Killing of Bakasura
Samskhepa Mahabharatam – Introduction
Mahabharatam authored by the supreme Vedavyasa Maharishi hailed rightfully as the fifth Veda is a priceless treasure house of ancient wisdom that has an amazing and boundless story value in addition to a detailed exposition of our ancient culture, heritage, ethos, dharma, raja niti, archery, war, philosophy, spirituality, description of celestials, rishis, kings, society and so on.
It is always a daunting challenge to present the great epic Mahabharatam with 18 awesome parvas in an abridged form because of the massive depth and width of the various stories and substories. It is proposed to present the entire gamut of Mahabharatam in a concise story form in 18 parts in a Series titled “Samskhepa Mahabharatam.”
Killing of Bakasura
The frightening sound from the wild animals reverberated in the forest. Kunti was very tired and sleepy. Bhima looked at his brothers who were also exhausted. Leaving them resting at a safe location, Bhima searched for water in the pitch darkness. He located a large pool of pure cold water. After drinking water from the pool, Bhima brought adequate water for his mother and brothers and quenched their thirst.
While Kunti and the other Pandavas slept deeply without knowing what was happening outside, Bhima was vigilant and took great care of them throughout the night. As the day dawned, all of them started walking through the bushes, plants, shrubs and plants. The path was filled with sharp stones and thorns and tough to walk. The Pandavas took turns and carried their beloved mother Kunti on their shoulders through the dangerous path. They rested whenever it was too tough for them to proceed further.
While the Pandavas along with Kunti were asleep, a demon named Hidimba saw them. As he was hungry, he thought that he would have a great feast ahead. He ordered his sister named Hidimbi to kill them and bring their flesh so that they could share it merrily. Hidimbi disguised as a beautiful lady went to the place where the Pandavas were sleeping. Looking at the stunning handsomeness of Bhima, she was immediately attracted towards him. She changed her mind.
Bhima woke up and when he came to know about her love towards him, he told her to take him to her brother Hidimba. When Hidimba came to know that her sister had a switched mind, he got furious and threatened to kill her. Bhima appeared before him and challenged him to fight with him first. They fought terribly with trees and creepers and the sound made Kunti and others awake.
Kunti was amazed at the beauty of Hidimbi, who told the truth about her. Hidimbi conveyed her deep love towards Bhima. Bhima killed the demon Hidimba in the fight. Afterwards, Kunti approved of the engagement of Bhima with Hidimbi. Both of them enjoyed a lot. A valiant son named Ghatotkacha was born to them.
The Pandavas and Kunti roamed from one forest to another and in due course, they met the great sage Veda Vyasa and took his blessings and advice. Veda Vyasa consoled them and inspired them to be brave as human life was always conditioned by ‘karma’ as it had ups and downs.
Ekachakrapura
One should be bold enough to face the challenges of life and move forward on the path of righteousness. As advised by the sage, they got themselves disguised as Brahmans and walked towards the city, ‘Ekachakrapura’. No one could recognize them as the Pandavas. They stayed in the house of a Brahman at Ekachakrapura and ruminated about their pitiable condition. They also discussed their plan which was quite uncertain.
The Pandavas used to go to the houses of other Brahmanas in that city and beg for food. As new visitors in that place, the Pandavas developed a rapport with the community of the Brahmans and were vividly noticed by all. Whatever food was obtained, they gave it to Kunti. She would divide the collected food into two parts.
She gave the first part of the food to the mighty Bhima who was always feeling hungry. The balance of the food was equally divided among the four brothers. But the growing appetite of Bhima could never be satisfied. Because of this, Bhima became lean. Kunti and the Pandavas started worrying about Bhima. To get more alms, Bhima got an unusually very big earthen pot.
One day when the four brothers were away begging, Kunti and Bhima heard a loud weeping sound inside the house of their landlord. Deeply shocked, they concluded that some tragedy had befallen on the family of the landlord. Kunti rushed inside their house to inquire about it. She heard a very touching conversation of the family of four members comprising of father, mother, daughter and young son each vying with the other to sacrifice their life at the hands of the demon named Bakasura.
Kunti came to know that Bakasura had killed the people of that place at random earlier. There was an agreement made between the demon and the people. Every week Bakasura would be given an enormous quantity of food in a cart driven by two mighty bullocks along with a person from a family for the demon. The turn of the landlord came. There was so much grief engulfing the family.
Kunti was deeply touched by their plight of them and immediately offered to help the family by sending one of her sons in lieu of the son of the landlord. Hearing this, the landlord said that it would not be proper for someone else to be sacrificed for the sake of protecting his family. Kunti was convinced that his son had special powers and that he would kill the demon.
Finally, Kunti convinced the landlord to accept her offer. Kunti discussed with her sons and Bhima volunteered to fight with the mighty Bakasura. Bhima drove the bullock cart with huge quantities of food, ate them all and challenged Bakasura to fight with him. Bakasura was furious on seeing this.
After a fierce fight, Bhima killed Bakasura. Bhima’s arrival made the people happy and they praised him for his immense powers, selflessness and heroic deeds. They were greatly relieved of the fear of the demon. The landlord and his family conveyed their deep sense of gratitude to Kunti and Bhima for saving their family from the jaws of death.
Drupada, the glorious King of Panchala never forgot the bitter enmity that he had with Drona and the humility he had undergone in the past. He wanted Arjuna to marry his beautiful daughter Draupadi. Though Drupada came to know about the fire mishap in the lacquer palace, he secretly got the information that the Pandavas had somehow escaped the fire.
He firmly believed that Arjuna would come to Panchala in case a ‘swayamvara’ was organized for his beloved daughter Draupadi. He took great care to ensure that the information about Draupadi’s ‘svayamvara’ reaches nook and corner of the country.
When Kunti and the Pandavas continued to live at Ekachakrapura disguised as Brahmans, they heard through other Brahmans that King Drupada of Panchala had called for the ‘swayamvara’ of his beautiful daughter Draupadi. All the Brahmans planned to go there to get gifts from the King on this auspicious occasion. When Kunti and the Pandavas came to know about the proposed ‘swayamvara’ of Draupadi, they thought that the time had come for them to leave Ekachakrapura and go to Panchala so that they could participate and demonstrate their matchless valour in the ‘swayamvara.’
Along with a batch of Brahmans, Kunti and the Pandavas left for Panchala. After reaching that beautiful city, they stayed quietly in a potter’s house disguised as ordinary Brahmans. They were amazed at the great pomp and glory of the festivities about the ‘swayamvara’ of Draupadi.
For All parts of this series, click here
