A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.265.5

c5.265.5

In his fury Bhīma kicked his prostrate foe on the head, and acted so brutally that his brother Yudhi-shthira struck him in the face with his fist, and directed Arjuna to take him away. Bala-rāma was greatly incensed at the foul play to which Bhīma had resorted, and would have attacked the Pāndavas had he not been mollified by Krishna. He declared that Bhīma should thenceforward be called Jihma-yodhin, ‘the unfair fighter.’ After the conclusion of the war, the old king, Dhrita-rāshtra, asked that Bhīma might be brought to him. Krishna, who knew the blind old man’s sorrow for his son, whom Bhīma had killed, and suspecting his intention, placed before him an iron statue, which Dhrita-rāshtra crushed in his embrace. Dhrita-rāshtra never forgave Bhīma, and he returned the ill feeling with insults, which ended in the old king’s retiring into the forest. Bhīma’s last public feat was the slaughter of the horse in the sacrifice which followed Yudhi-shthira’s accession to the throne. Apart from his mythological attributes, the character of Bhīma is natural and distinct. A man of burly form, prodigious strength, and great animal courage, with coarse tastes, a gluttonous appetite, and an irascible temper; jovial and jocular when in good humour, but abusive, truculent, and brutal when his passions were roused. His repartees were forcible though coarse, and he held his own even against Krishna when the latter made personal remarks upon him. See Mahā-bhārata.