Dashavatar of lord Vishnu

In this post simplicity is the theme .This blog post will contain the all the ten incarnations of lord Vishnu  and which yuga they appeared or will appear in.

1.MATSYA  –(SATYA YUGA)

It is believed that Lord in Matsya Avatar had rescued the  first man,Manu from a great deluge.

2.KURMA  –(SATYA YUGA)

Lord Vishnu took the Kurma Avatar to hold the Mount Mandara while churning of the ocean of Milk from which the nectar of immortality aroused.

3.VARAHA –(Satya Yuga)

In this Avatar lord saved the Mother Earth from the demon Hiranyaksha who had imprisoned mother Earth in the vast ocean.

4.NARASIMHA  –(Satya Yuga)

The famous incarnation of half lion-half man to rescue his disciple ‘Prahlad’ from the hands of his torturous father Hiranyakashipu who was indeed brother of Hiranyaksha who was slain by lord Vishnu in the Varaha Avatar.

5.VAMANA –(Treta Yuga)

The Lord measured the whole universe in two step while he was awarded Land worth three steps by the king Mahabali.Then to fulfill his promise of three step land Mahabali offered his head as a destination for the third step.We will talk about this story in another post.Till then let’s wait.

6.PARSHURAM  –(Treta Yuga).

We have talked about this in the great detail in our blog post ‘ Ram to ParshuRam’.please have a look on it.

7.RAMA  –(Treta Yuga)

Who doesn’t know the story of lord Rama inscribed in an Indian epic ‘Ramayana’ who had killed the much-feared demon named ‘Ravana’.

8.KRISHNA   –(Dwapara Yuga)

Krishna the master strategist who anchored the whole Mahabharata and who can forget all the plays performed by Krishna in his childhood and also slained the demon Kansa and freed his mother and father from his clutch.

9.BUDDHA  –(Dwapara Yuga)

Buddha is described as the ninth avatar of lord Vishnu and all Puranas and Vedas had referenced Buddha as the ninth avatar of Lord Vishnu.

10.KALKI –(KALI YUGA)

Kalki is the last avatar the lord will take during kali Yuga to bring justice to the world and kill all the evils and negatives.Kalki is assumed that he   will be atop a white horse with a drawn blazing sword. He is the harbinger of the end time in Hindu eschatology, after which he will usher in Satya Yuga.

Son of HariHara (Vishnu-Shiva)

Most of the readers might be bewildered after reading the title of the post which seems pretty confusing .How can Lord Shiva and Vishnu have a child as both of the deities are male. Now let me tell you a story about the birth of the son of lord Vishnu and shiva.

Ashuras (demons) and devas (gods) were the sons of sage kashyapa which fathered them with his wives Diti and Aditi respectively.Till that time Gods doesn’t have the power of immortality and were same as mere mortals.Devas fought with the gods and drove them out of their palaces in heaven.Then Devas approached Lord Vishnu to solve this problem and he suggested them to engage with devas in a diplomatic fashion.Devas engaged with Ashuras and decided to churn the nectar of immortality from the Sir-Sagar( Ocean of Milk) and distribute it among themselves and leave peacefully as they have an assurance from Lord Vishnu that only Devas would get the nectar of immortality .

Afer heavy penance from both sides; as the nectar of immortality emerged Lord Visnu took the form of Mohini and seduced all the Ashuras such that their mind went into abeyance and they couldn’t notice that Mohini was not feeding the nectar of immortality while the doing the opposite for the gods.

Lord Shiva when heard of these events, he also wanted to know what was the look of Mohini that made the minds of Ashuras go into Abeyance.He, Lord Shiva then requested the Lord Vishnu to show him the Mohini Avatar.The Lord Vishnu obliged him and showed him his immensely beautiful Avatar of Mohini.

Lord Shiva became so enchanted with the beauty of Mohini that he fused along with the Mohini (avatar of Lord Vishnu ) to form the HariHara (Hari-Vishnu  and Hara-Shiva) and from this union came the “AYYAPPA”, the son of Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu.

There is also another story revolving around the birth of Lord Ayyappa.Mahisi was one of wildest demons and had dethroned Indra from his heavenly kingdom as he was blessed by the Lord Brahma that only the son of Vishnu and Shiva could Kill Mahisi.Then gods approached Vishnu and Shiva and the both gods fused together to give  world, the Lord Ayyppa which later killed the demon Mahisi on his way to the forest to bring the milk of lactating tigress.We will look onto this story on some another post.

Arjuna and Hanuman Encounter

Arjuna ,as instructed by  Lord Krishna went to every place to search for the divine weapons that could be used in the upcoming war and helped them to won war against Evil. Arjuna after gaining the Pashupatastra became boastful of his skills and possession of celestial weapons  went towards Rameswaram and met the lord Hanuman in disguise.

He said to Hanuman that Lord Rama didn’t have to wait for that many days for the completion of the bridge if he would have been there.He would have done that with one arrow “.Hanuman replied  that “Leave alone the Vanara Army your bridge of arrows wouldn’t have enough strength to carry the weight of mine”.This irritated Arjuna and he betted that he would build a bridge of arrows and if it crumbles under the feet of Hanuman he would jump into the fire and if it withstand the weight of Hanuman, he must adorn the banner of Arjuna.

Then Arjuna chanted some hymns and unleashed his arrow which created a bridge of arrows and when Hanuman just stepped onto the bridge it crumbles under the weight of Hanumana.Arjuna now had to fulfill his promise and prayed Lord Krishna before he jumped into the bridge and then Lord Krishna appeared.

 Lord Krishna asked Hanuman to give Arjuna one more chance.Now this time 

 after Arjuna unleashed his arrow and built a bridge of arrows ,Krishna touched

 the bridge with his toes before Hanuman could step over the bridge.The bridge

 blessed by the divinity of Lord Krishna  was capable enough to withheld even

 when Hanuman jumped and dance on the bridge.Then Hanuman realised

 that Lord Krishna was an incarnation of Lord Rama and he bowed before him 

and agreed to adorn the banner of Arjuna to help them win the win over evil.

The Unknown Story of Dattatreya

Now, it’s time for the three-faced god,  Dattatreya and the story of his birth which is quite unique in its own ways.Have we heard of the supreme goddess being jealous of  a mere mortal human being. But Anasuya was one of the names which created jealousy among the supreme goddesses .Anasuya, the mother of Dattatreya was a highly virtuous woman and had full devotion to his husband ,Atri father of Dattatreya.

Once when Narada was singing praises about the mother Anasuya , the three supreme goddesses ,Saraswati and Lakshmi and Parvati heard the wordings and asked Narada why is he singing such praises about a human.Narada answered that “Mother Anasuya is free from all vices of the world.She is free from jealousy and envy. She is very pious, and always practiced austerities and devotion”.This created jealousy among the supreme goddesses.

Then three goddesses approached their husbands and asked them to test the divinity of the Anasuya.They initially disagreed but after continuous persuasion from their wives they agreed.They transformed themselves into sages(rishis) and then went to Anasuya hermitage and asked her to feed them.Mother welcomed them inside, offer them to sit and serve food.Then the real drama began, the three sages put a condition that they would eat only if Anasuya serves them naked without any piece of cloth or jewellery on her body.

Anasuya was in a dilemma as she couldn’t let the sages leave the place without feeding and didn’t want to remove her clothes.She prayed to her husband and then sprinkled holy water to all three sages and converted all of them into infants.Then she removed her clothes and fed them food, played with them and made them sleep .She was totally taking care of them as her own child.The  world started going out of balance as three gods Brahma,Vishnu and Shiva were infants and playing with Anasuya instead of caring out their responsibilities.Now the everyone was begging before three goddesses to go before Anasuya and plead to her to reconvert the Trinity into their original forms.

Then Three goddesses went before Anasuya and asked for forgiveness for their ego and pleaded her to reconvert the Trinity into their original forms.Mother obliged them and reconverted the gods into their original forms.The gods were very impressed by the mother and wanted to give her a boon. The Mother told them as they called her “Mother” ; she  wanted to be their mother forever.Gods obliged her and told her that they would always be his son in the form of  “Dattatreya”.Then the god Dattatreya was born to mother Anasuya and god left the place to carry out their responsibility.

Why Krishna killed his own Nephew?

Krishna , the enchanter had killed his own nephew; if I would say this to anyone none is going to believe me.Do you remember the story of Jaya and Vijaya that I talked in the post titled “ Truth About Ravana and KumbhaKaran”. One of their Incarnation was Shisupal and DantVakra. Shisuapal  and DantVakra were nephews of Krishna born to the sister of his father, Vasudeva.Shisupal was born with four limbs and three eyes.His father and mother wanted to kill this child then suddenly a celestial voice proclaimed that  this son of yours would be very powerful  and strong and the man, on whose lap when placed, and the child would lose his superfluous members, would be the one who would ultimately slay him.

Shisuapal  father called many kings and priests and placed his son in their lap but nothing happened. One day Krishna and BalaRama visited his aunt place and when Shisuapal was placed in the lap of Krishna ,his superfluous  limbs disappeared and he also lost his third eye.The mother rejoiced but then he remembered the wordings of the celestial voice and began weeping before Krishna and told him the whole story.Krishna could see the weeping mother promised him  that he would let go the 100 mistakes of Shisuapal and thereafter destiny would take its due course.

Shisuapal later became the king of chedi and was to be married to Rukmini, the sister of his best friend Rukmi.But Rukmini loved Krishna and when Krishna eloped with Rukmini , Shisuapal was infuriated  and his hatred grew manifold for Krishna.One day when Yudhishtira organized Rajasoovya Yajna ;  he invited many kings including Shisuapal The Rajsooya Yajna was nearing its completion. The last part  was to confer honors upon the kings who had participated in the Yajna.

Before starting the last part, it was customary to worship the best person in the gathering according to the religious scriptures. Yudhisthir consulted  all the participants present there. Sahadeva, ruler of Magadha, proposed the name of Krishna , as he was personally obliged to Krishna for his coronation. Most of the kings and the Brahmans seconded the proposal though a number of kings opposed it . The opposition consisted of the supporters of Shishupal, who had an old grudge against Krishna because of Rukmini.

Shishupala opposed the worship of Krishna as the best participant using objectionable and disgraceful words for him. He suggested that either Bhishma or Drona should be the candidates for worship.  But these two worthy stalwarts had already supported Krishna’s candidature.

Shishupala cried, “Have all the kings in this hall lost their senses?  Why have everyone accepted a cowboy to be the guardian deity when there are many great warriors in this hall?  Why should noble Kshatriyas like us devote our prayers to a cowherd who has no noble family, is dark skinned and is a virtueless person.he who has an illegitimate relationship with Draupadi.Krishna pretends to be the friend of Draupadi but has ill will towards her.”

These wordings from the mouth of Shisupala infuriated Krishna and Shisuapal while using these derogatory remarks forget the count of his mistakes the Krishna promised to let go.He crossed the number 100 and Krishna immediately called his Sudarshana and directed towards Shisuapal and in a flash the Shisuapal was severed and his body was lying on the floor. 

Thus Lord Krishna gave the moksha  to Jaya as Shisuapal from  this worldly cycle of birth and death.

Ram to ParshuRam

ParshuRam is the sixth avatar of the Vishnu.But How did he got his name “ParshuRam”? ParshuRam was born as Ram to sage Jamdagini, one of the saptarshis and  Renuka.

Renuka gave birth to four sons named Vasu,Visva Vasu,Brihudynau, Brutvakanva.Before they give birth to their fifth son Jamdagni along with Renuka mediated for deep providence.After years of devotion finally Lord Vishnu appeared and bless them with the son from the womb of Renuka as their fifth and youngest son, Rama.

Renuka mother of Rama was known for her chastity and devotion to her husband.She wield so much power that she could fetch water from a river in an unbaked clay held together only by strength of her devotion.But one day when Gandharvas, in their mighty chariot and attire was passing by the river in the sky above ,Renuka had only a moment of desire and her unbaked clay got dissolved in the river.She was ashamed of her behaviour and waited at the river uncertain of what to do next as she was afraid of her husband who might think in negative about the situation.

As Renuka didn’t return to the hermitage ,Sage Jamdagini through his yogic powers,  divined all that had taken place and was enraged.The Rishi called his eldest son and handed him axe and asked him to kill his mother .Horrified,the boy refused and Sage turned him to the stone and then asked his each son and as each son refused Sage turned them to stone one by one.In last he went for Rama and he was being ever obedient to his father , took the axe and killed his mother.Sage being impressed by the devotion of the Rama gave him two boons.Rama inturn asked his father to return his brothers and his mother to flesh and erase their memory about the incident that took place so that they could live happily.

His father now impressed by the devotion of his son that even after getting two boons he didn’t ask anything  for himself, just for his mother and family.He told him to go to the mountains and do deep penance and pray to lord Shiva.After thousand of years of penance Lord Shiva was impressed by his devotion gave him many boons.First was to overcome everybody in divine weapons, in the skill  of wielding  weapons and mastery of sacred scriptures.  His second boon was to be unvanquishable and invincible in battle. His third boon was to be free of sins and diseases and remain in his prime and health forever. His fourth boon was to be renowned in the world. His fifth boon was to be capable of performing arduous tasks and penances and to remain devoted to Shiva forever. Shiva granted all these boons to him. Shiva gave him mastery over many celestial weapons as well as a chariot and horses which could go anywhere at will, a celestial armour, divine b,ows, a conch shell and two inexhaustible quivers of arrows.At the last, he presented him his axe and proclaimed him to be renowned in the universe as ParshuRam ,“Rama with the axe” .Thus from that day Rama was known as ParshuRama.

One day, Lord Shiva to test the might of Parshuram, his favourite disciple invited him for war. The spiritual master Lord Shiva and the disciple Shri Parashuram were locked in a fierce battle. This dreadful duel lasted for twenty one days. While ducking to avoid being hit by the Trident  of Lord Shiva, Shri Parashuram vigorously attacked him with his Parashu. It struck Lord Shiva on the forehead creating a wound. Lord Shiva was very pleased to see the amazing warfare skills of his disciple. He passionately embraced Shri Parashuram. Lord Shiva preserved this wound as an ornament so that the reputation of his disciple remained imperishable and insurmountable. 'Khanda-parshu' (wounded by Parashu) is one of the thousand names (for the salutation) of Lord Shiva.

Now the post is getting too long.For now, let's stop here we will take about the other deeds of Lord ParshuRama in some other blog post.

How Ravana got Lanka?

We all know that Ravana was the king of Lanka, which was the golden city and best fortified and the wealthiest city in the world but few among of us would know how Ravana become the king of the Lanka.How did Lanka come into existence and how did Ravana know about it when he was the son of a sage(rishi.)Now to answer all these questions we have to look back in the history.

Ravana was the son of sage Vishrava and grandson of Sage Pulastya and great grandson of lord Brahma.Vishrava had two wives : Mandakini and Kaikasi .Mandakini had a son named ‘Kubera’.Kubera was the god of wealth.There is always a misconception among people that Lakshmi is the goddess of the wealth , but in reality, Kubera is the god of wealth  while Lakshmi is the goddess of fortune .While we generally associate fortune with the wealth; that’s why this misconception arises.

Kubera who is also called ‘Dhanpati’ was once ruler of Lanka given by the Lord Brahma from where he could work on his wealth management among the people.He was also gifted “ Pushpak Vimana”, a flying chariot which was created by Vishwakarma who was the architecture of the gods on the instruction of lord Brahma. Kubera is also the guardian of one of the eight directions of the globe, North.

One day when Kubera  came to meet his father Vishrava with all his majestic style and grandeur flying in his chariot ‘Pushpak Viman’.Ravana on seeing this was struck and asked his mother “who is this fellow and from where did he get that majestic Vimana ”.Kaikasi replied that he is none other than your step brother ‘Kubera’. Kaikasi being the daughter of the demon king couldn’t control her anger and lust and told Ravana “Kubera had made his mother proud be his conduct and grandeur while your existence does not count.You are no better than an insect”. This irked Ravana who decided to show his mother that he is no less than anyone else.

He along with his brothers moved to a forest to perform deep penance to lord Brahma to get a boon from him.After thousand of years of his hard penance ,lord Brahma appeared and gave him the boon of invincibility .This made Ravana proud of his prowess and he started tormenting Kubera.He at last ,drove out Kubera from the Lanka and also snatched ‘Pushpak Vimana’ from him.Then he requested his father and mother to came along with him to Lanka while his father refused to go along with him while his mother kaikasi agreed as it was her direful wish to live in luxury and wealth which she couldn’t have while leaving with his husband Vishrava who was a sage. Thus Ravana became the king of the Lanka .

Kubera went to mount Kailasha after being defeated by his stepbrother Ravana and performed deep  penance to lord Brahma , who awarded him with a palace with most beautiful garden of the world  named ‘Alkapuri’ in Mount Mandara  and later lord shiva awarded him the lordship of all Yakshas and a guardianship of the North direction(dik-pala).

Nagas  Traced Back to their Origin

You are willing to let me be some….someone’s servant….Look at you , Having sons like you…it is better…..that I did not have any children…I CURSE YOU! You all would die in a Snake Sacrifice….’ Kadru yelled.

Kadru was the daughter of Prajpati Dakksha, guardian of the world .Thirteen Daughters of the Daksha was married to sage Kashyapa. Sage Kashyapa is considered to be the father of all living creatures of this Universe be it demons, gods, animals.

Kadru was one of the wives of Kashyapa and had sour relationship with his sister Vinata. Kadru always tried to demean Vinata. Both of them perform Yagas to bear children. After performing it for thousands of years, it was the time for result. Kadru as being hateful towards the Vinata asked for thousands sons who would be very strong and powerful while Vinata being gentle and calm asked for two sons who would be more powerful than the thousands sons of kadru. This ignited Kadru very much and now she was  more jealous of  Vinata.

After some time Kadru bore thousands of eggs and while Vinata bore only two. Some hundreds of years after, thousands eggs of Kadru hatched and from these came thousand snakes among which most prominent ones are:

1. Shesha

2. Vasuki

3. Takshak

Vinata got desperate that her eggs hadn’t hatched till them.She in haste broke one egg from which came Aruna, a half formed child who was as radiant and reddish as the morning sun. But, due to the premature breaking of the egg, Aruna was not as bright as the noon sun as he was promised to be. Arunabeing upset about it cursed his mother that she had to serve someone else for some hundreds of years. This made Vinata realized her mistakes and let other egg hatched on its due time. From it came, Garuda who finally became the consort of lord Vishnu.

One day when Vinata and Kadru were roaming around; saw the Uchchaihshravas, the beautiful seven headed white horse that was churned out of the ocean of Milk (Shir Sagar). Then after going back home; Kadru placed a bet and asked Vinata to tell the color of the tail of  Uchchaihshravas. The bet was whoever lost it had to serve the other. Vinata replied the colour being white.

Now Kadru being aware that color of the horse, Uchchaihshravas was indeed snow white and its tail too was of white color. He gathered his sons asked them to wrap around the tail of  Uchchaihshravas to make it appear black so that when Vinata and she would go to find out the color of  Uchchaihshravas next day, Vinata would lose the bet.

Shesha being elder and spiritual told her mother that this is sin and he would not be a party to this. This irked Kadru as his sons were not supporting him and in haste  yelled those words mentioned in the first sentence of the post.

Nagas could not believe what they heard that their mother had herself gifted them death. This create fear among them and all of them agreed to what their mother demand except shesha, whose heart was filled with sorrow and this situation had created separation between the hearts of her mother and him and then he went to mountain to perform ‘Tapasya’ .

Next day when Vinata and kadru went to see the tail of  Uchchaihshravas ,the sons of Kadru was already wrapped neatly around the tail of  Uchchaihshravas making it appear black. Thus Vinata lost the bet and had to be servant to kadru .Thus, the curse of his son, Aruna came to realization.

We will talk about the nagas in some other post among whom most prominent ones are shesha who ultimately became the resting place of Lord Vishnu and while Vashuki became the ornament that Lord Shiva wore.

Truth About Ravana and KumbhaKaran

Once Lord Vishnu was resting in his native place in Vaikunth. Four Kumaras (great sages) came to meet him.The Kumaras appeared to be mere children due to the strength of their Tapas but they were of great ages. The entrance gate to Vaikunth was closed and two gatekeepers named Jaya and Vijaya were guarding the entrance gate.

Then the four kumaras asked them to open the gate as they were there to meet Lord Vishnu. But the gatekeepers  laughed at them being not aware of the fact that the these kumaras were great sages and told them that Lord Vishnu was resting and could not meet them now.The laugh annoyed the Kumaras and they told Jaya and Vijaya that the Lord Is always there for his devotees at any time. They then cursed Jaya and Vijaya that they had to leave their divinity and holiness and be born as mere mortals on the Earth and live the life as normal human beings, then Kumaras left the Vaikunth.

Jaya and Vijaya rushed to Lord Vishnu with grief and asked him to lift the curse of Kumaras. The Lord replied that the curse could not be lifted but they had two options; either they had to be born seven times as devotees of Vishnu or three times as enemies of Vishnu. After that they could regain their stature at Vaikunth and be with the Lord Permanently. Jaya and Vijaya having immense devotion towards the lord could not think of living seven lives away from Him and thus chose to be born three times on Earth as enemies of Lord Vishnu.

In the first life form that Jaya and Vijaya took were born as Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha .Both were killed by lord Vishnu in the form of Vahara, boar and Narshimha, half man-half lion.

In the Second life form they took were the famous RAVANA and KUMBHAKARAN and were killed by Vishnu in the form of Lord Rama.

In the third life, they were born as Shisupal and DantVakra and killed by Lord Krishna who was himself the lord Vishnu in Dwapara Yuga.

 Who was the Strongest Among All During Mahabharata War?

 As all of you might be aware of the few big names during the Mahabharata War. Likes of Arjun, Karna will certainly be there in every list but you certainly neglect some which are also among the most formidable ones. Now one by one we will consider each.

1. Arjun: One of the Greatest Archers (as per my opinion he was surely not the greatest one), wielder of Gandiva, Bow of Brahma. He had learnt archery from the greatest teacher of that time, Dhronacharya. One of the few who know to shoot and retrieve Brahmsatra, (today’s Nuclear Weapon).

2. Karna: One of the greatest archers, Student of Lord PrashuRam, wielder of Vijaya Shiv, bow of Lord Shiva. No person or weapon could hurt/defeat the person having Vijaya in his/her hand. He was protected by divine Shield which was later donated by him to a Braham, who in reality was Indra, Father of Arjun. Indra in disguise asked for that divine shield as donation and karna obliged. Karna was the only person who was having all the qualities of five pandavas.

3. Bhishma: The name used to strike thunder among the enemy. The rulers of the Aryavarta(India) aligned along the Kauravas because he was the commander in chief. This student of Lord ParshuRam, have all the knowledge about Astras and Shastras, there was at that time. From Brahmastra to Pashupatastra everyone one of them was in his quiver. He had the boon to choose his own time of death. Of 18 days that Mahabharata war last, he was the commander for 10 days. No one could defeat him in the war; at last Krishna had to wield weapon to kill him while he vowed not to wield a weapon during the war. He was certainly among the contenders for the best during the war.

4. Dhronacharya: The Guru of the Arjun, Student of ParshuRam, the best teacher of that time. His Guru, Lord ParshuRam gifted all his weapons to him impressed by his devotion and his abilities. He made such a powerful shield during war that even Krishna and Yudhishtira, had to resort to foul-play to kill him.

5. Aswatthamma: Son of Dhronacharya with gem on his forehead, part incarnate of lord Shiva. He knew to wield every weapon. He was one among the eight Chiranjivi and one of the sage of the Kalyuga. Aswatthama studied Archery or martial arts and Brahmavidya or the science of the self or atma from Lord Parasurama, Maharishi Durvasa, Maharishi Ved Vyasa, Bhishma, Kripa and Drona. Aswatthama is the master of all forms of knowledge and possesses complete mastery over 64 forms of arts or Kalas . Bhishma once said when Ashwatthama gets angry, no one will be able to fight him as he becomes a second Shiva. No one can handle his wrath and fury. Thus Arjuna was advised to please Lord Shiva through penance so that the Pandavas can win over the Kauravas which had Aswathamma among their
ranks. He was among the only three (Drona, Krishna, Aswathamma) who knew to wield Narayanastra. He killed most number of enemies along with Arjuna and Karna. He defeated Bhima, Yudhistira in direct combat.

After the death of Duryodhana, he vowed to take revenge and prayed to lord Shiva and then Shiva impressed him by entering into his body. Along with him, Kali and Shiv Ganas appeared. He along with Kali and Ganas killed all the Pandavas soldiers, panchal and remainder commanders of the Pandavas army like Dhrishtdhoom, Shikandni and others. He killed all the sons of Pandavas and annihilated the lineage of the Pandavas.

6. Barbareek: Now it’s time to turn our head to grandson of the Bhima, Son of Gatothkach, .After deep penance he was gifted with three arrows as a boon which would make him victorious over any enemy. He can’t be defeated till he has those and only he can call them, no one else not even Krishna. He vowed to take the weaker side of the army and fight along with them and Krishna

knew being the supreme god with Pandavas made the Kauravas weaker and then Barbareek had to align with Kauravas and he would kill all the Pandavas along with their army in a jiffy. So krishna alarmed by this, tricked Barbareek to kill himself and gave him the seat in the Vaikunta along with himself; thus securing the victory for Pandavas.

This is the list of the most powerful person among the armies during Mahabharata war. It is based on the discretion of the reader to decide his own ranking. Last but not the least for me the most powerful among them was Barbareek.