the battle, it functions as a means of binding an opponent through supernatural force.

Form and Effect

The commentary describes Nāgapāśa as a weapon consisting of serpents transformed into arrows. A target struck by them is deprived of awareness and motion, making immobilization the weapon’s distinctive consequence. The description emphasizes the arrows’ serpentine nature and their disabling effect, but gives no further account of how the weapon is released or controlled.

Countermeasure and Significance

The commentary connects the weapon’s serpent form to its answer: Garuḍa, king of birds and the serpents’ mortal enemy, bears a weapon sacred to him that is especially suited to destroying Rávaṇ’s serpent arrows. Nāgapāśa is therefore presented not as an irresistible force, but as a threat with a cosmological counter. Its power to disable is matched by an opposing power defined through enmity with serpents.