Bhima Fights and Defeats the Rakshasa Hidimba
The rakshasa Hidimba arrives at the Pandavas' forest camp, furious that his sister desires Bhima. He threatens to kill her and the sleeping humans. Bhima taunts him, provokes a fight, and drags the demon away to protect his family.
The rakshasa Hidimba arrived at the clearing where the Pandavas and their mother Kunti slept, exhausted from their flight from the burning house of lac. He was furious. He had sent his sister to scout for human prey, but she had returned not with food, but with a confession: she was afflicted by desire for one of the sleeping men, the mighty Bhima. Hidimba now threatened to kill her first, then the humans.
Bhimasena laughed in scorn. He told the demon not to wake those sleeping peacefully. "O evil one! Attack me quickly, you eater of men! Use your blows on me." He argued that his sister, afflicted by desire — goaded by Ananga (the bodiless one, the god of love) — had not truly erred. "While I am here, you will not kill a woman."
He issued a challenge. "Come to me and fight it out, one against another. Today, I will singly send you to the land of Yama." He promised to crush Hidimba's head on the ground, to leave his body for carnivorous animals, and to free the forest of its thorn — a rakshasa who polluted it by eating men. "Today, your sister will see how I drag the evil one, like a lion drags a large elephant."
Hidimba scoffed at the bragging. "Perform the actions first, then comes the bragging." He vowed to kill Bhima first, drink his blood, and then slaughter the others and his disobedient sister. Having uttered this, the maneater stretched out his arms and angrily dashed towards Bhimasena.
The immensely powerful Bhima was ready. He quickly seized the rakshasa's arms and laughingly flung him down. Seizing the struggling demon with great force, Bhima dragged him eight bow-lengths away from the sleeping forms of his mother and brothers, like a lion drags a small deer.
The furious rakshasa clasped the Pandava with great force and let out a terrible roar. Again, Bhima dragged him farther away, ensuring the sound would not wake his family. The two locked in a fierce, physical struggle, clasping and dragging each other with supreme strength. They fought like two enraged sixty-year-old elephants, tearing down large trees and ripping off the surrounding creepers in their violent grapple.
The great noise of the battle — the roars, the crashing of timber — finally woke the bulls among men, Yudhishthira, Arjuna, Nakula, Sahadeva, and their mother Kunti. They opened their eyes to see the terrifying form of the rakshasa Hidimba standing before them.