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भीमसेनरसपान (bhImasenarasapAna)

 
Mahabharata
English
Bhīmasenarasapāna(ṃ) (“Bhīma's drinking the magic draught”). § 197 (Sambhavap.): The Pāṇḍavas were far superior in strength and skill to the Dhārtarāshṭras, and Bhīma tormented the Dhārtarāshṭras. Duryodhana then built a palace (Udakakrīḍana) at Pramāṇakoṭi, on the banks of the Gaṅgā, in order to sport in the water there. There he invited the Pāṇḍavas and poured kālakūṭaka poison into the food of Bhīma, and when Bhīma had lost his senses, Duryodhana bound him and threw him into the water, where he sunk down to the dwelling of the Nāgas, who bit him, but could not penetrate his thick skin. The immovable (i.e. vegetable) kālakūṭaka poison was neutralised by the movable (i.e. animal) serpent poison. Bhīma awoke and began to crush the serpents, until Vāsuki came, and, informed by Āryaka that he was the daughter's son of Āryaka's daughter's son, let him drink as much of their rasa (containing the strength of 1, 000 elephants (serpents?) in each kuṇḍa) as he could. He drank eight kuṇḍas, and then was laid on a bed (I, 128). When the Kauravas and Pāṇḍavas had returned to Hāstinapura, Yudhishṭhira (“himself unacquainted with wickedness, and regarding others as honest as himself, ” v. 5037) asked Kuntī if Bhīma had come home. Vidura consoled her. On the eighth day Bhīma awoke from his slumber, bathed in the holy waters, ate of the paramānna (rice boiled in milk with sugar), etc., and was placed by the Nāgas in the same gardens, whence he ran home. Yudhishṭhira ordered him to keep silence on this accident, and the Pāṇḍavas [with Vidura's advice]
became very vigilant from this day (the words in brackets are from B., where also v. 5068a is placed after v. 5070a). [sārathiṃ cāsya dayitam apahastena jaghnivān (see BR., s.v. apahasta, cf. iii, v. 545). Duryodhana again poured kālakūṭaka poison into the food of Bhīma. Yuyutsu informed the Pāṇḍavas of this
but Bhīma swallowed the poison and digested it, and it produced no change in him.]-Duryodhana, Karṇa, and Śakuni had recourse to numerous other contrivances in order to kill the Pāṇḍavas, who, though knowing it, yet, in accordance with the advice of Vidura, suppressed their indignation. Seeing the princes passing their time in play, Dhṛtarāshṭra appointed Gautama (i.e. Kṛpa, born in a thicket of reeds and well skilled in the meaning of the Vedas and śāstras) as their preceptor (I, 129).