Ghaṭotkaca Vadha

The death of Ghaṭotkaca is one of the great turning points of the Kurukshetra war. On the night of the fourteenth day, Bhagavān Kṛshṇa sent Ghaṭotkaca, the rākshasa son of Bhīmasena, against the tired Kaurava army. Ghaṭotkaca’s māyā-yuddha (war by illusion) was so terrible that the Kaurava leaders begged Karṇa to use his one great weapon, the divine Śakti given by Indra. Karṇa had kept it for Arjuna. He used it on Ghaṭotkaca, and Ghaṭotkaca died.

The night battle of the fourteenth day

The fourteenth day was the most important single day of the war. Arjuna kept his oath to kill Jayadratha before sunset. This was possible because Kṛshṇa hid the sun with his Sudarśana Cakra and then let it show again at the right moment. When the sun truly set, Arjuna’s oath was kept and Jayadratha lay dead.

On that day both armies agreed to go on fighting into the night, by torchlight. The fourteenth day therefore ran on through the night, which had never happened before in this war.

Ghaṭotkaca sent against the Kauravas

In the darkness Bhagavān Kṛshṇa made a choice. He turned to Arjuna and told him to call Ghaṭotkaca. Night is the time of the rākshasas, and their powers grow as the light fades. Ghaṭotkaca was the son of Bhīmasena and the Rākshasī Hiḍimbā. He was the greatest rākshasa warrior on the Pāṇḍava side, and he was counted a mahāratha (a great chariot-warrior) in the ranking of warriors made before the war.

In the dark, Ghaṭotkaca’s powers were at their height. He used every kind of māyā-yuddha known to the rākshasa race. He grew to a huge size, rained weapons from the sky, hurled boulders and burning brands, and took terrible forms. The Kaurava army had already fought a whole day of extraordinary battle. It now faced destruction. No chariot-warrior, fighting in the dark against a shape-changing rākshasa who used illusion, could match what Ghaṭotkaca showed that night.

Karṇa’s choice

Duryodhana and all the Kaurava lords turned to Karṇa in despair. Only Karṇa had a weapon that could stop Ghaṭotkaca. This was the divine Śakti, the spear that cannot fail, which Indra had given him in exchange for his natural kavaca (armour) and kuṇḍala (earrings). Karṇa had given up his divine protection for this one weapon. He had kept it through all the years of preparation for the war and through all the days of battle. He had saved it for one meeting, the meeting with Arjuna, his greatest rival, which he had known all his life would come.

Karṇa looked at the destruction in front of him. The whole Kaurava army, the cause to which he had given his life, was being destroyed by the night power of one rākshasa. He looked at Duryodhana, the one man who had honoured him when the whole world had refused. Then he made his choice.

Karṇa called up the Śakti and hurled it at Ghaṭotkaca with all the force of a warrior’s will and all the divine power stored in the weapon. The spear struck Ghaṭotkaca exactly. Ghaṭotkaca died at once.

Even in death Ghaṭotkaca served the Pāṇḍavas. His huge body, made larger still by the māyā of his rākshasa nature, fell on the Kaurava army and crushed a whole division under its weight.

After it was used, the Śakti went back to Indra’s hands, as its nature required. Karṇa never saw it again.

Kṛshṇa’s grief and joy

The news of Ghaṭotkaca’s death reached Bhagavān Kṛshṇa while he was beside Arjuna on their chariot. He held Arjuna close and wept. His grief was real and complete. Ghaṭotkaca was Bhīmasena’s loving son, a warrior of great power and perfect loyalty. At his very birth he had promised to come whenever the Pāṇḍavas needed him, and he had kept that promise with his life.

Then Kṛshṇa laughed. His joy was as real as his grief. Arjuna did not understand and asked, “How can you laugh when Ghaṭotkaca is dead?”

Kṛshṇa explained. The divine Śakti was gone, because Karṇa had used it. It was Karṇa’s greatest strength, the one weapon in all creation that could kill Arjuna when every other weapon might fail. Now it was spent. By accepting death, Ghaṭotkaca had made Arjuna’s life safe for the great meeting that was still to come. Kṛshṇa’s joy was that the divine plan had worked through this loss, the one loss that saved the greatest life.

Kṛshṇa saw the personal and the cosmic at the same time. He wept for one and rejoiced for the other.

After the Śakti was spent

Karṇa went on to fight with great skill. But when Arjuna and Karṇa met in the Karṇa Parva, Karṇa no longer had the Śakti. The tradition remembers Ghaṭotkaca as a warrior whose death was as meaningful as his life. He gave his life when the time came.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Droṇa Parva
• Mahābhārata, Droṇa Parva, Chapters 178–181
• Mahābhārata, Karṇa Parva (the later meeting of Arjuna and Karṇa)