Devalok
From the epics · 2 tellings · North India, West India

The head that watched the war (Barbarika and Krishna)

Barbarika, Bhima's grandson, comes to Kurukshetra with three arrows that never miss, sworn to fight for whichever side is losing. Krishna, seeing that this would leave no one alive, comes as a Brahmin and asks for his head, and Barbarika gives it. The head watches the war from a hill and is given Krishna's name, Shyam. The Skanda Purana tells it differently, with Krishna's discus and an old curse.

Who is in it

Places: Kurukshetra, Khatu · Texts: Skanda Purana

The story, beat by beat

  1. Barbarika learns from the Goddess and receives three arrows; he promises his mother to fight for the losing side.
  2. On the way to Kurukshetra a Brahmin mocks his three arrows; one arrow marks every leaf of a peepal, even the one under the Brahmin's foot.
  3. The Brahmin, Krishna, asks for a gift and then for his head; Barbarika gives it, asking only to see the war.
  4. The head watches from a hill; after the war it says only Krishna's discus did the killing.
  5. Krishna names him Shyam and promises he will be worshipped in the Kali age.

sacrifice promise war devotion

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Temple tradition

As Khatu tells it

West India · hi Folk 🪔 Khatu Shyam Phalgun Mela

Barbarika, son of Ghatotkacha, worships the Goddess and gets three arrows that can mark and destroy every target. He promises his mother to fight on the losing side and sets out for Kurukshetra. Krishna meets him as a Brahmin under a peepal and laughs at three arrows. Barbarika's first arrow marks every leaf and circles the Brahmin's foot, where one leaf is hidden. Krishna asks for a gift; Barbarika promises; Krishna asks for his head. Barbarika asks to see the war and gives it. The head is set on a hill; afterwards it says it saw only Krishna's discus. Krishna names him Shyam.

Khatu Shyam katha and Khatu pragatya (khatu.in); Khatu Shyam fair and pilgrimage, IJFMR research paper

Primary text (translation)

Skanda Purana, Kaumarika Khanda 59 to 66

North India · sa Vaishnava 🪔 Khatu Shyam Phalgun Mela

Ghatotkacha marries Kamakantakata and their son is called Suhridaya, named Barbarika for his hair. He serves the Goddess at Mahisagara and gains an arrow of ash that can burn the whole army. At Kurukshetra he boasts he can end the war in a moment; Krishna cuts off his head with his discus. The Goddess explains that in a former life Barbarika was the yaksha Suryavarchas, cursed by Brahma to die by Vishnu's hand. The head is sprinkled with nectar and set on a hill to watch the war.

What is different here:

Krishna's discus kills him; the death is the end of an old curse; the head is kept alive with nectar.

Skanda Purana, Mahesvara Khanda, Kaumarika Khanda 59 to 66 (Wisdom Library translation; Dvaipayana summary)

Sources: Khatu Shyam katha and Khatu pragatya (khatu.in); Khatu Shyam fair and pilgrimage, IJFMR research paper; Skanda Purana, Mahesvara Khanda, Kaumarika Khanda 59 to 66 (Wisdom Library translation; Dvaipayana summary)

More stories with the same people

Legend

The riddle on the swing (Ghatotkacha's bride and Barbarika's birth)

Krishna proposes Kamakantakata, Mura's daughter, as Ghatotkacha's bride; he wins her in Pragjyotisha with a riddle and in battle, she carries him to Indraprastha, and their son is born grown, named Barbarika for his hair and Suhridaya by Krishna. Khatu gives the boy a mother called Morvi or the Naga princess Ahilavati, who teaches him war, and has Shiva give the three arrows and Agni the bow.
Legend

The guard at Vijaya's fire

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Legend

The grandson at the pond

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Legend

Bhima's blindness and Yogamaya's promise

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Local story

The cow at Khatu (how the head came to Khatu)

Long after the war a cow at Khatu begins to pour her milk onto one spot of ground. The villagers dig and find a head. The ruler of Khatu is told in a dream to build a temple for it, and the head is installed on the eleventh of the bright half of Kartika, which is kept as Shyam's birthday. The pool where it was found is the Shyam Kund.
Legend

The demon in the cowherds' game

The Asura Pralamba joins the cowherd boys' game disguised as one of them, loses to Balarama and has to carry him, and runs off with him growing huge; in the Vishnu Purana Krishna reminds Balarama of his own nature, in the Bhagavata he remembers alone; he kills the demon.
From the epics

The brother who would not take a side

Balarama, teacher of the mace to both Bhima and Duryodhana, refuses to fight in the Kurukshetra war and goes on pilgrimage; he returns for the final duel, and when Bhima strikes below the navel he rushes at him with his plough until Krishna holds him back, then leaves for Dwaraka. In the Bhagavata he tries to stop the duel and fails.
Legend

The twenty-four teachers

King Yadu meets a young wandering sage who is happy and fearless, and asks who taught him; the sage names twenty-four teachers, the earth, the wind, a pigeon, a python, a moth, a courtesan named Pingala, a girl's bangles and a spider among them; tradition calls him Dattatreya.