Bhima
October 24th, 2007First City, New Delhi, Feb 2006
They humiliated his wife. Dragged and disrobed her in full view of the court. He avenged her humiliation. Killed them all. Drank their blood. Abandoning dharma in the process. His name was Bhima, the powerful one, the second Pandava. Yudhishtira’s muscle man of a brother, as simple as he was strong.
Bhima’s father, Pandu was cursed that he would die if he ever touched his wives. So the only way Pandu could have sons was if he let his wives use a magic formula that forced gods to give them children. He chose the gods. First, he told his first wife to invoke Yama, god of death and order. Thus was born the regal Yudhishtira. Then he asked her to invoke Vayu, the wind-god, who gave him the mighty Bhima. Then she invoked Indra, the king of the gods, who gave her the skilled Arjuna. She then shared the formula with Pandu’s second wife, Madri, who called upon the Ashwini twins, celestial physicians, who gave her two sons, the handsome Nakula and the wise Sahadeva.
Why did Pandu choose Vayu? Was it because Vayu, the wind, was the father of Hanuman, the divine monkey, mightiest of gods? Perhaps he knew that Yudhishtira could never be king unless he had a powerful warrior beside him. A henchman who did as he was told without question or thought.
Such henchmen are often arrogant. And the Mahabharata informs us that years later, Bhima encounters Hanuman who appears to him a weak old monkey lying across the road. “Step aside,” Bhima tells him, too proud to walk around him. “I am too old,” says Hanuman in a pitiable tone, “Push my tail aside and make way for yourself.” Bhima tries to kick the monkey away. But he finds the monkey too heavy. Then he tries to brush the tail aside. Even the tail is too heavy. He then uses his hands. But he cannot move the tail by an inch. He uses both his hands and all his might and still he cannot lift the tail. Then it dawns on him. This is no monkey. This is his half-brother Hanuman, trying to teach him a lesson in humility. Falling at his feet, Bhima says, “Always sit atop Arjuna’s chariot, blessing him with strength, wisdom and humility.”
Why did Bhima not ask Hanuman to sit atop his chariot? Why did he give Hanuman’s grace to his younger brother? This action gives an insight into Bhima’s character. He constantly did things for others. Rarely for himself. And perhaps that is why in the Mahabharata we get a sense that he was always taken for granted.
Pandu died soon after the birth of his sons. He could not control his desire for Madri. A guilty Madri jumped into the funeral pyre leaving Kunti to take care of all five Pandavas. The Pandavas were contenders to the throne of Hastinapur, and as a result they were much hated by their cousins, Kauravas, whose father Dhritarashtra, though blind, became ruler of Hastinapur after Pandu’s death. The orphaned Pandavas thus grew up in a rather hostile atmosphere with an uncle and cousins who did not want them around.
The Kauravas did everything to make the Pandavas miserable. But Bhima ensured no harm came to his brothers. He fought for them, made the Kauravas pay if they ever made any Pandava cry. He annoyed the Kauravas so much that they drugged him, tied him and threw him into the Yamuna. Luckily for Bhima, he was rescued by serpents, Nagas. They claimed to be ancestors of his mother Kunti. And according to a folklore in North India, they gave him a wife who bore him a mighty son called Barbareek.
Bhima was born on the same day as Duryodhana, the eldest Kaurava. They were arch enemies. Both learnt the art of wrestling and mace warfare from Balarama, Krishna’s eldest brother. But Duryodhana was always Balarama’s favourite. Balarama wanted Duryodhana to marry his sister, Subhadra, but Krishna ensured she eloped with Arjuna. Never Balarama’s favourite, Bhima was not considered worthy of Subhadra even by Krishna.
The Kauravas gifted the Pandavas a palace and set the building alight as soon as the Pandavas moved in. The Pandavas survived the assassination attempt but Kunti feared for the life of her children. She decided not to return to Hastinapur. Instead she let the world believe she and her children were dead. They lived in hiding far away from the city near the forest.
It is said that everyday Kunti sent out her sons to fetch food. Whatever was brought was shared. Bhima was given half of all that was collected. The rest was divided amongst the remaining four brothers and their mother. Such was Bhima’s appetite. It was said that Bhima had the constant expression of a hungry wolf. He was a glutton. He could eat forever.
But he was not lazy. When he walked he carried his mother on his shoulders and his two younger brothers, Nakula and Sahadeva, in his arms. Yudhishtira and Arjuna walked beside him. He was the protector. Everyone could rely on him.
During this time in the forest. Bhima killed many Rakshasas, probably barbarian forest dwellers. There was Baka who terrorized local villages by forcing them to give him a cartload of food every day. Baka ate the food, the bullocks and the driver of the cart. But he met his match in Bhima.
Hidimba, a Rakshasa woman, fell in love with Bhima on hearing how he killed the mighty Baka. She came to Bhima and said, “If you kill my brother, Hidimba, you can marry me and I will take care of your mother and your brothers.” Bhima killed Hidimba and became the first Pandava to get married. Hidimba took care of the Pandavas. But Kunti did not like the idea of having a Rakshasa as her daughter-in-law. She wanted a princess for a daughter-in-law whose royal father would protect her sons from harm. So she forced Bhima to abandon Hidimbi and the son she bore him, Ghatatkocha.
Bhima’s victory over Baka and Hidimba and his marriage to Hidimbi has ensured he has a great fan following in tribal and rural India especially members of the lower strata of society. Even today, Bhim-sen is much adored deity of the countryside. Much more than Arjuna who by is popular amongst the upper castes of priests and warriors. This class and caste divide is evident in the weapons the two brothers use. Bhima uses the club, used by brutes, while Arjuna uses the sophisticated bow, reserved for the Aryan elite. Remember the tale of the tribal Ekalavya whose thumb was cut by Drona because he dared to learn archery.
Significantly, Peter Brooke’s Mahabharata has a black man playing the role of rash yet lovable Bhima and a white man playing the skilled and sharp Arjuna. Wonder if any racial prejudice crept into the casting to reflect the caste prejudice. Hidimba is also played by a black woman. Her son, Ghatatkocha, sacrificed by Krishna to save Arjuna, is also played by a black actor. To be fair to Peter Brookes, in his story, even Apsaras are black and Shiva is played by a Japanese actor. But still the thought is interesting.
Eventually, Bhima and his brothers married Draupadi, the princess of Panchala. And per the terms of marriage, he was allowed to have Draupadi to himself exclusively for one year, after Yudhishtira. After that, she would let her go for a year each to Arjuna, then Nakula and finally Sahadeva. Bhima’s second turn would come five years later. It is interesting that while Bhima was allowed to have the larger share of food, he had to share his wife equally.
Bhima was obsessed with Draupadi (she had such effect on all men). He would do anything for her and she knew it. While Yudhishtira would temper rage with righteous conduct, Bhima would submit to raw emotions. Draupadi took full advantage of that. In the thirteenth year of exile, that the Pandavas were supposed to live in hiding, Kichaka tried to rape Draupadi. Yudhishtira refused to come to her rescue for fear of exposing their identity. Rational thought came in the way of rage. But Draupadi wanted revenge. She went to Bhima, provoked him and got him to kill Kichaka. He did not care about the consequences when it came to serving as Draupadi’s avenging angel. While all the Pandavas fought in the Kurukshetra for principle and property, only he fought to avenge Draupadi’s humiliation and to help her tie the hair. He killed all the Kauravas, drank their blood and offered the blood to Draupadi so that she could wash her hair with it and finally bind it.
We are told that Bhima could never forgive or forget. After the war, he continued to taunt the blind old Dhritarashtra, describing in gruesome detail, each time the family sat together for dinner, of how he killed each of his hundred sons. Disgusted, Dhritarashtra finally decided to renounce royal life and retire to the forest. His wife Gandhari and his sister-in-law Kunti joined him. There they were killed in a forest fire.
In the final chapter of the Mahabharata, we are told that Bhima went to hell because he was a glutton. His fondness for food indicates his association with baser emotions – rage, lust. In the Drona Parva, we are informed his emblem was of a lion. And he was a lion. Arrogant and vengeful. But he would never be king. The leader of the pack. He was after all too much brawn and too little brain, too much heart and too little head.