[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879) › c5.265 # A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.265 A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.265 - **Language:** English ### [c5.265.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.265.1) BHĪMA, BHĪMA-SENA. ‘The terrible.’ The second of the five Pāṇḍu princes, and mythically son of Vāyu, ‘the god of the wind.’ He was a man of vast size, and had great strength. He was wrathful in temper, and given to abuse, a brave warrior, but a fierce and cruel foe, coarse in taste and manners, and a great feeder, so that he was called Vrikodara, ‘wolf’s belly.’ Half of the food of the family was allotted to him, and the other half sufficed for his four brothers and their mother. The weapon he generally used was a club, which suited his gigantic strength, and he had been trained in the use of it by Droṇa and Balārāma. His great strength excited the envy of his cousin Duryodhana, who poisoned him and threw his body into the Ganges; but it sank to the realm of the serpents, where it was restored to health and vigour, and Bhīma returned to Hastināpura. At the passage of arms at Hastināpura, he and Duryodhana engaged each other with clubs; but the mimic combat soon turned into a fierce personal conflict, which Droṇa had to put an end to by force. It was at this same meeting that he reviled Karṇa, and heaped contempt upon him, increasing and converting into bitter hatred the enmity which Karṇa had previously entertained against the Pāṇḍavas. ### [c5.265.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.265.2) When he and his brothers were in exile, and an attempt was made, at the instigation of Dur-yodhana, to burn them in their house, it was he who barricaded the house of Purochana, the director of the plot, and burnt him as he had intended to burn them. Soon after this he met the Asura Hiḍimba, whom he killed, and then married his sister Hiḍimbā. He also slew another Asura named Vaka, whom he seized by the legs and tore asunder; afterwards he killed his brother, Kirmīra, and other Asuras. This brought the Asuras to submission, and they engaged to refrain from molesting mankind. After the Pāṇḍu princes were established at Indraprastha, Bhīma fought in single combat with Jarāsandha, king of Magadha, who had refused to recognise their supremacy. As ‘son of the wind,’ Bhīma was brother of Hanumān, and was able to fly with great speed. By this power of flight, and with the help of Hanumān, he made his way to Kuvera’s heaven, high up in the Himālayas. When Jayadratha failed in his attempt to carry off Draupadī, he was pursued by Arjuna and Bhīma. The latter overtook him, dragged him by the hair from his chariot to the ground, and kicked him till he became senseless. At Arjuna's remonstrance Bhīma refrained from killing him; but he cut off all his hair except five locks, and compelled him to acknowledge publicly that he was the slave of the Pāndavas. Bhīma refused to listen to his brother's plea for Jayadratha's release, but at Draupadī's intercession he let him go free. ### [c5.265.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.265.3) In the second exile of the Pāndavas, they went to the Rāja of Virāta, whose service they entered. Bhīma, holding a ladle in one hand and a sword in the other, undertook the duties of cook; but he soon exhibited his prowess by fighting with and killing a famous wrestler named Jīmūta. Draupadī had entered into the service of the queen as a waiting-maid, and attracted the admiration of the king's brother-in-law, Kīchaka. When she rejected his advances, he insulted and brutally assaulted her. Her husbands did not seem disposed to avenge her, so she appealed to Bhīma, as she was wont when she sought revenge. Draupadī made an assignation with Kīchaka, which Bhīma kept, and after a sharp struggle with the disappointed gallant, he broke his bones to atoms, and made his body into a large ball of flesh, so that no one could tell how he had been killed or who had killed him. Draupadī was judged to have had a share in his death, and was condemned to be burnt alive; but Bhīma drew his hair over his face, so that no one could recognise him, and, tearing up a large tree for a club, he rushed to the rescue. He was taken for a mighty Gandharva, the crowd fled, and Draupadī was released. Kīchaka had been the general of the forces of Virāta and the mainstay of the king. After his death, Su-sarman, king of Trigartta, aided and abetted by the Kauravas and others, determined to attack Virāta. ### [c5.265.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.265.4) The Rāja of Virāta was defeated and made prisoner, but Bhīma pursued Su-sarman and overcame him, rescued the prisoner, and made the conqueror captive. In the great battle between the Kauravas and Pandavas, Bhīma took a very prominent part. On the first day he fought against Bhīshma; on the second he slew the two sons of the Rāja of Magadha, and after them their father, killing him and his elephant at a single blow. In the night between the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the battle, Bhīma fought with Drona until the rising of the sun; but that redoubted warrior fell by the hand of Dhrishta-dyumna, who continued the combat till noonday. On the seventeenth day he killed Duh-sāsana, and drank his blood, as he had long before vowed to do, in retaliation of the insults Duh-sāsana had offered to Draupadī. On the eighteenth and last day of the battle Dur-yodhana fled and hid himself in a lake. When he was discovered, he would not come out until he had received a promise that he should not have to fight with more than one man at a time. Even then he delayed until he was irritated by the abuse and the taunts of the Pāndavas. Bhīma and Dur-yodhana fought as usual with clubs. The battle was long and furious; the parties were equally matched, and Bhīma was getting the worst of it, when he struck an unfair blow which smashed Dur-yodhana’s thigh, and brought him to the ground. Thus he fulfilled his vow and avenged Draupadī. ### [c5.265.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.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. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.265](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.265) · Pramāṇa