The Head That Watched the War

In the line of the Pandavas there was a young warrior of extraordinary power named Barbarika. He was the son of Ghatotkacha, the rakshasa son of Bhima, and so he was Bhima's own grandson - a youth in whom the strength of the Pandavas and the might of the rakshasa race were joined. From his mother and his grandmother he had learned devotion and discipline, and from his earliest years he showed a courage and a martial gift beyond any of his age.

Barbarika gave himself to fierce penance and to the worship of the gods, and by his austerities he won the favor of the great deities. From the Goddess and from Lord Shiva he received a wondrous boon: three arrows, infallible and inexhaustible, that made him perhaps the single most dangerous warrior alive. With those three arrows, it was said, Barbarika could accomplish anything - he could destroy whole armies, and no force on earth could stand against him. Men called him Teen Baan Dhari, the Bearer of the Three Arrows.