शिखण्डिन् [śikhaṇḍin] a. a. [शिखण्डोऽस्त्यस्य इनि] Crested, tufted. -m. A peacock; नदति स एष वधूसखः शिखण्डी
[U.3.18;] [R.1.39;] [Ku.1.15.] A cock.
An arrow.
A peacock's tail.
A kind of jasmine.
N. N. of Viṣṇu.
N. N. of a son of Drupada; शिखण्डी च महारथः
[Bg.1.17.] [Śikhaṇḍin was originally a female, being Ambā born in the family of Drupada for wreaking her revenge upon Bhīṣma; (see Ambā). But from her very birth the girl was given out as a male child and brought up as such. In due course she was married to the daughter of Hiraṇyavarman, who was extremely sorry to find that she had got a veritable woman for her husband. Her father, therefore, resolved to attack the kingdom of Drupada for his having deceived him; but Śikhaṇḍin contrived, by practising austere penance in a forest, to exchange her sex with a Yakṣa and thus averted the calamity which threatened Drupada. Afterwards in the great Bhāratī war he proved a means of killing Bhīṣma, who declined to fight with a woman, when Arjuna put him forward as his hero. He was afterwards killed by Aśvatthāman.]