In today’s mini-episode, we’ll meet a character from the Mahabharat.
Ghatotkacha was the son of Bheem, one of the 5 Pandav brothers and a central character from the Mahabharat. We haven’t actually gotten to that point in the Mahabharat but suffice it to say that Bheem was the strongest man alive.
Naturally his son, Ghatotkacha, inherited his genes. And if you want to add to that that Ghatotkacha’s mother was a demon, you end up with a pretty strong person.
But there may be odd side effects. For example, Ghatotkacha’s head was shaped like a pot and he was completely bald. That’s how he got his name – Ghatotkacha literally means Bald Pot.
Ghatotkacha’s mother Hidimbi was a demon, but she was a good demon. That is to say she was nice to the Pandav brothers, the protagonists of the Mahabharat. How she met Bheem is an interesting story by itself. The short version is that Hidimbi and her brother Hidimba were out hunting humans to eat. When Hidimibi met Bheem she immediately switched allegiance and the two tag-teamed to put Hidimba out of action.
The two married, and that’s how about a year later – Ghatotkacha was born. And about that time Bheem had to go back. After all, there was a kingdom that he had to help his brothers rule.
Several years later Bheem and Ghatotkacha met. By chance. And without realizing they were father and son, they fought over what was in retrospect a silly matter. It was an evenly matched contest. And finally, it was Hidimbi who noticed the two pf them fighting and broke the tie.
Tearful reunion later, they quickly made up for all the lost years of playing catch, learning how to use a club, and uprooting trees. You know, just regular father-son quality time.
At some point, Krishna blessed Ghatotkacha with the power of sorcery. He’d be the greatest at magician ever, next to Krishna himself. If Dumbledore knew the spell Krishna used to transfer all that knowledge, Hogwarts would have no reason to exist.
Anyway, that is how Ghatotkacha was able to change size, fly, and turn invisible. Kinda like the characters in the Marvel movie Ant-Man and the Wasp, but without the need for a suit.
Ghatotkacha played a vital role in the final battle in the Mahabharat, pretty much as Ant-Man had done. But just like Ant-Man he missed the opportunity to crush Thanos in the Infinity War movie, Ghatotkacha did not crush the most important people that mattered. He did crush many of the foot soldiers though.
We’ll cover more of Ghatotkacha when we get to that part of the Mahabharat.
That’s all for this mini-episode.
One quick note – I’ve pronounced Ghatotkacha’s mother’s and uncle’s names as Hidimibi and Hidimba, but an alternative pronunciation is Hidimba for the mother and Hidimb for the uncle.
Next Time
In this weekend’s full episode we’ll do a Telugu folk tale that has inspired many movies. It involves a Queen transformed into a dog and a 12-year-old boy who can kill a ferocious tiger with his bare hands