Khatu Shyamji

Hi, I am Sarvambh and this is my first post in my blog. I have created this blog  because of my keen interest in Indian Historical and Mythological characters .Hence wanted to share my knowledge on this. My favourite mythological story so far is of Mahabharata and in this blog I would be sharing the great characters of Mahabharata Epic.

I will start my first story with strongest warrior in the Mahabharata. When Krishna asked various warriors that how long will the Mahabharata war last for?  Many great warriors said it would end in 20 to 25 days. But one warrior said it would end in 3 days. Who do you think that warrior would be? Was it Arjuna? Or was it the great Bhima? Or it was Karna? He was none of these, he was the great,                                       

                                                      Barbarika

Many of you must not have read or heard his story.

Bhima (the second Pandava ) and his wife Hidimbi had a son whose name was Ghatotkacha .

Ghatotkacha grew up in the forest Kullu with his mother. He grew up to be a great warrior like his father.

Time passed and Ghatotkacha married Ahalawati who was a Naga [Snake] girl and they had a son Barbarika .Like Ahalawati and Ghatotkacha, Barbarika also grew to be a great warrior. When Barbarika was young he became the disciple a great Yogi. Lord Shiva was pleased by his penance and gave him a boon. He got a bow and three arrows which would never lose a target. The arrows that he got were extremely powerful - the first arrow would mark all the things he wanted with red colour, and then the second and third arrow would go and kill the things marked.

When Barbarika showed the bow and arrows to his guru,he was terrified as Barbarika alone could defeat the whole army in the war. So the guru told Barbarika to promise him that he will always fight for the losing side in a war. Out of devotion and love for his guru he took the vow.

Soon the war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas was going to begin.

Hidimbi, Bhima's wife had told the Pandavas that Ghatotkacha and Barbarika would fight on the side of Pandavas. That night Krishna [who knew about Barbarika's weapons] called Barbarika outside and asked him how long would the war be. Bhishma the grand uncle of the Pandavas estimated that the war would end in 20 days and others estimated 20 to 25 days but to Barbarika told it would last for only 3 days and Krishna was really amazed.

Then to check how good was Barbarika, Krishna  challenged him to cut all the leaves in the tree nearby in only two shots . Barbarika's first arrow went and marked the leaves and the second one cut all the leaves but then all of a sudden it hit Krishna's foot. Krishna had kept one of the leaves under his foot so the arrow identified it and hit his foot. Krishna did it cohertly because he knew that if Barbarika would take part in the battle field everything would be destroyed as Barbarika would fight for the losing side. Now Barbarika out of helplessness  or you could say absent mindedly told  Krishna that he would do anything as a punishment.

So Krishna [cleverly] said Barbarika to cut the neck of one person who Krishna would show him.To which Barbarika agreed. Then to Barbarika’s amazement Krishna brought a mirror in front of him. Barbarika had lost the war before it even begun. But before cutting his head he requested Krishna that he wanted to see the war.

So Krishna said Bhima, who was very dejected, took Barbarika's head to the nearest mountain to Kurukshetra where the war was going to take place.

Now the fierce battle of Kurukshetra started.

 

The war ended and the Pandavas won. But now each Pandava started boasting that he played the most important role in the war. After a long conversation Krishna came and said that no one saw the full war except Barbarika. Barbarika told that he did not understand anything that was going on the battlefield but only the thing he could see was Krishna's Sudarshan Chakra killing everyone. Krishna bowed to him and said Barbarika that he would be worshiped by the name of Shyam,one of the various names of Lord Krishna.

The Pandava's took Barbarika's head and they put it in the river which flowed for several days.

After a long period of time one day the king of Rajasthan got a dream about a head that will flow in a river in his kingdom. The next day the head of Barbarika really flowed down the river of Rajasthan .The King built a temple there and named it as Khatu Shyamji.

Till today Khatu Shyamji is worshiped in Rajasthan with great devotion.

This was Barbarika, the one who saw the whole Mahabharata war.

                                                       Hope you liked it. Let me come up with another interesting character whom you might not have heard of.Until next time. THANK YOU!