Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c7.42.2

v1.c7.42.2

In this wise he found he had no friends at all, and Duryodhana especially pursued him with a bitter hatred. This cousin now one day had splendid “houses of cloths and rugs” made by the Ganges, and furnished with choicest food and heady drinks. There the princes then made merry, and threw cakes into one another’s mouths. Duryodhana kept this game up with Bhīma a long time with great spirit, for Bhīma, the “wolf’s belly” (Vṛikodara), was a mighty eater. But he put poison withal into the cakes, and while Bhīma lay fast asleep, wearied with many athletic exercises, and overcome with drunkenness, Duryodhana had him bound and thrown into the Ganges without his brothers knowing anything about it. When they wanted to go home, they could not find him, and the good mother was now in mortal anguish, when they came back without him; for she knew his cousin’s hatred and cruelty (i, 118 f.).—But they all grew up to be strong and skilful youths, and at the festal exhibition, where the accomplished sons of Pāṇḍu and of Dhṛitarāshṭra gave a show of their skill, Kuntī sat glad and proud among the women onlookers. When now Arjuna so greatly distinguished himself and was greeted with a storm of shouts by the onlookers, then did Kuntī’s bosom grow wet with the flood of her tears of joy (i, 135.13).¹ But short was the time her delight lasted, as we have seen : Karṇa came onto the stage, the son of her maidenhood, and the embittered opponent of Arjuna, and challenged him to fight.