s of her son.' O king, saying this
the queen, taking the permission of Bhishma also, went to the forest. And
arriving there with her two daughters-in-law, she became engaged in
profound contemplation, and in good time leaving her body ascended to
heaven.'

"Vaisampayana continued, 'Then the sons of king Pandu, having gone
through all the purifying rites prescribed in the Vedas, began to grow up
in princely style in the home of their father. Whenever they were engaged
in play with the sons of Dhritarashtra, their superiority of strength
became marked. In speed, in striking the objects aimed at, in consuming
articles of food, and scattering dust, Bhimasena beat all the sons of
Dhritarashtra. The son of the Wind-god pulled them by the hair and made
them fight with one another, laughing all the while. And Vrikodara easily
defeated those hundred and one children of great energy as if they were
one instead of being a hundred and one. The second Pandava used to seize
them by the hair, and throwing them down, to drag them along the earth.
By this, some had their knees broken, some their heads, and some their
shoulders. That youth, sometimes holding ten of them, drowned them in
water, till they were nearly dead. When the sons of Dhritarashtra got up
to the boughs of a tree for plucking fruits, Bhima used to shake that
tree, by striking it with his foot, so that down came the fruits and the
fruitpluckers at the same time. In fact, those princes were no match for
Bhima in pugilistic encounters, in speed, or in skill. Bhima used to make
a display of his strength by thus tormenting them in childishness but not
from malice.

"Seeing these wonderful exhibitions of the might of Bhima, the powerful
Duryodhana, the eldest son of Dhritarashtra, began to conceive hostility
towards him. And the wicked and unrighteous Duryodhana, through ignorance
and ambition, prepared himself for an act of sin. He thought, 'There is
no other individual who can compare with Bhima, the second son of Pandu,
in point of prowess. I shall have to destroy him by artifice. Singly,
Bhima dares a century of us to the combat. Therefore, when he shall sleep
in the garden, I shall throw him into the current of the Ganga.
Afterwards, confining his eldest brother Yudhishthira and his younger
brother Arjuna, I shall reign sole king without molestation.' Determined
thus, the wicked Duryodhana was ever on the watch to find out an
opportunity for injuring Bhima. And, O Bhar