BHIMA, BHIMA-SENA `The terrible.’ The second of the five Pandu princes, and mythically son of Vayu, `the god of the wind.’ He was a man of vast size, and had great strength. He was wrathful in temper, and given to abuse, a brave warrior, but a fierce and cruel foe, coarse in taste and manners, and a great feeder, so that he was called Vrikodara, `wolf’s belly.’ Half of the food of the family was allotted to him, and the other half sufficed for his four brothers and their mother. The weapons he generally used were a club, which suited his gigantic strength, and he had been trained in the use of it by Drona and Balarama. His great strength excited the envy of his cousin Duryodhana, who poisoned him and threw his body into the Ganges; but it sank to the realm of the serpents, where it was restored to health and vigour, and Bhima returned to Hastinapura. At the passage of arms at Hastinapura, he and Duryodhana engaged each other with clubs; but the mimic combat soon turned into a fierce personal conflict, which Drona had to put an end to by force. It was at this same meeting that he reviled Karna, and heaped contempt upon him, increasing and converting into bitter hatred the enmity which Karna had previously entertained against the Pandavas. When he and his brothers were in exile, and an attempt was made, at the instigation of Dur-yodhana, to burn them in their house, it was he who barricaded the house of Purochana, the director of the plot, and burnt him as he had intended to burn them. Soon after this he met the Asura Hidimba, whom he killed, and then married his sister Hidimba. He also slew another Asura named Vaka, whom he seized by the legs and tore asunder; afterwards he killed his brother, Kirmira, and other Asuras. This brought the Asuras to submission, and they engaged to refrain from molesting mankind. After the Pandu princes were established at Indraprastha, Bhima fought in single combat with Jarasandha, king of Magadha, who had refused to recognise their supremacy. As `son of the wind,’ Bhima was brother of Hanuman, and was able to fly with great speed. By this power of flight, and with the help of Hanuman, he made his way to Kuvera’s heaven, high up in the Himalayas. When Jayadratha failed in his attempt to carry off Draupadi, he was pursued by Arjuna and Bhima. The latter overtook him, dragged him by the hair from his chariot to the ground, and kicked him till he became senseless. At Arjuna’s remonstrance Bhima refrained from killing him; but he cut off all his hair except five locks, and compelled him to acknowledge publicly that the was the slave of the Pandavas. Bhima refused to listen to his brother’s plea for Jayadratha’s release, but at Draupadi’s intercession he let him go free. In the second exile of the Pandavas, they went to the Raja of Virata, whose service they entered. Bhima, holding a ladle in one hand and a sword in the other, undertook the duties of cook; but he soon exhibited his prowess by fighting with and killing a famous wrestler named Jimita. Draupadi had entered into the service of the queen as a waiting-maid, and attracted the admiration of the king’s brother-in-law, Kichaka. When she rejected his advances, he insulted and brutally assaulted her. Her husbands did not seem disposed to avenge her, so she appealed to Bhima, as she was wont when she sought revenge. Draupadi made an assignation with Kichaka, which Bhima kept, and after a sharp struggle with the disappointed gallant, he broke his bones to atoms, and made his body into a large ball of flesh, so that no one could tell how he had been killed or who had killed him. Draupadi was judged to have had a share in his death, and was condemned to be burnt alive; but Bhima drew his hair over his face, so that no one could recognise him, and, tearing up a large tree for a club, he rushed to the rescue. He was taken up a large tree for a club, he rushed to the rescue. He was taken for a mighty Gandharva, the crowd fled, and Draupadi was released. Kichaka had been the general of the forces of Virata and the mainstay of the king. After his death, Su-sarman, king of Trigartta, aided and abetted by the Kauravas and others, determined to attack Virata. The Raja of Virata was defeated and made prisoner, but Bhima pursued Su-sarman and overcame him, rescued the prisoner, and made the conqueror captive. In the great battle between the Kauravas and Pandavas, Bhima took a very prominent part. On the first day he fought against Bhishma; on the second he slew the two sons of the Raja of Magadha, and after them their father, killing him and his elephant at a single blow. In the night between the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the battle, Bhima fought with Drona until the rising of the sun; but that redoubted warrior fell by the hand of Dhrishta-dyumna, who continued the combat till noonday. On the seventeenth day he killed Duh-sasana, and drank his blood, as he had long before vowed to do, in retaliation of the insults Duh-susana had offered to Draupadi. On the eighteenth and last day of the battle Dur-yodhana fled and hid himself in a lake. When he was discovered, he would not come out until he had received a promise that he should not have to fight with more than one man at a time. Even than he delayed until he was irritated by the abuse and the taunts of the Pandavas. Bhima and Dur-yodhana fought as usual with clubs. The battle was long and furious; the parties were equally matched, and Bhima was getting the worst of it, when he struck an unfair blow which smashed Dur-yodhana’s thigh, and brought him to the ground. Thus he fulfilled his vow and avenged Draupadi. In his fury Bhima kicked his prostrate foe on the head, and acted so brutally that his brother Yudhi-shthira struck him in the face with his fist, and directed Arjuna to take him away. Bala-rama was greatly incensed at the foul play to which Bhima had resorted, and would have attacked the Pandavas had he not been mollified by Krishna. He declared that Bhima should thenceforward be called Jihma-yodhin, `the unfair fighter.’ After the conclusion of the war, the old king, Dhrita-rashtra, asked that Bhima might be brought to him. Krishna, who knew the blind old man’s sorrow for his son, whom Bhima had killed, and suspecting his intention, placed before him an iron statue, which Dhrita-rashtra crushed in his embrace. Dhrita-rashtra never forgave Bhima, and he returned the ill feeling with insults, which ended in the old king’s retiring into the forest. Bhima’s last public feat was the slaughter of the horse in the sacrifice which followed Yudhi-shthira’s accession to the throne. Apart from his mythological attributes, the character of Bhima is natural and distinct. A man of burly form, prodigious strength, and great animal courage, with coarse tastes, a gluttonous appetite, and an irascible temper; jovial and jocular when in good humour, but abusive, truculent, and brutal when his passions were roused. His repartees were forcible though coarse, and he held his own even against Krishna when the latter made personal remarks upon him. See Maha-bharata.

By his Asura wife Hidimba he had a son named Ghatotkacha; and by his wife Balandhara, princess of Kasi, he also had a son named Sarvatraga or Sarvaga. Other appellations of Bhima are Bhima-sena, Bahu-salin, `the large armed,’ Jarasandha-jit, `vanquisher of Jarasandha.’ 

BHIMA Name of the father of Damayanti. A name of Rudra or of one of his personifications. See Rudra. 

BHIMA SANKARA, BHIMESWARA Name of one of the twelve great Lingas. See Linga. 

BHIMA-SENA A name of Bhima. 

BHISHMA `The terrible.’ Son of King Santanu by the holy river goddess Ganga, and hence called Santanava, Gangeya, and Nadi-ja, `the river-born.’ When King Santanu was very old he desired to marry a young and beautiful wife. His son Santanava or Bhishma found a suitable damsel, but her parents objected to the marriage because Bhishma was heir to the throne, and if she bore sons they could not succeed. To gratify his father’s desires, he made a vow to the girl’s parents that he would never accept the throne, nor marry a wife, nor become the father of children. Santanu then married the damsel, whose name was Satyavati, and she bore him two sons. At the death of his father, Bhishma placed the elder son upon the throne, but he was headstrong and was soon killed in battle. The other son, named Vichitra-virya, then succeeded, and Bhishma acted as his protector and adviser. By force of arms Bhishma obtained two daughters of the king of Kasi and married them to Vichitra-virya, and when that prince died young and childless, Bhishma acted as guardian of his widows. By Bhishma’s arrangement, Krishna Dwaipayana, who was born of Satyavati before her marriage, raised up seed to his half-brother. The two children were Pandu and Dhrita-rashtra. Bhishma brought them up and acted for them as regent of Hastina-pura. He also directed the training of their respective children, the Pandavas and Kauravas. On the rupture-taking place between the rival families, Bhishma counselled moderation and peace. When the war began he took the side of the Kauravas, the sons of Dhrita-rashtra, and he was made commander-in-chief of their army. He laid down some rules for mitigating the horrors of war, and he stipulated that he should not be called upon to fight against Arjuna. Goaded by the reproaches of Dur-yodhana, he attacked Arjuna on the tenth day of the battle. He was unfairly wounded by Sikhandin, and was pierced with innumerable arrows from the hands of Arjuna, so that there was not a space of two fingers’ breadth left unwounded in his whole body, and when he fell from his chariot he was upheld from the ground by the arrows and lay as on a couch of darts. He was mortally wounded, but he had obtained the power of fixing the period of his death, so he survived fifty-eight days, and delivered several long didactic discourses. Bhishma exhibited throughout his life a self-denial, devotion, and fidelity which remained unsullied to the last. He is also known by the appellation Tarpanechchhu, and as Tala-ketu, `Palm banner.’ See Maha-bharata. 

BHISHMAKA 1. An appellation of Siva. 2. King of Vidharbha, father of Rukmin and of Rukmini, the chief wife of Krishna. 

BHOGAVATI `The voluptuous.’ The subterranean capital of the Nagas in the Naga-loka portion of Patala. Another name is Put-kari. 

BHOJA A name borne by many kings. Most conspicuous among them was Bhoja or Bhoja-deva, king of Dhar, who is said to have been a great patron of literature, and probably died before 1082 A.D. 2. A prince of the Yadava race who reigned at Mrittikavati on the Parnasa river in Malwa; he is called also Maha-bhoja. 3. A tribe living in the Vindhya mountains 4. A country; the modern Bhojpur, Bhagalpur, &c. 

BHOJA-PRABANDHA A collection of literary anecdotes relating to King Bhoja of Dhar, written by Ballala. The text has been lithographed by Pavie. 

BHRIGU A Vedic sage. He is one of the Prajapatis and great Rishis, and is regarded as the founder of the race of the Bhrigus or Bhargavas, in which was born Jamad-agni and Parasu-Rama. Manu calls him son, and says that he confides to him his Institutes. According to the Maha-bharata he officiated at Daksha’s celebrated sacrifice, and had his beard pulled out by Siva. The same authority also tells the following story:- It is related of Bhrigu that he rescued the sage Agastya from the tyranny of King Nahusha, who has obtained superhuman power. Bhrigu crept into Agastya’s hair to avoid the potent glance of Nahusha, and when that tyrant attached Agastya to his chariot and kicked him on the head to make him move, Bhrigu cursed Nahusha, and he was turned into a serpent.  

Bhrigu, on Nahusha’s supplication, limited the duration of his curse. In the Padma Purana it is related that the Rishis, assembled at a sacrifice, disputed as to which deity was best entitled to the homage of a Brahman. Being unable to agree, they resolved to send Bhrigu to test the characters of the various gods, and he accordingly went. He could not obtain access to Siva because that deity was engaged with his wife; “finding him, therefore, to consist of the property of darkness, Bhrigu sentenced him to take the form of the Linga, and pronounced that he should have no offerings presented to him, nor receive the worship of the pious and respectable. His next visit was to Brahma, whom he beheld surrounded by sages, and so much inflated with his own importance as to treat Bhrigu with great inattention, betraying his being made up of foulness. The Muni therefore excluded him from the worship of the Brahmans. Repairing next to Vishnu, he found the deity asleep, and, indignant at his seeming sloth, Bhrigu stamped upon his breast with his left foot and awoke him; instead of being offended, Vishnu gently pressed the Brahman’s foot and expressed himself honoured and made happy by its contact; and Bhrigu, highly pleased by his humility, and satisfied of his being impersonated goodness, proclaimed Vishnu as the only being to be worshipped by men or gods, in which decision the Munis, upon Bhrigu’s report, concurred.” – Wilson. 

BHRIGUS `Roasters, consumers.’ “A class of mythical beings who belonged to the middle or aerial class of gods.” – Roth. They are connected with Agni, and are spoken of as producers and nourishes of fire, and as makers of chariots. They are associated with the Angirasas, the Atharvans, Ribhus, &c. 

BHU, BHUMI The earth. See Prithvi. 

BHUR See Vyahriti. 

BHURI-SRAVAS A prince of the Balhikas and an ally of the Kauravas, who was killed in the great battle of the Maha-bharata. 

BHUR-LOKASee Loka.

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