Yudhishthira Sees Omens and Goes to Find Bhima
Yudhishthira sees terrible omens — a blazing sky, a howling she-jackal, a deformed quail vomiting blood — and his own body trembles with foreboding. When he asks where Bhima is, Draupadi tells him his brother has been gone a long time. He follows the trail of broken trees to a mountainous cavern, where he finds Bhima immobile in a serpent's grasp.
Yudhishthira saw the omens and his mind was disturbed.
The sky to the south of the hermitage was ablaze. A she-jackal stationed herself there and let out a terrible, dreadful howl. A quail — dreadful-looking, with one wing, one eye and one foot — was seen to vomit blood, screeching harshly in the direction of the sun. A hot and rough wind began to blow, attracting gravel. All the animals and birds wailed towards the south. A black crow cawed from behind: "Go! Go!"
His right arm trembled repeatedly. There were tremors in his heart and in his left leg. His left eye began to throb — foretelling of evil.
Sensing great danger, the intelligent Dharmaraja (king of dharma) asked Draupadi: "Where is Bhima?"
Panchali answered that Vrikodara had been gone for a long time.
Yudhishthira acted quickly. He gave instructions to Dhananjaya — Arjuna — to protect Draupadi. He instructed Nakula and Sahadeva to tend to the brahmanas. Accompanied by Dhoumya, the priest, the mighty-armed king left the hermitage.
He followed Bhima's footprints. The earth was marked with the signs of his passage — the wind created by his thighs had broken down and strewn trees along the path. Bhima had rushed forward on his hunt with the speed of the wind itself.
Following these signs, Yudhishthira reached a mountainous cavern. And there he saw his younger brother — immobile, trapped in the grasp of an Indra among serpents. Aranyaka Parva, Chapter 473