Bhīmasena

Bhīmasena, also called Bhīma, Vṛkodara (wolf-bellied) and Pāvakī, was the second of the five Pāṇḍavas. Kuntī called on Vāyu, the deva of the wind, in the forest of the Himālaya, with the consent of Pāṇḍu, and Bhīmasena was born. He was born on the same day as Duryodhana.

He was famed for his bodily strength, his huge appetite, his plain speech and his fierceness in battle. He fought with the gadā (mace). He swore two oaths at the dice game, killed Kīcaka and the rākshasas Kirmīra and Jaṭāsura, met his brother Hanumān on Gandhamādana, and in the end went up to svarga (heaven) beside Vāyu.

Birth

Bhīmasena was born when Kuntī called on Vāyu, the wind deva, with Pāṇḍu’s consent. He was born on the same day as Duryodhana.

As a baby he fell from Kuntī’s arms and rolled off the mountain peak onto a hard rock below. The rock broke into pieces and Bhīma was unhurt. This showed from the first moments of his life that his body was beyond ordinary human limits.

The nāga rasa

Duryodhana was jealous of the Pāṇḍavas, and above all of Bhīma’s bodily power. He decided to be rid of him. He mixed strong poison into the food at a feast and waited until Bhīma had eaten his fill. Then, while Bhīma lay unconscious with his arms and legs bound, he pushed him into the Gaṅgā. Bhīma sank to the bottom.

In the depths of the river the nāgas who lived there bit him with their poisonous fangs. The nāga venom cancelled the poison already in his body, and Bhīma woke. The nāgas knew him as a kinsman by lineage and brought him before their king Vāsuki.

Vāsuki ordered that Bhīma be given the nāga-rasa, a strong drink made from eight great pots of the divine essence of the nāgas. Bhīma drank all eight. He slept for eight days while the rasa settled into his body. Then he woke and went back to his family with the strength of ten thousand elephants, far more than he had before. Yudhishṭhira advised him to say nothing of what had happened.

Training and the display of arms

Bhīmasena trained under Droṇācārya with the other princes. He also trained separately with Balarāma in gadā-yuddha (mace fighting). He was the best mace fighter of his time. At the astra-darśana (the public display of arms) in Hastināpura, he showed his skill with the mace to the whole court. His power and control impressed everyone.

The campaign against Drupada

Droṇācārya sent the princes to capture Drupada as his guru-dakshiṇā (the teacher’s fee). Bhīmasena fought in the front of Arjuna’s force. He was sent against Drupada’s elephants and destroyed them with his mace in close fighting. This cleared the way for Arjuna to meet Drupada face to face.

The dice game and the two oaths

The Sabhā Parva records Bhīmasena’s experience of the dice game in the assembly as one of the most intense. Yudhishṭhira lost everything: his kingdom, his brothers, himself and finally Draupadī. Bhīma’s self-control was more and more strained.

Karṇa openly mocked Draupadī and approved of her being dragged and stripped. The text says that fire poured from Bhīma’s ears and nose. He did not act, because Yudhishṭhira’s hand on his arm held him back.

When Duḥśāsana tried to strip Draupadī in the full assembly, Bhīma could no longer hold back his voice. He swore the first oath, the blood oath. He would tear open Duḥśāsana’s chest and drink his blood on the battlefield. At the same moment or soon after, he swore a second oath. He would break Duryodhana’s thigh, the thigh that Duryodhana had slapped in mockery toward Draupadī.

Both oaths were carried out at Kurukshetra. The first became one of the most terrible acts of the war, and the second brought it to its close.

Leaving Hastināpura

In the Anudyūta Parva, as the Pāṇḍavas left Hastināpura after the second dice game, Sañjaya reported that Bhīma walked with his strong arms stretched wide toward the Kaurava side. The stretched arms were a plain challenge. These were the arms that would do what he had sworn. His walk showed grief, fury and firm resolve together.

Character

Bhīmasena was the bodily strength of the Pāṇḍava brothers. Yudhishṭhira was the centre of dharma, and Arjuna was the greatest warrior in skill. Bhīma was the warrior of raw power and a force that did not stop. He spoke directly and was sometimes blunt to the point of harshness. He was without fear.

His appetite for food, for battle and for life matched his strength. He was devoted to his brothers, and no family had a more dangerous protector.

Virāṭa Parva: Vallava the cook

In the thirteenth year of exile, the year of ajñātavāsa (living unknown), Bhīmasena took the disguise of Vallava, a master cook, and entered the royal kitchen of Virāṭa. He said he was very skilled in cooking and also a wrestler. A cook’s work was far beneath the dignity of a kshatriya king and the greatest warrior of his age. Bhīma bore it in silence for the sake of dharma and Yudhishṭhira’s oath (Virāṭa Parva, Chapter 8).

As the court wrestler he defeated the strong Jīmūta, who had been challenging all comers in Virāṭanagara. He did this without revealing who he was. His win was put down to skill, and Virāṭa was pleased (Virāṭa Parva, Chapter 13).

The killing of Kīcaka

The best known deed of Bhīma’s life in Virāṭanagara was the killing of Kīcaka. Kīcaka was the commander of Virāṭa’s forces and the brother of Sudeshṇā. He had harassed Draupadī, who lived there as Sairandhrī, again and again.

Kīcaka kicked Draupadī in open court. Bhīma was present, and held back his violent fury only because Yudhishṭhira insisted. That night Draupadī came to him in tears and in just anger, and Bhīma’s resolve was complete. Together they planned the killing.

Bhīma went by night to the nāṭyaśālā (the dance hall). In fierce hand-to-hand combat he killed Kīcaka and crushed his body into a ball of flesh, so that the wound showed no mark by which it could be known. He then killed all 105 Upakīcakas who tried to burn Draupadī on the funeral pyre (Virāṭa Parva, Chapters 14–24).

The southern cattle raid

Suśarman’s Trigarta army took King Virāṭa prisoner in the southern cattle raid. Yudhishṭhira told Bhīma to rescue the king. Bhīma fought with great power with the Matsya army and freed Virāṭa from Suśarman’s grip. He handed Suśarman over to Yudhishṭhira as a prisoner (Virāṭa Parva, Chapters 29–34).

Vana Parva: the killing of Kirmīra

In the Vana Parva, the Pāṇḍavas were travelling at midnight toward Kāmyakavana. The strong rākshasa Kirmīra blocked their path. He was the brother of Baka, whom Bhīma killed at Ekacakrā, and of Hiḍimba, whom Bhīma killed in the Śālavana forest. He said he meant to avenge his brothers.

Dhaumya put an end to Kirmīra’s māyā (magic power). Bhīma then fought and killed him in the paśumāra manner, throttling him and breaking his neck with his bare hands (Vana Parva, Chapter 11).

Vana Parva: the saugandhika lotus and the meeting with Hanumān

The Pāṇḍavas were camped on Gandhamādana. The wind blew a divine saugandhika lotus of celestial scent to the place where Draupadī sat. She was taken by its beauty and scent and asked Bhīma to bring more of these flowers. Bhīma set out toward the north, like a devoted husband ready to face any obstacle for Draupadī’s happiness.

In the kadalīkhaṇḍa, the great groves of plantain trees on Gandhamādana, Bhīma found Hanumān, the son of Vāyu. Hanumān was resting with his great tail stretched across the path. Bhīma told him to move it. Hanumān, in his aged hermit form, said he was too old to move and asked Bhīma to move the tail himself. Bhīma tried with all his force and could not shift it even a little. He knew this was no ordinary being.

Hanumān told Bhīma who he was: his elder brother, as both were sons of Vāyu. He showed Bhīma a glimpse of his form of the Tretā Yuga and spoke on yuga-dharma. He then gave Bhīma a vara (a boon). Bhīma’s own roar would ride on Arjuna’s flag-staff in the war at Kurukshetra and fill the hearts of the enemy with fear (Vana Parva, Chapters 146–155).

Vana Parva: the battle at Kubera’s lake and the killing of Maṇimanta

After meeting Hanumān, Bhīma reached the divine lake of Kubera on Gandhamādana, which was full of saugandhika lotuses. He blew his conch and demanded entry. The yakshas who guarded the lake took this as an attack on their master’s place and came against him in full force. Bhīma fought them with the fury he showed in every fight. He tore up trees as weapons, swung his mace, and in the end fought with his hands. The yaksha host was driven back.

Then the yaksha captain Maṇimanta came forward himself. Bhīma killed Maṇimanta in single combat. Without knowing it, he thereby carried out an old śāpa (curse) that Agastya Maharshi had laid on the yaksha for disrespect at the ṛshi’s āśrama.

Kubera himself came to the lake and told the Pāṇḍavas the story of Agastya’s śāpa. He cleared Bhīma of all guilt and said that Maṇimanta’s death at Bhīma’s hands was the working out of a sacred decree. Kubera then blessed the Pāṇḍavas and told them that Arjuna was about to return from Indra’s svarga (Vana Parva, Chapters 158–162).

Vana Parva: the killing of Jaṭāsura

The Pāṇḍavas were on Gandhamādana. The rākshasa Jaṭāsura had hidden himself in their camp in the disguise of a brāhmaṇa. He now showed his true nature and seized Yudhishṭhira, Nakula, Sahadeva and Draupadī together with their weapons. Bhīma had been apart from the group. He heard Yudhishṭhira’s cry and ran to the place. He saw the rākshasa fleeing into the sky with his captives.

Bhīma chased him, fought him and killed Jaṭāsura with his bare hands, throttling him in his usual way. He freed the four captives and the weapons (Vana Parva, Chapter 157).

Bhīshma Parva: front of the Vajra Vyūha

In the Bhīshma Parva, Bhīmasena stands at the front of the Pāṇḍava Vajra Vyūha. This is the formation in which the warrior at the very front is the first to face the enemy’s charge. He carried his terrible mace, which looked like a bolt of lightning and was as fearsome as thunder, and he led the army forward.

Sañjaya describes the terror he caused:

Bhīmasena bore his mace and led the great army forward. He blazed like the sun in his might. No one had the power even to glance at him. His very presence scorched Dhṛtarāshṭra’s soldiers. The great warriors among the enemy could not look him in the face as he approached.

The Kaurava soldiers who saw Bhīma at the front were seized by fear, like mountains afraid before a storm. Bhīmasena stood at the front and Kṛshṇa and Arjuna stood at the centre of the formation. Seeing this, Sañjaya said that although the Pāṇḍava army was smaller, it was in truth the army that could not be beaten (Bhīshma Parva, Chapters 19–22).

Strī Parva: the iron statue

In the Strī Parva, after the war, the Pāṇḍavas came to Dhṛtarāshṭra to pay their respects, and Bhīmasena was among them. Dhṛtarāshṭra was in deep grief over the death of all his sons, and above all over Duryodhana, his dear eldest son, whom Bhīma had killed with a blow below the belt. He was in a state of anguish and fury that he could hardly hold in.

When Bhīma came before him to bow, Kṛshṇa saw the danger. Quietly, without telling anyone, he took Bhīma away from Dhṛtarāshṭra and put an iron statue of Bhīma’s form in his arms instead.

Dhṛtarāshṭra embraced the statue with all the grief, fury and more than human strength of a man who had lost everything. He crushed it to powder. The iron form of Bhīma broke in his arms. He found his arms empty and heard no cry. He believed he had killed Bhīma, and fell into fresh grief. He wept that he had added another pāpa (sin) to his already heavy load.

Kṛshṇa then told him the truth. The statue was iron, and Bhīma was alive and unhurt. Dhṛtarāshṭra was greatly relieved. He told Kṛshṇa that the anger he had held against Bhīma was a pāpa. After that he embraced each of the Pāṇḍavas, Bhīma too, with true warmth (Strī Parva, Chapter 12).

Aśvamedhika Parva: catching the fallen Yudhishṭhira

At the very start of the Aśvamedhika Parva, Yudhishṭhira came out of the Gaṅgā, overcome with grief after the udaka-kriyā (the water rite) for his sons. He fell on the river bank “like a great elephant struck down by a hunter.” Bhīmasena, urged by Kṛshṇa, caught his sinking elder brother (Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 1).

At Bhīshma’s funeral

Bhīmasena and Arjuna fanned Bhīshma’s body with pure cāmaras (fans) during the pitṛ-medha (funeral rites) at Kurukshetra after his great departure (Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīshma Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapter 168).

Āśramavāsika Parva: lasting anger and the śrāddha dispute

Dhṛtarāshṭra lived at Hastināpura for fifteen years after the war. In those years Bhīma alone among the Pāṇḍavas could not put the dice game aside. He deferred to Yudhishṭhira like his brothers, but his heart stayed turned against the old king. Out of the court’s hearing he would recall the cruel acts of Duryodhana and Duḥśāsana to his companions. He would strike his own arms and boast that these were the arms, “like paṭṭisas (a kind of weapon) that yield to no one,” by which Dhṛtarāshṭra’s hundred sons had all been sent to the world of the dead. Dhṛtarāshṭra learned of this and grieved, but bore it in silence (Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapters 2–3).

The dispute came into the open when Dhṛtarāshṭra, through Vidura, asked Yudhishṭhira’s leave to perform śrāddha (rites for the dead) for Bhīshma, Droṇa, Somadatta and Bāhlīka, and also for Jayadratha the Saindhava if this was allowed, before he went to the forest. Bhīma alone refused.

Bhīma told Arjuna that he would gladly perform śrāddha for Bhīshma, Somadatta, Bhūriśravas, Bāhlīka and Droṇa himself, and that Kuntī would perform it for Karṇa. But, he said, “this Kaurava king need not give” anything. The twelve years of exile and Draupadī’s humiliation at the dice game had not been forgotten. He asked pointedly where Dhṛtarāshṭra’s present affection had been on that day.

Arjuna rebuked him. He reminded him that noble men do not dwell on the past wrongs of others but on their good qualities, and that Bhīma himself, as a giver, should follow the example of their elder brother. Yudhishṭhira silenced Bhīma outright. Through Vidura he told Dhṛtarāshṭra to take from the Pāṇḍava treasury whatever he wished. Bhīma, still hurt, in the end agreed. He sighed bitterly but consented to give.

Yudhishṭhira asked Vidura to tell Dhṛtarāshṭra that Bhīma’s grudging manner should not be held against him, since Bhīma alone among the brothers had borne the full bodily hardship of the exile in the forest (Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapters 11–13).

Āśramavāsika Parva: grief at the vānaprastha departure and the march to Kurukshetra

When Dhṛtarāshṭra left for vānaprastha (life in the forest), Bhīma pleaded urgently with Kuntī not to give up the kingdom her sons had won at so great a cost. He reminded her that she herself had once urged them to take it back. He asked why she now wished to leave them for the forest instead of enjoying the fruits of Yudhishṭhira’s reign. Kuntī did not listen. When she could not be turned back, Bhīma followed the other Pāṇḍavas back to Hastināpura in grief (Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapter 16).

Later, Bhīma could no longer bear to be apart from his mother. He was among the brothers whose grief at Kuntī’s absence Yudhishṭhira found hard to look upon. When Sahadeva at last spoke of his wish to see her, Bhīma joined the march to Kurukshetra with the whole Pāṇḍava company. They went to be reunited with Dhṛtarāshṭra, Gāndhārī and Kuntī at the āśrama of Śatayūpa (Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapters 21–22).

Mahā Prasthānika Parva: the great departure and his fall

Yudhishṭhira decided to give up the world after the ruin of the Vṛshṇis. Bhīma agreed with his brothers and put on the bark garments of a renouncer. They went north beyond Himavat. At each companion’s fall Bhīma asked Yudhishṭhira why. First Draupadī fell, then Sahadeva, Nakula and Arjuna. Then Bhīma himself sank to the ground.

He called out to his brother and asked the cause of his own fall. Yudhishṭhira answered that Bhīma ate too much, boasted of his strength and had no regard for others. For these faults he could not finish the ascent in his body. Yudhishṭhira went on without turning back, followed only by the dog (Mahā Prasthānika Parva, Chapters 1–2).

Svargārohaṇa Parva: beside Vāyu among the Maruts

Yudhishṭhira was led down the road of naraka (hell). Among the dear voices that rose from the darkness and pleaded with him to stay was Bhīma’s, the brother he loved as his own life. The illusion was then lifted, and Yudhishṭhira passed into the true svarga (heaven). There he saw Bhīma standing in radiance beside Vāyu, the wind deva who was his own father, among the host of the Maruts.

Bhīma had a divine form and was adorned with great splendour. He had reached parama-siddhi (the highest attainment). As a portion of Vāyu, the mightiest of the Pāṇḍavas took his place among the wind devas from whom his strength had always come (Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapters 2, 4–5).

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Sambhava Parva, Chapters 120–132
• Mahābhārata, Sabhā Parva, Dyūta Parva and Anudyūta Parva, Chapters 60–81
• Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapter 11
• Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 146–162
• Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapters 1–72
• Mahābhārata, Bhīshma Parva, Chapters 19–22
• Mahābhārata, Strī Parva, Chapter 12
• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīshma Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapter 168
• Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 1
• Mahābhārata, Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapters 2–3, 11–13, 15–16, 21–22
• Mahābhārata, Mahā Prasthānika Parva, Chapters 1–2
• Mahābhārata, Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapters 2, 4–5