Ekāghnī

By Jit Majumdar

killer of one; a weapon that kills only one single target
a weapon (also called ekapuruşaghātinī) given to Karņa by Indra, in exchange for the latter’s invincible body armour that he was born with, when he tricked Karņa into giving it away as charity to him, to render him vulnerable and at a disadvantage during his face-off with arch-rival Arjuna. Karņa saved the weapon carefully since it had the quality to invariably and surely destroy its target though it can kill only one target, but was forced to use it against Ghaţotkaca to stop his terrible power and his massacre of the Kaurava army, thus losing the weapon before his final confrontation with Arjuna (M. Bh.).

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