The Story Of Bheema And Hidimbi

Narration of the Story as it was shown in 

StarPlus Mahabharat

Arjuna, Bheema and Draupadi were returning back after Draupadi's Swayamvara, in order to seek blessings from Mata Kunti Devi. The Brahmin who took the Pandavas to the Swayamvar also accompanied Arjuna and Bheema while returning back after the Swayamvar was over. Bheema made a noise, a funny noise. He kept his fingers on his mouth and made that noise. This kind of noise is made during the wedding of Rakshasas. The Brahmin who was sitting on Bheem's back asked Bheema if he married a Pisacha. The noise that Bheema made was the mantra read in the Rakshasas wedding. I will tell more about how Bheema got married to a Rakshasi. 

Once, the Pandavas were trying to escape from Ashwatama. Ashwatama was the son of Guru Dronacharya. He became the King of Panchala after King Drupada got defeated by Arjuna. The Pandavas with their mother Kunti Devi accidentally wandered off into a magical forest. Before Ashwatama could follow the Pandavas into the magical forest, his soldier told him that a demon named Hidimba lives in the forest. Meanwhile, in the forest, after the Pandavas and their mother entered the forest, none of them knew the way to go out. When Bheema uprooted a tree to make a way to go out of the forest, a surprising and scary thing happened. The tree that Bheema uprooted came back again. Bheema felt surprised. After seeing this, Arjuna told that the place that they got stuck should be maya vana. (Magical Forest). Hidimba, the demon who eats up human beings was watching the Pandavas and their mother. Hidimba was hungry and started to smack his lips. He can't wait to eat the Pandavas. He asked his sister Hidimbi to trick Pandavas and bring them and their mother to him so that he and his Rakshasa clan can eat them.

After some time, the Pandavas who could not get out of the forest fell asleep. Suddenly, there was a noise. A woman was crying in a feeble voice. Arjuna woke up and he could hear the sounds of someone crying. Yudhishtra and Kunti too woke up. Then, the other brothers woke up too.  Arjuna went towards the direction where the sound was coming from. He was ready to fire an arrow towards the place where the sound was coming from. But to his surprise, he only saw a beautiful woman there. Arjuna asked the woman, "Why are you crying? Who are you?". The woman replied, "I came here with my parents and brothers. Then, we got stuck here in this forest. And some Rakshasas ate up my parents and family. But, I was left alone". Arjuna promised that he will take her to his mother Kunti and that she will take care of her.

The woman who Arjuna took to his mother was a Rakshasi called Hidimbi who was disguised as a beautiful woman. Bheema saw Hidimbi and the next moment, they both fell in love for each other. Later, when Bheema brought fruits as food, they all started to eat. Bheema was eating a lot. So, Hidimbi also started to compete with him. All the others got shocked. Arjuna and Yudhistra started to doubt about the identity of the beautiful woman. Arjuna thought whoever who competes Bheema in eating so much can definitely not be a human being at all. After they all finished eating, at night Arjuna followed the beautiful woman only to find out that she was actually Hidimbi, sister of Hidimba. Yudhishtra asked to reveal the true identity of Hidimbi, then she showed her true form. And, all the brothers and Kunti became shocked to see her true form. 

The Pandavas along with Kunti Devi and Hidimbi went to the place where Hidimba was living, even after Hidimbi told them not to go. Hidimbi was afraid that her brother will eat up the Pandavas and their mother. She did not want that to happen because she was in love with Bheema. Meanwhile, in the Hidimba's kingdom, Hidimba and the other rakshasas were praying to their God Vrukodara. When Hidimba saw the Pandavas and their mother, he was ready to eat them. He said he will eat Bheema and he asked other rakshasas to eat the others.  When the other rakshasas approached the brothers and Kunti, Arjuna told Hidimba that he is supposed to first eat because he is the King and it is a sin if the King does not eat first. This is how Arjuna tricked Hidimba into fighting with Bheema. Yudhistra teased Bheema by saying, "Bheema, their God's name is Vrukodara. Your pet name is also Vrukodara. Why don't you bless them?".

Bheema lifted his mace and ran towards Hidimba. Hidimba took his mace too and got ready for the fight. Hidimba looked so strong. But Bheema was not less, he looked stronger too. Bheema and Hidimba fought fiercely. Sparks were falling out from their maces. The maces fell down. They continued their fight even though they were unarmed. Hidimba ran to punch Bheema. But Bheema was too quick. He jumped so high and landed behind Hidimba. Then , Bheema lifted up Hidimba by his legs and tore Hidimba into pieces. The way Bheema lifted up and tore Hidimba was so fierce. Hidimba died and suddenly the forest was filled with light. Everybody looked up and felt amazed. 

According to the rakshasas custom, the person who kills their King has to become the next king and should marry the relative of the King. Thus, Bheema ended up becoming the King of rakshasas and also married Hidimbi. During his marriage, the rakshasas kept their index fingers on their mouth and moved their fingers up and down and the noise that came out was so funny. 

Before marrying Bheema, Hidimbi gave a promise to Kunti that if she is married to Bheema, she will raise her son just like Vibhishana and not like Ravana. She had vowed to Kunti that she will let Kunti and her sons to leave them after Hidimbi will give birth to a son. One day, Hidimbi gave birth to a son and Bheema named him as Gatothgacha. Hidimbi remembered her vow and let Kunti and her sons leave the forest. Kunti praised Hidimbi's values such as generosity and sacrifice. So, she blessed Hidimbi that she will be respected and considered as a Goddess in the future.

My Research Work

I researched more about the story of Bheema and Hidimbi, along with my mother.

SriPadarajaru, a saint in the Madhwa community who had the amsha of Dhruva had composed Madhwanama describing the three incarnations of Vayu which are Hanuman during the Rama period, Bheema during the Krishna period and Madhwa during the Vyasa period. In his composition Madhwa Nama, he wrote while describing the Bheema Avatara, 

allidda baka hiDimbakaremba rakkasara

nilladorisida lOkakanTakaranu

Meaning: He eradicated demons Baka and Hidimbika who were there and tormenting everybody.

There is a description for this in Mahabharata Tatparya Nirnaya - Canto 19 composed by Sri Madhwacharya. 

bhIma reached the banks of ganga along with his mother and brothers. This place was inhabited by a demon named hiDimba and his sister hiDimbi. hiDimba had performed penance of rudra and obtained a boon of invincibility. hiDimbi was actually an apsara (heavenly damsel) named shRi who had been cursed by indrA's wife to take the life of a demoness. shRi had prayed to bhArati dEvi (vAyu's wife) for mitigation. Pleased with her penance, bhArati had granted her a boon that her curse would be lifted after she married bhIma. In order to make this happen, an element of bhArati incarnated along with hiDimbi. hiDimbi was sent by her brother to obtain some food. She saw the exceptionally handsome bhIma and lost her heart to him. She took on the form of a beautiful woman and asked him to marry her. He refused saying that his elder brother was as yet unwed. hiDimbi then told him that vEdavyAsa himself would come there in the immediate future and make him agree. Annoyed by his sister's absence, hiDimba came there and saw her with bhIma. This angered him and he attacked bhIma with huge boulders and trees. bhIma brushed aside all his missiles and easily killed him with his bare hands, breaking the boon granted by rudra (this is possible since vAyu is much higher than rudra in the hierarchy of gods). hiDimbi requested kunti and yudhiShTira to intercede on her behalf, which they did, but bhIma did not yield. Finally, vEdavyAsa himself came and asked bhIma to marry hiDimbi. BhIma immediately agreed (this is a good example of the verse that was stated earlier - 'hariyanallade bageyanannyaranu lOkadoLu' - he does not yield to anybody other than hari). After a year or so, they had a son named ghatOtkacha. bhIma then allowed hiDimba to go back to her heavenly abode with her son, after extracting a promise that they would both return whenever he needed them.

Reference: http://www.sripadarajamutt.org - madhvanama-commentary-sripadaraja

I further researched in Wikipedia. And, here is the information I got.

Hidimba was 12 feet tall. Do you know that 1 feet is 12 inches? And, then 12 feet will be 144 inches. So, Hidimba was 144 inches tall. Dimapur which is a name derived from Hidimbapur is the largest city in Nagaland, India. It was once the capital of Dimasa Kachari rulers. Hidimba Kunda is the place where Bheema and Hidimba got married.

Image Credit - Google Maps

Dimasa people are a group of people in Assam, also called as Dimasa Kachari. It is believed that the Kacharis are the descendants of Ghatotgacha. Bheema's son Ghatotgacha is the progenitor of Dimasa Kachari people. At Dimapur, there is a giant chess board park and it is believed that Bheema and Ghatotgacha used to play chess here.

Image Credit - http://dimapur.nic.in/

Take a look at more pictures, the ruins of Dimapur. Image Credit - http://dimapur.nic.in/

Now, I feel 'WOW'. Did Bheema really play chess with his son in this giant chess park, which still exists even today? I feel like visiting places, travel to many places and explore ancient History of Bharat Kanda. Me and my mother will go and I also feel that I can take my father with me too.

Watch the following video of Kachari women performing a plate dance.

Even today, one can visit a temple of Goddess Hidimbi. The Hidimbi temple, known as the Hadimba temple is located in a hill station called Manali, in the state of Himachal Pradesh. 

Image Credit - www.himachalwatcher.com

The new words that I learnt about after writing this blog are - invincibility, intercede, intervene, hierarchy and progenitor.

I like Bheema, he is so funny and huge. 

Narrated by Harmonic Hari, typed and posted by PM for Harmonic Hari