Ghatotkacha 2008

[Venice Sassone]

Themoment our flight landed in Bali, I realised that this island is different. My stay for 3 months in Java had conditioned me to a certain perception of Indonesia. Bali was blowing it all up at every step.

Bali is heavily Hindu influenced. Probably even more than any place in India is. Massive and extremely artistic statues adorn the Bali streets. One such massive sculpture is the the one I shot above, the ghatotkacha-Karna war.

I mention quite shamefully, that only after searching the net to understand why the Balinese chose to depict this event, I realised that the Karna-Ghatotkacha war was actually a major turning point of the war of Mahabharata.**

I did not get to shoot other magnificent statues of Bhima and Varuna in Bali, but got a chance to capture this one. The white cloud background did not exactly help the shooting of the white structure, but then here it is for you :)

** Karna had to use "shakti" given to him by Indra against Ghatotkacha as that was the only thing that could stop him from crushing the Kaurav army. Karna could use the "Shakti" only once; and his use of this astra against Ghatotkacha meant that he could not use it against Arjuna.

Ghatotkach is not a very familiar and popular name in Mahabharata. I was mightily surprised to know that Ghatotkacha was the eldest heir of next generation of Pandavas and had a massive impact in war in Kurukshetra. His cousin brother Abhimanyu is celeberated across India culture for his valor but Ghatotkacha remains ignored.

Meaning of the name Ghatotkacha is Bald pot. The name comes from bald and strong built of Ghatotkach. He was son of Bhima and demon princess Hidimba. When Pandavas entered exile period after losing the gamble battle with Kauravas. Bhima encountered Hidimba in the jungles of North and saved her from her brother and married her. Ghatotkacha was their eldest child. Hidimba stayed in the jungle with her child and Pandavas finished their exile in the Panchal kingdom for rest of their exile.

Ghatotkacha grew up to be fierce warrior who inherited the brute physical skills from his father and mayavi shakti from his mother. Mayavi shakti was known only to the demons. He became a lethal combination with best of human and demonic world. He was really close to Abhimanyu. Ghatokach was the one who helped Abhimanyu marry vatsala in Rakshash vivah.

With the onset battle at Kurkshetra, Bhima asked Ghatotkach to join the pandav Army and Ghatotkacha obliged. Ghatotkacha troubled kaurava army throughout with his presence but the real damage in the battle was done on 14th night.

On 13th day of battle, Abhimanyu was killed mercillesly completely against rules of war in Chakrvayuh formation by Jaydrath and Kaurvas. Deep in sorry of his son , Arjuna vowed to take revenge by killing Jaydrath on next day. Arjuna fulliffed his vow with great tactics of Lord Krishna. As per rules of war, war was not supposed to be fought after sunset. But infuriated after Jaydrath death, Kaurava captain Dronachary decided to continue the batttle in the night alleging that rules of war are already broken by Krishna. This turned out to be lethal decision for Kauravas.

During the day time, it was a fair battle between both sides but after the sunset there was noone in the battle field who could beat Ghatotkach. He could become invisible, change size as per his wish with help of his mayavi Shakti. He single handedly tired the entire Kaurava army. Ashwathama and Ghatotkach had a heavy battle of arms with all celestial powers but to no avail, Ghatotakach remained unmatahable. Finally Karna came face to face with Ghatotkacha, this was battle which was observed by even gods from the heaven. Two equal warriors fighting each other neck to neck in the dark pitch black of the night was a sight to behold and a terrifying thought at same time. None of them was giving an inch to the opponent. Finally realization dawned on the Duriyodhana and Karna that Ghtotakcha is an equal match and cant be defeated in the battle. He can be killed only with Vasavi Shakti which was given by Indra to Karna. But it was given By Indra on one condition that it can be used only once. Karna had saved this for Arjuna, but Duryodhana offered him a tragic plea that Kaurava army cant survive the night if Ghatotkacha is alive. So without any other option, Karna had to use Vasavi shakti on ghatotkacha. With the Vsavi shakti Ghatoktkach took one msaaive blow and fell to the ground but before felling to the ground, he expanded himself into giant and crushed 10000 soliders of Kaurava army under his body with his fall. This was the end of Ghatotakach. He sacrificed his life for victory of Pandavas. Four days after his fall, on 18th day, the battle of Kurukshetra was over and pandavas were the ultimate winners.

Read my earlier post [Link to post] about how Bhima defeats the demon Hidimba and marries his sister Hidimbi. However on condition that Kunti agrees to this marriage was that while Hidimbi could spend time with Bhima during the daytime, she would have to return to her forest by dusk. Hidimbi agrees to this condition and after a few months, they have a son Ghatotkacha.

Ghatotkacha got his name from his hairless head which was shaped like a pot. The sanskit word utkaca means hairless and the word for pot was ghatam, and therefore his name was Ghatotkacha, the pot headed hairless one.

By virtue of a boon granted to him by Krishna, Ghatotkacha was unmatched with his magical abilities by anyone in this world with the exception of Krishna himself and these magical abilities were enhanced multi fold during night times by virtue of the fact that this son of Bhima was half demon. This particular trait of his would prove to be especially useful to the Pandavas during the Kurukshetra war.

During the Kurukshetra war, Ghatotkacha wrought havoc on the Kaurava forces when he took to the field. Using his formidable magical powers, he defeated and killed many Kaurava warriors and Duryodhana and his armies did not have any answer for his might and valor on the battlefield.

One incident which assumes significance in this context is that before the war, Indra realizes that Karna would prove to be invincible in battle and would not be killed as long as he wore the golden armor and golden earrings that Surya had bestowed him with. He conceives a plot to weaken Karna to enable Arjuna to defeat him in battle. He approaches Karna in the guise of a poor Brahmin and asks for his golden armor and earrings as alms.

On hearing this Ghatotkacha immediately promised Krishna that he would do all that he could to ensure Karna used this weapon against him, knowing fully well that it would ultimately result in his demise. Such was his love for his uncles and the word of Krishna. The young asura son of Bhima ultimately sacrificed himself so that Karna and the Kauravas would have no possible way to kill Arjuna, the greatest Pandava warrior.

And not just the Mahabharata, all our great epics have multiple stories within stories embedded in them and I guess that is precisely what makes them all timeless and wonderful and worthy of reading and re-reading multiple times.

@Rekha, ? find it funny that you used to be scared of Ghatotkacha when you were a kid, for me, most of these mythical creatures, demons and monsters fascinated me more than scared me when I was young ?

@ashreyamom, well, this particular war cannot be viewed like the wars of today, can it? It was a righteous war and had to be fought for the greater good of everyone involved. But then, your point is so very valid and in fact, this is the same issue that even Yudhisthira had after the war, he also felt that the entire war was futile and involved the loss of so many men that it all seemed like a waste to him as well.

Beautiful description.Love your style of narration.Superb post Jairam. I love ghatotkacha only because he had a good heart even after being such a powerful asura .as his mind was a tuned to him.?????

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