Reading Notes: Mahabharata, Part B

These are my notes from Part B of the PDE version of Mahabharata.  Part B started with the episode, the House of Fire.  I enjoyed reading this story because of the plot twist at the end.  Everyone including Prince Duryodhana, thought that Queen Kunti and the Pandavas died in the fire, but they actually escaped! This made me excited to read what happens next.  While in hiding, there was a night where two rakshasas, a brother/sister pair, were looking for something to devour.  The sister, Hidimbi, came across Bhima and fell in love with him immediately.  I thought it was interesting that Bhima was not accepted her advances.  The other rakshasa, her brother, was getting impatient and came to find her.  He was very upset to see that she had not slain Bhima.  The rakshasa and Bhima wrestled for a while until Bhima finally won.  Hidimbi was love struck and begged Kunti to have Bhima married her.  Eventually she got her wish and the couple actually ended up very happy together!  I thought the part in the story where the Pandava brothers all shared one wife was rather weird, but still interesting! Usually it is the other way around.  I imagine that this situation could cause some issues.

The very powerful, Bhima (Wikimedia Commons)

Bibliography:

"Mahabharata Online: Public Domain Edition" by Laura Gibbs. Link.