Bhima Seized by Serpent and Freed by Yudhishthira

The Pandavas had spent a year in the great forest near the mountain Yamuna, living like hunters, surrounded by boars and birds. The twelfth year of their exile had arrived. They had crossed the lands of the Chinas, the Tukharas, the Daradas, the Darvans, and the Kunindas — territories full of jewels — and had been welcomed by King Subahu of the Kiratas. They had dismissed Ghatotkacha and his followers, retaining only their charioteers and chariots. Now they pressed on toward the mountain Yamuna, whose red and pale slopes were covered with a mantle of snow. In a cavern on that mountain, Bhima — Vrikodara, the wolf-bellied one — came upon an extremely strong serpent. It was oppressed by hunger. It had the terrible form of death itself. The serpent seized him. Bhima was the strongest of the five brothers. He had killed demons, wrestled with titans, and crushed the bones of his enemies. But in the grip of this creature, his soul was pained through depression and delusion. The serpent's coils tightened around his limbs. Bhima could not break free. Yudhishthira, supreme among those who uphold dharma, found him there — on an island within the cavern, all of Bhima's limbs already grasped by the grasper. And Yudhishthira freed him. The text does not say how. It does not describe a battle, a negotiation, or a prayer. It simply says that Yudhishthira, whose energy is infinite, freed Vrikodara when all his limbs had been grasped. The serpent released its hold. Bhima was restored to his brothers. The Pandavas spent the rest of the twelfth year pleasantly in that forest, radiant in their austerities. Then they moved toward the desert, toward the Sarasvati river, toward Lake Dvaitavana — where they would settle and wait out the remainder of their exile.