Hidimba reveals her brother's plot and her love for Bhima
The Pandavas and their mother wake to find a woman of divine beauty standing before them. When Kunti asks who she is, the rakshasi Hidimba reveals she was sent by her brother to kill them—but upon seeing Bhima, she chose him as her husband instead.
They woke up in the forest—the Pandava brothers and their mother, Kunti—and were astonished. A woman stood before them, possessed of divine beauty. Kunti, amazed at the richness of her form, addressed her in soft, gentle, and assuring words.
"O beautiful one, equal to the offspring of the gods! Who are you? Where have you come from? What business has brought you here? Are you the goddess of this forest or are you an apsara? Tell me everything and also tell me why you are standing here."
The woman was Hidimba, a rakshasi. She replied, "The great forest that you see, blue like monsoon clouds, is the habitation of the rakshasa Hidimba and me. O noble lady! Know me to be the sister of the lord of the rakshasas. O honoured lady! My brother sent me here to kill you and your sons."
She had come on the instructions of that cruel one. But then she saw Kunti's son—the immensely powerful one with a complexion like that of pure gold. It was Bhima.
"O fortunate lady! Then, under the influence of Manmatha, who pervades the essence of everything, I fell under your son's spell. Therefore, I chose your immensely powerful son to be my husband. Though I tried to control my passion, I could not."
Her delay had consequences. "Since I was delayed, the maneater himself came here to kill all these sons of yours. But he has been flung on the ground and dragged away by your great-souled and wise son, my husband."
She pointed into the forest. "Look at the man and the rakshasa, both with great strength and valour, grasping each other with great force and fighting and roaring."
On hearing these words, Yudhishthira, Arjuna, Nakula and the valorous Sahadeva quickly got up. They saw those two fighting, grasping and dragging each other, desirous of victory like two immensely powerful lions. They grasped and dragged each other again and again. Dust rose from the earth like billowing smoke from a forest fire. Covered with the dust of earth, they were enveloped like two mountains in whirling mists.