FORTY-THREE
Bheema did not know it, but he had carried Kunti and his brothers into a rather terrible jungle. A rakshasa called Hidimba ruled this vana.
Fortunately, when Bheema went to find water, Hidimba and his sister Hidimbi were both asleep in a tree, hanging bat-like from stout branches. Earlier they had feasted on a fine sambur stag Hidimba had leapt on from above and fastened saber-like fangs in its throat. They lived off wild game, mainly: any animal whose warm blood they could drink and flesh they could rend from the bone and soft, glutinous marrow they could suck out. Hidimba and Hidimbi ate deer, wild pig, bison, tiger and even elephant. But no meat was as succulent as man, or any other creature's blood as sweet to drink.
Hidimba, the arboreal rakshasa, was huge and sinister. As Bheema sat forlorn beside his sleeping family, a bird's sharp song roused the demon from dark dreams. As he stirred, the most alluring scent wafted into his nose: the scent of living human flesh. For just a moment, he thought he was still dreaming. Then, with a hiss of foul breath, the rakshasa came fully awake. His eyes gleamed as he pulled himself up by hand-like feet onto the branch from which he had been hanging.
Sniffing the jungle air, he rubbed his eyes and then woke his sister. She also smelt the aroma on the breeze, which made her brother drool.
Hidimba grinned hideously. "Can you smell them? At least four or five of them. The vana devatas are pleased today that they have brought us such a feast. It has been a long time since we drank human blood, gnawed human bones and sucked soft human brain out of foolish human skulls."
She, too, was snuffling the air in excitement. Her brother said, "You hunt today, Hidimbi. This is not only the sweetest prey but the easiest to kill. They may die of fright just to see you drop out of the trees. Go enjoy the hunt. If any of them runs, call me and he won't get far."
Her eyes afire in the leafy dimness, Hidimbi set off, swinging through the treetops. Hidimba lay back with a sigh, shutting his eyes again so he could smell the human scent more deeply and let his mind savor the images it conjured of a bloody feast.
Quick as a flying-fox, gliding between the trees with wings outspread, Hidimbi sped through the forest. She arrived above Bheema at his vigil. He sat on a fallen tree-trunk, his hands on his great thighs, staring dully ahead of him.
The rakshasi crouched on her branch and gazed at him and at his sleeping mother and brothers; then helplessly back at Bheema again. Hidimbi, on her hunting perch, looked down at Bheema below her, lost in his sorry thoughts and suddenly she trembled. The human male was more beautiful than any creature she had ever seen, or even imagined. He was more magnificent than her rarest dreams; he was godlike. Her eyes roved over his deep chest, his slim waist and his great arms, caressing him already with her gaze. Lithe as a wolf, she thought, but more powerful than a tiger, than ten tigers.
She breathed even harder, her heart beat more quickly than when she hunted. Powerless against the strange feelings surging in her, she moaned and her clawed hands shook like leaves in a wind. Crouched in her tree, Hidimbi felt she had become the quarry and he below her, so ineffably handsome, was the hunter. A transformation came over the rakshasi: she shivered as with a fever and fell helplessly in love.
Her brother was forgotten and the savage thing he had sent her for. Looking at Bheema, any thought of killing him left Hidimbi: she must have him for her lover, or she herself would die.
She dropped lightly down to the ground. Softly she approached him and as she did, she was not a rakshasi any more. Instead, with sorcery, she had turned herself into a dark human beauty. Her face shone with what she felt and her form was perfect! She was tall and curvaceous; he could encircle her waist in his hands. Her breasts were high and full and her hips flared. Dark as night and as enticing, clad in a chaste white garment that set off her skin seductively, enchanting Hidimbi came up to Bheema.
Bheema looked at her and his heart went straight out of him and melted into her. She smiled and he wanted to take her in his arms and lay her down right there beside his mother and brothers.
Not looking directly at him, she said softly, "Who are you, mighty one? Hasn't anyone warned you about this jungle? Did no one tell you this is Hidimba vana?"
A pleasant heat suffused Bheema. "Hidimba vana? Who is Hidimba?"
"My brother, the rakshasa who sent me to bring him your warm carcasses. He sits on a tree, licking his lips that he will drink your blood."
Bheema laughed as if nothing could be more amusing. Her eyes straying to the sleepers under the tree, Hidimbi said, "Who are they? She is beautiful still, though she is not young any more. What is she to you?"
"My mother and my brothers. But tell me, lovely one, how is it you stand talking if your brother sent you to kill us and bring us to him warm?"
The dusky beauty flushed; he saw her delicate body quiver. His gaze roved shamelessly over her. She whispered, "I came to feast on your flesh. But when I saw you, something strange happened to me."
"And what is that?"
She blurted desperately, "I fell in love with you! Come away with me. I can fly through the air. I will take to the mountains. We shall be lovers forever among hidden caves where Hidimba will never find us. Come, my love, we must fly. My brother will be here any moment, it has been months since he drank bright human blood."
She glanced nervously over her shoulder. Bheema said, "My mother and brothers are more precious to me than my life. And you want me to fly away with you, leaving them at your brother's mercy?"
"We will take your mother with us. I can grow twice as tall as I am now and carry her."
"And leave my brothers, who love me more than their lives?"
Neither of them noticed that they were not alone any more. In the branches of a nearby mango tree, a long hirsute fiend crouched among the ripening fruit, his eyes slitted at what he heard.
Hidimbi had tears in her eyes. "I didn't mean to upset you. I am lost in love with you, Kshatriya: more than ever now, when I hear what you say. I will bear you, your mother and your brothers, too, through the sky. But we must go!"
In his tree, Hidimba's eyes blazed and he gave a low chuckle at Bheema's reply.
"Can't you see they are sleeping? They have had a long journey and I will not disturb them. I am not afraid of your brother. I am Bheema, the wind's son and fate has brought me here today to rid this jungle of its devil."
He took her hand and placed it on his arm.
"Feel these arms. Aren't they strong enough to kill your brother?"
Bheema laughed in excitement at her silken touch and she sighed to feel how strong he was. She let her hand wander across his chest. She leaned against him and whispered, "Yes, yes they are."
Bheema began to draw her to him, her lips parted for his kiss, when Hidimba dropped down from his tree with a hiss. Hidimbi sprang up, her eyes full of panic. Hidimba stood growling before them, tall as two men, his pale fur standing on end, his glare crimson.
He screeched at Hidimbi, "Weren't you afraid when you gave the human your love? I lay in my tree, thinking you were sinking your fangs into his throat and here you have become someone else for him. In his arms already and plotting my death."
He was terrifying, now the one creature he trusted in the world had betrayed him. "You have broken my heart, Hidimbi. I will kill you first, drink your blood and smear myself with it. Then I will eat these others and you can meet your lover in Yama's land."
Hidimbi whimpered. With a roar, Hidimba rushed at her, but Bheema sprang up and shoved him back. The rakshasa was astonished; every man he had met before had fled from him.
Bheema was a head taller than any other man, but the pale vampire towered over him. Yet, Bheema's eyes shone at the prospect of battling this beast that stood there, long ears twitching, claws extended, the fangs in his white bat's head glistening in such sun that pierced the gloaming of the forest.
Bheema said, "Come, Rakshasa, you and I will go a way off and fight, so my brothers and my mother aren't disturbed."
Hidimba hissed at him like a great lizard. Bheema went on, "Strange creature, pray if you know how, for the hour of your death has come. From today this forest will be safe for those who would pass through it." The Pandava spoke quietly. "I am going to crush your ugly head as if a wild elephant trampled on it and you will be carrion for the jackals and hyenas you have been feeding on and for vultures and crows." Hidimba was too startled to retort. "Rakshasa, your sister will watch me drag you across the earth as the lion does an elephant he has killed."
Now Hidimba gave a shrill laugh and Hidimbi clutched Bheema's arm. "Your opinion of your own strength is high indeed, human. Match your fine words with blows. I am thirsty, great-mouth and only your blood will quench my thirst."
With a roar, the rakshasa flew at Bheema. Bheema caught the claws of the flying monster in hands stronger than tree-roots and the creature howled as the Pandava dragged him away from the sleeping Kunti and his brothers.
Some way off they fought: the son of the wind and the beast spawned in darkness. Bheema also roared in exhilaration. Like bull bisons, they charged each other, colliding so the earth shook under their feet. Kunti and her sons awoke anyway and sat up. They saw the lovely Hidimbi; through the trees, they saw Bheema battle a pale beast tailed and winged like a monstrous bat. Arjuna, Yudhishtira, Sahadeva and Nakula were on their feet in a flash and ran toward their brother.
Kunti asked Hidimbi, "Who are you? Are you an apsara or a gandharvi? Your beauty is not of humankind. Are you the goddess of this jungle? And why are you here, watching the rakshasa and my son fight?"
"My brother sent me to drink your blood. When I saw your son, I fell in love with him. My brother was angry and wanted to kill me and now they fight."
Meanwhile, Hidimba uprooted a tree and cast it at Bheema like a lightning bolt. Bheema stood his ground and the tree shattered against him. Hidimba flew through the air and seized Bheema by the throat. The fiend was strong and Bheema tired. They flailed about, the Pandava avoiding the curved fangs the rakshasa wanted to sink into him.
Arjuna pulled on his bowstring. "Let me have him, Bheema."
"Why must two of us kill this insect?"
"Night falls swiftly and he will be ten times stronger with darkness. You must kill him before the sun's rim touches the western mountain."
With a growl, Bheema flexed himself against Hidimba and there was the dreadful sound of the rakshasa's elbows and shoulders breaking. Hidimba set up a demented wailing. His short arms hung useless at his sides and terror sprang into his eyes.
Bheema said, "Rakshasa, let me tell you who I am before you die. I am Bheema and Vayu Deva is my father."
He lifted the rakshasa and whirled him round over his head. Bheema flung Hidimba down on to a rock, bursting his bat's body asunder: the neck broken, the wings and back smashed, black blood flying everywhere, the monster's final scream echoed through the jungle at the sinking sun. Bheema roared and roared his triumph. He kicked the rakshasa's corpse repeatedly, mangling it; he dragged it about and danced round it in frenzy.
Yudhishtira ran forward to embrace his brother and Bheema went limp in his arms. The others made him lie down, while the twins rubbed his tired limbs. Yudhishtira was overjoyed after the slaying of Hidimba.
"How lucky I am to have brothers like you! Why, with you four at my side I am as strong as the Devas."
Arjuna, Sahadeva and Nakula smiled. Having slept deeply for a time, they felt revived and confident again. The sight of Hidimba's body, lying beside the rock against which Bheema had broken him, picked up their sprits even more.
Yudhishtira said, "This forest is full of darkness and anguish, from the years Hidimba ruled it. Let us leave this place behind us."
Bheema rose and Kunti and her sons set off through the darkening jungle, where a rough trail led through the trees. They had quite forgotten Hidimbi. Now she called to Kunti, "Devi, what will become of me?"
Yudhishtira and Kunti turned. Hidimbi said, "I have lost my heart to Bheema. I will kill myself if he leaves me like this." She turned imploringly to Kunti, "Devi, you are a woman. I have forsaken my own nature for love. Make him understand how I feel."
Kunti looked at Bheema and he blushed and looked away. The other Pandavas smiled. Kunti said, "Well, it seems Bheema would like to make you his wife."
Bheema looked at Yudhishtira and opened his mouth to speak. No words came. Yudhishtira put an arm around his brother. "I am older than you and you think you must not marry before I do. But the heart observes no such convention and the heart must be honored."
Bheema looked at Hidimbi and she at him. Both dropped their gazes, their eyes shining.