01.119
Core-Pancharatra:Pandavas settle down; jealousy and evil ways of Duryodhana.
Vaiśampāyana said.
Then Vidura, the king, and Bhīṣma, along with the relatives, performed the funeral rite of Pāṇḍu, full of oblations and offerings like nectar.
Having fed thousands of Kurus and eminent Brāhmaṇas, they also gave heaps of jewels and excellent villages to the foremost Brāhmaṇas.
Then the townspeople, taking the purified sons of Pāṇḍu, the foremost among the Bharatas, entered the city named Vāraṇasāhvaya.
All the townspeople and countryfolk continually grieved for that bull among the Bharatas, as if he were their own lost relative.
At the end of the funeral rites, seeing the people afflicted and bewildered with sorrow, Vyāsa spoke to the queen mother.
The happy times have passed; dreadful times have now arrived. Day by day, more sinful days come. The Earth has lost her youth.
The coming time will be terrible, filled with many deceptions, overwhelmed with various faults, and the practices of dharma lost.
Go, adopting renunciation, and live disciplined in a forest of austerity. Do not witness the terrible destruction of your own family.
“So be it,” agreeing thus, she entered and said to her daughter-in-law: “O Ambikā, due to your son’s evil conduct, indeed the Bhāratas—along with their kin and even their grandsons—will perish. Thus have we heard.”
Therefore, let us take this afflicted Kausalyā, overwhelmed by grief for her son, and go to the forest—blessings to you—if you think it proper.
Thus, with Ambikā's consent and after addressing Bhīṣma, the devoted Satyavatī went to the forest with her two daughters-in-law, O Bhārata.
Having performed severe austerities, those noble ladies gave up their bodies and attained the desired state, O great king of the Bharatas.
At that time the Pāṇḍavas underwent the purificatory rites prescribed in the Vedas, and enjoying various comforts, they prospered in their father's house.
Playing in their father's house with the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, the Pāṇḍavas were distinguished in all forms of childhood games.
In speed, in seizing targets, in eating, and in sand-wrestling, Bhīmasena overpowered all the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra.
Out of joy, the Pāṇḍava grabbed the boys while they played, seized them by the heads in a crow's pit, and made them wrestle.
Vṛkodara alone would easily overpower the hundred and one high-spirited sons without much effort.
Seizing them by the feet, the strong Bhīma overpowered them by force, dragged them crying on the ground, scraping their knees, heads, and shoulders.
Playing in the water, he would grasp ten boys with both arms, sit immersed in water, and release them after they had fainted.
When the others climbed trees to gather fruits, Bhīma would shake the tree with a kick of his foot.
Then, as the tree was shaken by the force of the blow, the boys along with the fruits quickly fell down, loosened from the tree.
Though contending with Vṛkodara, the boys could never surpass him in wrestling, speed, or skill at any time.
Thus, while contending with the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Vṛkodara became constantly disliked, though without any hostility due to his childish nature.
Then the powerful son of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, realizing the renowned strength of Bhīmasena, displayed a wicked intention.
As he departed from righteousness, and seeing evil due to delusion and greed for power, a sinful intent arose in his mind.
This Vṛkodara, son of Kuntī, the best among the strong and the middle of Pāṇḍu's sons, should be deceitfully destroyed.
Then, having bound by force the younger and elder—Yudhiṣṭhira—I shall rule the earth.
Thus, having made this wicked resolve, Duryodhana constantly kept a secret watch on the great-souled Bhīma.
Then, for the purpose of water-sports, he had large and varied houses of cloth and blankets constructed, O Bhārata.
Having gone to a certain spot near the measure's edge, all of them, in clean clothes and adorned, slowly ate the food that was rich in all pleasures at the end of the game.
At the end of the day, fatigued after their play, the best of the Kurus chose to stay in the pleasure lodgings.
Then Bhīma, strong and superior in exertion, having made the boys play in the water, climbed the boundary ledge and, desiring rest, slept at that place.
Reaching a cool resting place, weary and dazed from exertion, the Pāṇḍava slept motionless, like one dead, O king.
Then Duryodhana slowly bound Bhīma with creeper ropes and cast him into deep water with a fierce current from the bank.
Then, awakening, the son of Kuntī tore apart all bonds and again rose from the water, Bhīma, the best among warriors.
Again, while sleeping, he was bitten by enraged snakes with sharp fangs and deadly venom on all vital parts of his body.
Even when the snakes’ fangs struck his vital parts, they could not pierce his skin, due to the firmness of his broad chest.
Awakened, Bhīma smashed all the snakes and struck dead his dear charioteer with one blow.
Again, fresh and sharp Kālakūṭa poison, carefully gathered and terrifying, was mixed into Bhīmasena’s food.
The Vaiśya’s son informed the sons of Pṛthā out of goodwill; but Vṛkodara, even after eating it, remained unaffected.
Even that deadly poison did not cause any change in Bhīma; being of mighty frame, he digested it too.
Thus, Duryodhana, Karṇa, and Śakuni son of Subala, using many means, continually sought to destroy the Pāṇḍavas.
The Pāṇḍavas, subduers of enemies, recognized all this but refrained from revealing it, standing by Vidura’s counsel.
