Barbarīka
Barbarīka was the son of Ghaṭotkaca and Kāmakaṭaṅkaṭā. He was the grandson of Bhīma, and on his father’s side the great-grandson of the wind-deva Vāyu. He grew into a warrior of matchless power who held three ash-arrows. These arrows could mark every weak spot in an army and then destroy the whole force.
He gained siddhi (spiritual power) at Guptakshetra and came to Kurukshetra, where he showed his arrows to the assembled warriors. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa saw the danger and cut off his head with his discus before the war began. The Skanda Mahā Purāṇa tells his story in the Kaumārika Khaṇḍa.
Birth and name
Barbarīka was born at Indraprastha. His father was Ghaṭotkaca, the son of Bhīma. His mother was Kāmakaṭaṅkaṭā, the daughter of the asura Muru and the sister of Bhagadatta of Prāgjyotisha.
His name comes from his hair, which grew in the fashion of the Barbara people, a foreign tribe of the north-east. He was a being of three bloods. He was a Pāṇḍava on his father’s father’s side, a rākshasa through Hiḍimbā, and an asura through Kāmakaṭaṅkaṭā (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 60).
Pilgrimage and siddhi at Guptakshetra
Barbarīka went on a pilgrimage to Guptakshetra, the Mahīsāgara Saṃgama. There he did hard sādhanā (spiritual practice) and honoured the Liṅgas and Ādityas of the holy place. He won a supreme siddhi.
The chief fruit of this siddhi was mastery of three ash-arrows (bhasma-śaras). They had great power. One shot could mark every weak spot in a whole army. Further shots could destroy it completely (Chapters 63–64).
The ash-arrow trial at Kurukshetra
As the Kurukshetra war was about to begin, Barbarīka came to the field. He told Kṛshṇa and the Pāṇḍavas that he could destroy the whole Kaurava host in a single muhūrta (a short span of time) with his three arrows. Kṛshṇa asked him to prove it.
Barbarīka shot one ash-arrow over both armies. It flew above the gathered forces and came back, having marked with ash the weak spot of every warrior who was fated to fall:
- Bhīshma: his hair
- Karṇa: his neck
- Droṇa: his neck
- Duryodhana: his thigh
- Śalya: his chest
- Śakuni: his neck
- Bhagadatta: his neck
- Kṛshṇa: the sole of his foot
- Drupada: his neck
- Śikhaṇḍin: his hip
- Dhṛshṭadyumna: his neck
The arrow marked weak spots on both the Kaurava and the Pāṇḍava sides. Only the five Pāṇḍavas themselves were spared (Chapter 66).
Beheaded by Kṛshṇa
Kṛshṇa saw that Barbarīka’s entry into the war would be dangerous. He took up his discus, the Sudarśana, and cut Barbarīka’s head from his body.
This looked like a death. In truth it made Barbarīka an eternal, deathless witness who is revered in the three worlds (Chapter 66).
Who he was before: Sūryavarcas
After the beheading, the devī Caṇḍikā told who Barbarīka had been. He was the rebirth of Sūryavarcas, the supreme lord of eighty-four crore Yakshas.
In an earlier age Sūryavarcas had climbed Mount Meru in great pride and boasted openly of his power. The four-faced Brahmā laid a śāpa (a curse) on him, that he must be born as a rākshasa. Because of his good qualities and devotion, Brahmā also promised that he would reach moksha (liberation) at Guptakshetra through the grace of the devas.
That curse ran its course through his birth as Barbarīka, his siddhi at Guptakshetra, and his rise to a higher state at Kurukshetra (Chapter 66).
Kṛshṇa’s vara and lasting honour
Kṛshṇa gave Barbarīka, who was also Sūryavarcas, a vara (a boon) of deathlessness. His head would never decay. He would be honoured in the three worlds, and devas, humans, Yakshas and rākshasas would all revere him.
Kṛshṇa laid down how he is to be honoured:
- On amāvāsyā (the new-moon day) in the month of Śrāvaṇa
- On Vaiśākha kṛshṇa trayodaśī (the thirteenth day of the dark half of Vaiśākha)
- With one hundred lamps and offerings of pūrikās (fried breads)
This pūjā (worship) destroys the pāpa (sin) a person has gathered and gives all the purushārthas (the four aims of human life) (Chapter 66).
The witness of Kurukshetra
Barbarīka’s deathless head was set on a high post at Kurukshetra. It watched the whole eighteen-day war with a clear and fair eye. After the war, Bhīma proudly asked who had truly killed all the Kaurava warriors. Barbarīka’s head gave the highest answer:
“I saw throughout this war a radiant being of great splendour. On his left stood Śiva and on his right stood Vishṇu, yet they were not two separate beings but one. It was this one supreme Being, in whom Śiva and Vishṇu are not different, who destroyed the Kauravas. The warriors were only instruments. Do not be proud, O Bhīma.”
This teaching that Śiva and Vishṇu are not different (abheda) is the closing teaching of the Kaumārika Khaṇḍa (Chapter 66).
Sources
- Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapters 60–66