Bhima and Arjuna Defend Drupada from the Attacking Kings

The wave of royal fury broke toward the throne. Seeing those angry kings rush at him with bows and arrows raised, King Drupada was frightened. The protectors of his court were outnumbered. His eyes darted to the only shelter within reach—the assembled Brahmanas. He moved toward them, seeking their protection. But as those kings rushed at Drupada like mad elephants, two men moved not for shelter, but into the path of the storm. They were the sons of Pandu, the great archers who conquered their enemies. They had entered the arena as unknown Brahmins. Now they advanced as Kshatriyas. All the kings, their fingers clad in armor, their weapons raised, violently changed course. They now rushed towards the two Kuru princes, Arjuna and Bhimasena. Bhima, the performer of amazing deeds, did not reach for a bow. He looked at the weapons in the kings' hands, then at the courtyard around him. With a sound like tearing cloth, he wrapped his immense arms around the trunk of a large tree. The muscles in his back and shoulders corded. He uprooted it entirely, the earth groaning as it gave way. With a few swift, brutal motions, he stripped the tree of all its leaves and branches, leaving a terrible, knotted club in his hands. With that tree held ready, the mighty-armed Bhima, Pritha's son and the destroyer of enemies, stood next to his brother Arjuna. Arjuna, the bull among men with long and thick arms, had notched an arrow to his great bow. The two brothers stood side by side—Bhima like Yama, the god of death, with his terrible staff, and Arjuna with the weapon that had already won the day. They did not attack. They simply stood, a human rampart between the charging kings and the king they had sworn to kill. The assault halted, caught between royal insult and immediate, physical impossibility.