Yudhishthira hymns Durga before leaving Guptakshetra. Bhima says they should worship Krishna or Shiva rather than a woman and is struck blind. Both brothers worship, the goddess appears as Yogamaya, Nanda's daughter and Krishna's sister, promises help against the Kauravas and thirty-six years of rule, and the Pandavas ask Barbarika to stay at the sangama.
Barbarika Upakhyana, Skanda Purana 59 to 66, chapter summary (dvaipayana.net); Skanda Purana, Kaumarika Khanda 65, Installation of Keleshvari, tr. G. V. Tagare (Wisdom Library)
Sources: Barbarika Upakhyana, Skanda Purana 59 to 66, chapter summary (dvaipayana.net); Skanda Purana, Kaumarika Khanda 65, Installation of Keleshvari, tr. G. V. Tagare (Wisdom Library)
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.
Bhima, climbing the Himalaya for a flower for Draupadi, finds an old monkey lying across the path who asks him to move his tail; he cannot lift it. The monkey is his elder brother Hanuman, son of the same wind.
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.
The exiled Pandavas reach the shrine of Chandika at Guptakshetra; Bhima washes in the goddess's pond, its guardian Barbarika forbids it, and they fight without knowing each other. Barbarika is about to throw Bhima into the sea when Rudra's voice names him his grandfather; in remorse he leaps into the sea and the goddesses save him.
After the head's verdict that one god did all the fighting, Bhima is ashamed of his boast, and Krishna carries him on Garuda to a vast lake in Lanka whose bottom he cannot reach, the place, Krishna says, where Kumbhakarna's tongue fell.
After Kurukshetra the Pandavas seek Shiva to be cleansed of the killing of kin.
While Indra hides in a lotus stalk, the human king Nahusha rules heaven, demands Shachi, has sages carry his litter and is cursed to fall as a serpent.
Dharma, disguised as a Yaksha guarding a lake, strikes down four Pandavas and restores them when Yudhishthira answers his questions and chooses fairly.