01Amba
Amba, eldest daughter of the king of Kashi, was carried off by Bhishma with her sisters for Vichitravirya. She told him she had chosen Shalva of Saubha, and he sent her to Shalva, who would not take back a woman another man had won. She blamed Bhishma for everything. Parashurama fought him on her behalf for twenty-three days and could not win. Then she went to tapas so hard that the rishis feared for her, and Mahadev appeared and promised that in another birth she would be a man and kill Bhishma. She built a pyre on the bank of the Yamuna and entered the fire.
02A daughter raised as a son
Drupada had prayed to Mahadev for a son and was told he would have a daughter who would become a man. So when Shikhandini was born, the king and queen gave out that she was a son and raised her as one, and even married her to a princess of Dasharna. The bride found out, and her father Hiranyavarman marched on Panchala. Shikhandini fled to the forest, ready to die, and there the yaksha Sthunakarna, out of pity, lent her his manhood for a time. Kubera cursed the yaksha to stay a woman until Shikhandi’s death, so Shikhandi lived on as a man.
03The tenth day
Bhishma knew all this, and had told Duryodhana before the war that he would not fight Shikhandi, because he had been born a woman. On the tenth day Arjuna put Shikhandi in front of his chariot and shot over and past him. Bhishma let the arrows come, smiling, and said to Duhshasana that these were not Shikhandi’s arrows; they cut like thunderbolts and went to his vitals like angry snakes, and they were Arjuna’s. Shikhandi lived through the war and was cut down by Ashvatthama in the night raid.
Famous verses
वज्राशनिसमस्पर्शाः शिताग्राः संप्रवेशिताः । विमुक्ता अव्यवच्छिन्ना नेमे बाणाः शिखण्डिनः ॥
They strike like the thunderbolt, sharp-pointed, driven deep, loosed in an unbroken stream: these are not Shikhandi’s arrows.Mahabharata 6.114.55 (BORI CE), Bhishma to Duhshasana