Barbarika, the son of Ghatotkacha and grandson of Bhima, is one of the Mahabharata’s more unusual figures – a warrior whose power was so overwhelming that neutralizing him mattered more than recruiting him.
Three arrows, total power
Blessed by Shiva and Agni, Barbarika possessed three infallible arrows capable of marking, binding, and destroying every enemy warrior he chose – a power sufficient, by his own account, to end the entire Kurukshetra war within moments of entering it, regardless of which side he fought for.
An impossible promise
When Krishna, disguised as a Brahmin, asked Barbarika which side he intended to support, Barbarika answered that he would fight for whichever side was losing – a policy meant to prevent unnecessary slaughter but one that, given his power, guaranteed he would eventually wipe out both armies in succession, since each side would take turns nearly losing.
A head that kept watching
Recognizing the danger, Krishna asked Barbarika for his head in charity, and Barbarika, true to his vow of never refusing a request, agreed – but asked to witness the entire war first. Krishna placed his severed head on a hilltop overlooking the battlefield, granting it sight for all eighteen days. At the war’s end, when the Pandavas argued over who deserved most credit for the victory, Barbarika’s head declared that he had seen only Krishna’s Sudarshana Chakra and Draupadi’s fury doing all the work – a verdict still remembered as one of the most humbling assessments of the entire war.