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Mahābhārata The History of the Great India
<< 16 The Seeds of Duryodhana's Hatred >>
 |  | After the death of King Pandu, his sons, the Pandavas, were raised as princes under the care of their blind uncle, Dhrtarastra, and their grandfather Bhisma. As the Mahabharata continues, the sage Vaisampayana tells how the Pandava Bhima invoked the resentment of one of Dhrtarastra's sons.
| | | The Pandavas were trained in all the Vedic reformatory ceremonies meant to sanctify human life, and they steadily grew, enjoying all the pleasures of a princely life. Living in their father's house, they played with the sons of Dhrtarastra, and in all the games children play, the Pandavas excelled their cousins. In eating, racing, hitting a target, and raising dust, Bhimasena soundly defeated all the sons of Dhrtarastra. As the sons of Dhrtarastra played, Bhimasena would joyfully grab them by the tufts of hair above their ears, and holding their heads down, the Pandava boy would have them fight one another.
| | | All the sons of Dhrtarastra were very powerful boys, trained and destined to be fighters and kings. But Vrkodara, Bhima, all alone, would push and defeat them all with little trouble, even though they numbered 101. With great strength he would grab them by their legs, pull them down, and drag them yelling on the ground, scraping their knees, heads, and faces. When the boys played in the water, Bhima would embrace ten of them with his arms, remain submerged in the water until they almost drowned, and then release them. When they would climb a tree to collect fruits, Bhima would strike the tree with his foot and make it shake so forcefully that the dizzy boys would fall with their armfuls of fruit. In combat, in racing, in drills and gymnastics, the boys could never win against Bhima.
| | | Although Bhima always competed with his cousins, he had no desire to hurt them. Rather, he acted with boyish enthusiasm. But his cousins developed a terrible hatred for him, which he in no way felt toward them. Seeing that Bhima was becoming renowned for his strength, one fierce warrior son of Dhrtarastra began to show a wicked attitude toward Bhima. As the sons of Pandu and Dhrtarastra became young men, this son of Dhrtarastra turned away from virtue and began to contemplate evil deeds. So deluded was he by greed for power that his mind became sinful.
| | | "Bhima is the mightiest of men," he thought. "Since I cannot kill him fairly, I will destroy by trickery the middle son of Kunti and Pandu. Then, by capturing and locking up his elder brother, Yudhisthira, and his younger brother Arjuna, I shall rule the earth and all its riches."
| | | Having made up his mind, that sinful man named Duryodhana began to look constantly for opportunities to assassinate the great soul Bhimasena.
| | | For water sports, O Bharata, Duryodhana had large, colorful tents set up on a bank of the Ganges near Pramana-koti. All the cousins went there. When their play was finished, they put on fresh clothes and attractive jewelry and silently enjoyed heaping plates of sumptuous food that satisfied all their desires. When day was done, the Kuru princes, exhausted from a long day of sports, eagerly entered their tents to rest. Even mighty Bhima was fatigued, having won all the contests and games. That powerful prince had carried all the other boys during their games in the water. Eager to bed down for the night, he climbed up on the raised earth where their tents were built, and slept on the fertile land of Pramana-koti. Tired, and dizzy from drinking, O king, the son of Pandu, dressed in white cloth, slept unmoving, like a dead body.
| | | Duryodhana silently approached Bhima in the black of night and bound him with strong cords made from crawling plants. He pushed Bhima off the camping plateau into the deep water below as it rushed by with fearful force, like that of Bhima himself. Waking up within the rushing waves of the Ganges, the son of Kunti, the best of fighters, snapped the binding cords and climbed out of the water.
| | | Another time, while Bhima slept Duryodhana brought highly venemous serpents, with sharp fangs and furious mood, and had them bite deeply into the weak and mortal parts of Bhima's body. But even when those terrible serpents angrily sank their fangs into the softest parts of Bhima's body, they could not pierce his skin, for his broad-chested body was as hard as iron. Bhima then awoke and crushed all the snakes, and in the process struck his favorite chariot driver with the back of his hand.
| | | Another time, Duryodhana threw into Bhima's food fresh Kalakuta poison, so deadly that to hear about it makes one's hair stand on end. Yuyutsu, son of a vaisya mother, wanted to save the sons of Partha, so he told them what had happened. But Bhima had already eaten the food, and without suffering any effect, he simply digested it.
| | | So by various schemes and plots, Duryodhana, Karna, and Sakuni, son of Subala, tried to assassinate the sons of Pandu. O tamer of the foe, the Pandavas discerned all that was happening, but staunchly following the advice of Vidura, they did not expose their knowledge.
| | | Seeing that the children's play was becoming too violent, King Dhrtarastra looked for a guru to educate the boys. He eventually turned them over to Gautama, also known as Krpa, a master of the Vedic literature, who had taken birth from a clump of grass.
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