MAARKANDEYA presents MAHAABHAARATHAM

( The 'gh' in this name is pronounced like a hardened sound of 'g' in 'gun', 't' like 't' in 'ten', 'th' like 'th' in 'with' and 'ch' like 'tu' in 'nature' .)

Ghatothkacha was the son of Bheema and his demon wife Hidimbi. He fought on the paandavas side and was killed on the fourteenth day's night war. After his death, he merged with the yakshas.

When paandavas with their mother escaped from the wax-house burning and sheltering in a forest that night, all fell asleep but Bheema alone was standing guard. A demon named Hidimba living nearby smelt human scent and sent his sister Hidimba ( The spelling is same for the names of the brother abd the sister, just like for those of prince Uththara and princess Uththara) to kill them and bring as food for him. Hidimba went to the paandavas but she fell for the well-built and handsome Bheema. She loved him and requested him to marry her. Meanwhile, Hidimba couldn't bare with the delay and went there himself. He saw his sister lovingly speaking with Bheema and became infuriated. He jumped at Bheema to kill him but Bheema dragged him away from the sleeping people and him . Kunthi and othe paandavas convinced Bheema to accept Hidimba as his wife. Bheema accepted her as his wife only until she begets a son.

Ghatothkacha was instantly born to them. He took leave from the Paandavas and left for the Gandhamaadana hills alongwith his mother. He assured them that he would come to their help whenever they thought of him.

While the paandavas were in the forests during their exile, there occured a very heavy rain for several days when they couldn't walk at all. Then Yudhishthira thought and invoked to Ghatothkacha who came and physically carried them to safety.

Also, in the war, he fought on behalf of their fathers along with his demon followers. His brave fighting was admired by all. Excepting one or two occasions, he was not defeated. He killed the demons Jataasur, another jataasura and Alambusa, who stood on the kouravas side. In the fourteenth day's war which extended into late night, he was invincible with his demonic power manifold due to the night hours. As the kouravas had no other way to save themselves from him, they advised Karna to employ the Shakthi weapon given by Indra. Karna too, helplessly did so, though he had kept that weapon spared only for using particularly against Arjuna. As Indra had ordained that that weapon would kill only one person without fail, Ghatothkacha fell dead to it.

Yudhishthira, Bheema and other paandavas bitterly lamented for his killing. But Krishna jumped from his vehicle, embraced Arjuna and danced with joy. When a mournful Arjuna reprovingly asked him for the reason of his untimelly silly act, Krishna told him that he was happy that Karna parted with his deadly weapon at the cost of Ghatothkacha, keeping Arjuna himself out of danger.

Though Ghatothkacha was the eldest of the paandavas' sons, he was never reckoned as an heir-apparant to the throne, probably due to his demonic origin. His son Anjanaparva was killed by Ashvaththaama in the war.

Though not mentioned in the Mahaabhaaratham, it was described in another puraanam (Brahmapuraanam) how Ghatothkacha's another son Barbareeka claimed that he knew how to kill each of the enemy warriors and magically displayed to the paandavas how all the stalwarts in the war would be killed, highlighting the vulnerable parts of their bodies, whereby Krishna chopped off his head at the point of disclosing Krishna's vulnerability. But,as a compensation of his losing the chance of participating in the war, Krishna so provded him a chance that his head would be on the crest of a hill and see all the course of the war .

"After praying to Naaraayana, Nara, Sarasvathi and Vyaasa, then one should read the Jayam."