10.Barbarika-
Barbarika was the son of Ghatotkacha and Maurvi, grandson of the second Pandava brother Bhima. His skill in archery was astonishing, even to Lord Krishna, to whom he displayed it by piercing all the leaves of a tree with a single arrow. However, he was bound by his promise of always fighting on the losing side, which put Lord Krishna in deep thought, as that meant for him to fight on the side of the Pandavas, they will have to be losing, however, if they were beating the Kauravas, that meant Barbarika would fight from them. Barbarika had come a long way to watch this mahayudh and had assured Lord Krishna that he would do anything to watch the war. Remembering this promise, Lord Krishna asked Barbarika for his head. Barbarika was stumbled and pleaded to Lord Krishna that he had taken such a long route to watch the feat; how will he watch if his head was removed? Lord Krishna told Barbarika that he would place his head on such a platform where he can view the entire war, to which Barbarika agreed. Had Barbarika not given the promise of always fighting from the losing side, the world would’ve seen his skills in archery.
9.Abhimanyu-
Abhimanyu was the son of the third Pandava Arjuna, and Subhadra, sister of Lord Krishna. Taught by Lord Balarama himself, Abhimanyu was well accomplished in archery and other forms of war, such as sword fighting. In the Mahabharata war, the Kauravas managed to trap the sixteen-year-old in a Chakravyuh and swarm him with a massive part of their army. Abhimanyu fought fearlessly, and despite getting constantly pierced and injured, he managed to fend off the soldiers for a commendable time before getting killed. However, before that, Abhimanyu had fought with Pitamah Bhishma in a fierce archery duel and remained undefeated. As the Kauravas were unsuccessful in killing him despite trapping him in the Chakravyuh, they decided to kill him by deceit. Karna cut his bow and killed him from the back, reluctant to face armed Abhimanyu. Such feats were accomplished by a child still in his teens.
8.Duryodhhan-
Duryodhana was the son of king Dhritrashtra and queen Gandhari and was the eldest brother of the Kauravas. He acquired great physical strength, a swift and agile body, and a student of Lord Balarama was the most skilled at mace fighting in the world. His arch-rival Bhima surely possessed greater strength than Duryodhana. However, Lord Balarama himself accepted that due to Duryodhana’s versatile skillset, faster speed, and better stamina, Bhima couldn't defeat him in a fair fight. On the last day of the Kurukshetra war, when Duryodhana was the only Kaurava left, there was a battle between him and Bhima, in which Duryodhana was defeating Bhima by a large margin, due to which Bhima succumbed to breaking the rules of mace fighting, and struck Duryodhana’s inner thigh repeatedly, breaking it which resulted in his demise. However, we can accept Duryodhana would have remained undefeated had the rules of war been followed.
7.Ghatotkacha-
Ghatotkacha, in his asura form, was the most destructive warrior on the Pandavas ' side. He was the son of Bhima and rakshasi Hidimbi. His mother was a rakshasi, which gave him magical abilities such as flying, increasing in size, and becoming invisible. Ghatotkacha was uncontrollably killing massive amounts of the Kaurava army, causing even more destruction at night as that was when his powers were at their peak. Leaving Karna no choice, as all his celestial weapons failed to penetrate Ghatotkacha, he used the Amogha Shakti given to him by Indra, which could be used only once, and killed Ghatotkacha, who crushed one Ashauhini of the Kaurava army as he fell to the ground. Therefore no one in the Pandava army claimed as many Kaurava lives as Ghatotkacha did.
If we look further deeply, Ghatotkacha managed to force Karna to use Indra’s shakti, which is why he couldn’t use it against Arjuna. Had that not happened, the Kurukshetra war may have taken a different course.
6.Arjuna-
Arjuna
Third, Kounteya and Pandava Arjuna, students of Dronacharya was the most skilled archer and overall warriors of the five brothers. He knew many destructive astras, such as the Pashupatastra, given to him by Lord Shiva. He was also succesful in winning Draupadi’s Swayamvara by piercing a fish's eye using only its water reflection. Arjuna also defeated his teacher Dronacharya and rival Karna during the Viratnagar war, unassisted. Arjuna killed countless soldiers in the Kurukshetra war, including Karna’s oldest son Vrushasena. Arjuna also fought Karna with valor and might during their archery duel during the war. While Karna was busy taking out the wheel of his chariot, which was stuck in the mud, he was advised by Lord Krishna to fire his arrow towards him, which he reluctantly did so, knowing it was against the rules of the war. However, it has been admitted by Lord Krishna himself that Arjuna wasn’t skilled enough to beat Karna in a fair duel, and even without his Suryakavacha and Kundala, Karna could defeat Arjuna with ease.
5.Dronacharya-
Dronacharya was the son of Rishi Bharadwaja and was the teacher of all the Kaurava and Pandava princes. He was specialized in martial arts and also knew countless astras, including the Brahmastra. Before the death of Bhishma in the Kurukshetra War, Drona was appointed the chief commander of the Kaurava army. He ended thousands of Pandavas soldiers. On the thirteenth day, he formed the Chakravyuha strategy to capture Yudhishtira. Abhimanyu was the only one who knew how to penetrate the Chakravyuha. He was unaware of the way out. Therefore Drona was the mastermind behind the killing of Abhimanyu. The death of Dronacharya was carried out by deceipt, planned by Lord Krishna, as it was unlikely to kill him when he was armed. The Pandavas proclaimed that they had killed Ashvatthama (an elephant in the Kaurava army). When Dronacharya came to know about the death of Ashvatthama, he thought it was the death of his son, Ashwatthama, and in a state of grief, he indulged in deep meditation. Son of Draupadi, Dhrishtadyumna, took this opportunity to fulfill the purpose of his birth, which was to kill Dronacharya and beheaded him.
4.Ashawwatthama-
Ashawatthama was the son of guru Dronacharya and was a powerful warrior from the Kaurava side. He is said to be one of the avatars of Lord Shiva himself. After he came to know of his father's death by deceit, he was filled with outrage and fury and brutally slaughtered the majority of the Pandava camp in the space of a single night. Ashwatthama not only strangled Dhrishtadyumna to death, but he also killed most of Draupadi’s sons in their sleep during his night attack on the Pandava camp. Ashwatthama also used the undefeatable Narayanastra, which unleashed arrows towards every Pandava soldier and Maharathis. Had there not been Lord Krishna, who advised the army to lay down and surrender to the Astra (which was the only way to counter it), the Kurukshetra war could’ve potentially ended right there. But After the grieving destruction Ashwatthama caused (including the attack at Uttara’s womb), enraged Lord Krishna curses him with a painful and tragic life that will end only when the Kali Yuga ends.
3.Karn-
Karna was the son of the demi-god Suryadev and princess Kunti and was the oldest brother of the Pandavas. However, he was unaware of this until before the Mahabharata, when Lord Krishna revealed the truth to him in an attempt to lure him to the Pandava side. He was raised by charioteer Adhiratha and his wife, Radheya. From birth, he was contained from gaining shastra vidya, as he was a sootputra (a charioteer’s son). Karna also went to Drona and pleaded to him to give him knowledge of Brahmastra; however, he was denied as the only trained prince. He then went to Lord Parshurama, disguised as a Brahmin, to achieve him as his guru. After going through tough tests which proved his capability, Karna was allowed to be Parshurama’s student. After gaining the knowledge of countless powerful astras, one day, the reality of Karna’s cast came to Lord Parshurama thanks to a plan devised by Lord Indra, and enraged Parshurama cursed Karna that he will lose the knowledge of his given astray when he requires it the most. Karna was denied from being a warrior as he didn’t belong to the Kshatriya clan. Therefore Duryodhana gave Karna the Anga kingdom (a part of Hastinapur), making him Singaraja. In debt of Duryodhana’s gratitude, Karna promised him his support for the rest of his life. Lord Krishna sent Indra disguised as a sage to Karna during the Kurukshetra war and asked him for his kavacha and kundala (Karna always fulfilled every wish made to him during the sunlight). Karna reluctantly gave the sage his kavacha and kundala, and he now used normal armor for his protection. Karna killed more soldiers in the Pandava army than any other mahayodha. In his ultimate duel with Arjuna, Karna countered every attack by Arjuna. However, a wheel of his chariot got stuck in the mud, so he went and tried to lift the wheel from the mud using all his force, and while he was doing so, Lord Krishna ordered Arjuna to grasp the opportunity and behead Karna. Karna possessed more destructive astras than Arjuna, and it is for sure that Karna would’ve been victorious had it been a fair duel.
2.Bhishma-
The son of Kuru King Shantanu and river goddess Ganga, which is why he is also known as Gangaputra Bhishma. When he was known as Devavrata, Bhishma took the Bhishma Pratigya, which granted service to anyone who sat on his father’s throne. Due to this, he was forced to fight from the Kaurava side, as Dhritrashtra, the king of Hastinapur, father of the hundred Kaurava brothers, was on the throne. During the fierce battle, Bhishma claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Pandavas warriors. To kill Bhishma, Lord Krishna devised a plan to bring Shikhandi in front of him, who he would not fire arrows at as she was a lady, and that was against the Kshatriya Dharma. Arjuna would unleash countless arrows at Bhishma from the back, causing him to fall to the ground, arrows protruding from his legs, back, and arms. This fulfilled the boon that Mahadeva granted to Amba (a princess who Bhishma abducted from a Swayamvara, however, couldn’t marry due to a promise his father had made) that she would be reborn take her to avenge against Bhishma and would be the cause of his death. Bhishma knew more astray than anyone else who fought in Mahabharata.
1.Parshurama-
The guru of legendary warriors such as Dronacharya, Pitamah Bhishma, and Suryaputra Karna, and son of Jamadagni and Renuka, had taken an oath not to pick up a weapon again long before the Mahabharata; however, had he taken part in the war, he would’ve single-handedly destroyed every warrior alive in the opposition. Parashurama forever fought against Kshatriyas, who abused their powers and harmed the weak, as he belonged from a Brahmin family which followed dharma religiously. He wasn’t the best warrior in Mahabharata but was certainly the best warrior alive during the Mahabharata.
0.Shri Krishna-
Shri Krishna was very much powerful than all yodha s mention above.
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