Mahabharata – 207
by
Sankar Mukherjee
&
Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya
                     Aadivamsavatarana Parva
Childhood of Kauravas and Pandavas

According to Hindu tradition when a father or a mother or someone very close as a kin dies some particular near and dear ones of the deceased one are deemed to be polluted for a time.After observation of a rituals they are absolved of the pollution. The  Pandavas as per the rituals were absolved of the pollutions caused by the death of their father and mother.Now they began to grow up in the home of their father. Whenever they were busy in play with the sons of Dhritarashtra, their superiority to the sons of Dhritarastra became evident. In race, in striking the objects aimed at, in consuming food, and scattering dust and lump of earth, Bhimasena beat all the sons of Dhritarashtra. While Duryodhana  and others playing happily, Bhimasena carried of to a place by force. He held the heads of one another of the sons of Dhritarastra and hit ones head  with another’s. And he easily defeated those hundred and one sons of  Dhritarashtra as if they were one instead of being a hundred and one. The mighty Bhima used to seize them  by his strength and threw them down. He dragged them along the earth. By this, some had their knees broken, some had their heads wounded, and some had their shoulders bruised. Bhima while playing water - game, sometimes used to hold ten of them together and drowned them into the water, till they were nearly dead. When the sons of Dhritarashtra climbed a tree for plucking fruits, Bhima used to shake that tree, by striking it with his foot, so that the boys fell down on the ground along with the fruits. In fact, those princes were no match for Bhima in wrestling, in race or in hand -to -hand fight. Bhima used to make a display of his strength by thus torturing them in childishness. But he did not do anything from ill will. Seeing the might of Bhima, the powerful Duryodhana, began to develop hostility towards him. And the wicked and immoral Duryodhana, through ignorance and ambition, made up a plan in doing harm to Bhima by foul means.  Duyodhana contemplated --- There is no one of us who can compare with the second Pandava Bhima the son of Kunti,in prowess. Singly Bhima has the strength and courage to defeat all of us together in a combat. And Duryodhana meditated how he could out do Bhima with fair means or foul.