01The boy who broke the rock
He was only just born when a tiger startled Kunti on the mountain and she sprang up, forgetting the baby asleep in her lap. He fell onto a rock, and the rock broke into a hundred pieces; the child was unhurt. As a boy he played rough with the hundred Kauravas, and Duryodhana came to hate him. At a water festival at Pramanakoti, Duryodhana bound him with creepers while he slept and pushed him into the Ganga; he snapped the bonds and came up. Snakes set on him could not pierce his skin, and poison in his food did him no harm. The katha of his descent to the naga world, where the nagas give him a nectar with the strength of a thousand elephants, is printed in the appendix of the Critical Edition.
02Slayer of rakshasas
When the house of lac burned he carried his mother and brothers out through the tunnel and into the night forest. There he killed the rakshasa Hidimba and married his sister Hidimbi, who bore Ghatotkacha. At Ekachakra he went in place of the brahmin’s son with the cart of food for Baka, ate the food himself and then broke Baka’s back. He killed Kirmira in the Kamyaka forest and Jatasura in the mountains. At Girivraja he wrestled Jarasandha of Magadha for days and at last tore him in two. At Virata’s court, where he served as the cook Ballava, he killed Kichaka at night in the dancing hall for touching Draupadi.
03Hanuman on the path
In the mountains a wind blew a golden lotus of a thousand petals to Draupadi, and she asked Bhima for more. Pushing through the forest towards the Saugandhika lake, he found an old monkey lying across the path, its tail in his way. He told it to move. The monkey said it was too old; he should lift the tail aside himself. Bhima could not stir it. Then Hanuman, his elder brother, born like him of Vayu, showed himself, and at Bhima’s plea showed the form in which he had leapt the ocean to Lanka. He promised to be on Arjuna’s banner in the war and to roar with Bhima’s roar.
04Two vows kept
In the dice hall Bhima swore two oaths: to break Duryodhana’s thigh with his mace and to drink Duhshasana’s blood. Thirteen years later he kept both. On the seventeenth day he threw Duhshasana down in front of both armies, tore open his chest and tasted his blood; he told Gandhari afterwards that it had gone no further than his lips and teeth. On the eighteenth he broke Duryodhana’s thighs. Over the war he killed every one of Dhritarashtra’s hundred sons. On the last road to the Himalaya he fell after Arjuna, and Yudhishthira told him why: he had eaten too much and boasted of his strength.
Famous verses
वाक्यशूरस्य चैवास्य परुषस्य दुरात्मनः । दुःशासनस्य रुधिरं पातास्मि मृगराडिव ॥
And of this hero of words, this harsh and wicked Duhshasana, I shall drink the blood, like the king of beasts.Mahabharata 2.68.29 (BORI CE), Bhima’s vow in the dice hall