Sudarshana Chakra

Sudarshana Chakra
Vishnu with Sudarshana Chakra in his right rear hand
Devanagari	सुदर्शन चक्र
Affiliation	Weapon of Vishnu
Texts	Vishnu Purana

The Sudarshana Chakra is a spinning, disk-like weapon, literally meaning "vision of which is auspicious," having 108 serrated edges used by the Hindu god Vishnu. The Sudarshana Chakra is generally portrayed on the right rear hand of the four hands of Vishnu, who also holds a shankha (conch shell), a Gada (mace) and a padma (lotus). While in the Rigveda the Chakra was Vishnu's symbol as the wheel of time by the late medieval period Sudarshana Chakra emerged as an ayudhapurusha (anthropomorphic form), as a fierce form of Vishnu, used for the destruction of an enemy. In Tamil, the Sudarshan Chakra is also known as Chakkrath Azhwar (translated as Ring/Circlet of God).

The word Sudarshana is derived from two Sanskrit words – Su(सु) meaning "good/auspicious" and Darshana (दर्शन) meaning "vision". In the Monier-Williams dictionary the word Chakra is derived from the root क्रम् (kram) or ऋत् (rt) or क्रि (kri) and refers among many meaning, to the wheel of a carriage, wheel of the sun's chariot or metaphorically to the wheel of time.

The anthropomorphic form of Sudarshana can be traced from discoid weapons of ancient India to his esoteric multi-armed cult images in the medieval period in which the Chakra (represented by his cult people) served the supreme deity (Vishnu) as his faithful attendants. While the two-armed Chakra-Purusha was humanistic, the medieval multi-armed Sudarshana was speculatively regarded as an impersonal manifestation of destructive forces in the universe; which in its final aspect was combined the flaming weapon and the wheel of time which destroys the universe.

There are many legends associated with the Sudarshana Chakra, some of which are:

The chakra is found in the coins of many tribes with the word gana and the name of the tribe inscribed on them. Early historical evidence of the sudarshana-chakra is found in a rare tribal Vrishni silver coin with the legend Vṛishṇi-rājaṅṅya-gaṇasya-trātasya which P.L.Gupta thought was possibly jointly issued by the gana (tribal confederation) after the Vrishnis formed a confederation with the Rajanya tribe. However, there is no conclusive proof so far. Discovered by Cunningham, and currently placed in the British Museum, the silver coin is witness to the political existence of the Vrishnis. It is dated to around 1st century BC. Vrishni copper coins dated to later time were found in Punjab. Another example of coins inscribed with the chakra are the Taxila coins of the 2nd century BC with a sixteen-spoked wheel.