Mahabharata – Bhima vs Bakasura – {Ep.229} – Stories From India – Podcast

Today’s story is from the main storyline of the Mahabharata. It’s about how Bhima rescued a village from Bakasura, who was a giant and gluttonous monster. And Bhima did it without the villagers even realizing it

Welcome to “Stories From India”. This is a podcast that will take you on a journey through the rich mythology, folklore and history of the Indian subcontinent. I am Narada Muni, the celestial storyteller and the original “time lord”. With my ability to travel through space and time, I can bring you fascinating stories from the past, the present, and the future. From the epic tales of the Mahabharata and Ramayana to the folktales of the Panchatantra to stories of Akbar-Birbal and Tenali Raman, I have a story for every occasion.

The purpose of the stories is neither to pass judgment nor to indoctrinate. My goal is only to share these stories with people who may not have heard them before and to make them more entertaining for those who have.

Today’s Story

In this episode, we’re back into the main storyline of the Mahabharata.

You may have heard earlier Mahabharata episodes on this show. But if you haven’t I’ll give you a summary of the story so far.

The Mahabharata is one of two major epics from India. The other is the Ramayana, which I have also been covering on this show.

The Mahabharata started with Bhishma, who was the crown prince of Hastinapur. Bhishma gave up all present and future claims to the throne, just to please his dad, the Emperor. That put everyone in a terrible spot, because capable rulers were rather scarce at that time, and for several decades after.

Instead of welcoming this as an opportunity to switch from a dynastic monarchy to a democracy, the administrators of the Empire persisted in their mad search for a successor in the same royal bloodline. That happened across two generations, until finally in the third generation, Hastinapur ended up with exactly the opposite problem. Now it had too many contenders to the throne. 

There were over a hundred Kaurava Princes, who were all children of the current Emperor Dhritarashtra. The eldest Kaurav Prince was Duryodhan, who often behaved like an entitled brat.

And all that while, his parents, Dhritarashtra and Gandhari turned a literal and figurative blind eye to all his misdeeds. Because Dhritarashtra had been born blind, and Gandhari had blindfolded herself in solidarity.

On the other side of the ring from Duryodhan and his 101 siblings were the 5 Pandavas. These were the sons of Dhritarashtra’s younger brother, Pandu. Despite being younger, Pandu had been Emperor. An unfortunate accident forced him into an early retirement, exile and then an early demise. Yudhishtir was the eldest Pandava and he was older than Duryodhan. And that was the basis of the Pandava claim.

No one clarified the ambiguity around who would succeed Dhritarashtra on the throne, and that was the problem at the heart of the Mahabharata. The rivalry between the Kauravas and Pandavas only kept escalating through their childhood, through University, and then post-graduation as well. And by escalation, I don’t just mean fist fights. The assassination attempts began as early as middle school. 

The Kauravas had created a deadly trap for their cousins. They gifted the Pandavas a palace, without revealing that it was highly flammable. Thanks to a tip off from their Uncle Vidhur, the Pandavas and their mom, Kunti, managed to escape through a secret tunnel.

The Pandavas emerged in a dark forest, where Bhima had food, killed a demon, married his sister and had a kid. All in a day’s work for that mighty warrior.

Today we begin the story back with the Pandavas at Bhima’s wife’s home.

A home they were moving out of. The Pandavas and their mother Kunti had decided it was time for them to move out of the cave. 

Bhima the second oldest Pandava was the last to leave, seeing as he was bidding goodbye to his new wife, Hidimba and his even newer son Ghatotkacha. Normally this might have been an emotional moment – a husband bidding goodbye to his new bride, and to his newborn. But none of the three were in any way ordinary. Hidimba was a giant demoness when she wasn’t shapeshifting and these demonesses are made of stern stuff. The baby, Ghatotkacha, may have been just a few hours old, but he was already larger than his parents. A bit of a Hagrid-like situation here, if you like Harry Potter references. Except, unlike Hagrid, Ghatotkacha couldn’t have simply picked up his father and put him on top of a shelf. Bhima was the strongest man in the world. He had just single handedly killed Hidimba’s mountain-sized brother. Bhima could probably have played an elephant by its trunk like a yoyo. But he wouldn’t do that to a poor little helpless elephant – he was one of the good guys.

All that to say, emotional goodbyes were not really their thing. Though their goodbyes were liberally peppered with references to their common love: food. So while Bhima said thanks for always pudding up with him, Hidimba said she’d miss him a waffle lot when he was gone. And Bhima said how she was his butter half and how Ghatotkacha was the apple of his eye. There were probably a dozen more puns, but I won’t bore you with all of them. 

Let’s skip to the part where Hidimba picked up her hippo sized baby boy, slung him on her shoulder and took him inside to change his diaper.

Nearby, the other Pandavas stood observing, as Bhima finally tore himself away and walked towards them. Nakul elbowed Sahadev and said, “Boy, I’m glad to be out of that cave. One more night in there, and Ghatotkacha might have swallowed us.”

“Same,” his twin replied. “I had a nightmare that he shut us in his lego box by accident. And then no one found our remains for decades until Ghatotkacha had a child himself, and that kid opened the box.”

Kunti glared at her youngest childrens but didn’t actually criticize them. Truth be told, she was happy to be out of the cave too. This was one way to avoid a saas-bahu confrontation especially when said bahu, or daughter in law, was a giant demoness who had been brought up on human flesh. Whatever Ekta Kapoor might cook up in her series of TV series, this scenario was not in it.

Bhima soon caught up with them and asked where they were going to go.

Yudhishtir wanted to go back to Hastinapur. They could explain that they had had a lucky escape, and then Yudhishtir could get back the Empire that he had been made crown prince of. He thought it might add quite a dramatic effect if they all showed up in court just as their death certificates were being signed.

If some of you listeners have read the adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, you may recall a similar situation with Tom and his friends showing up at their own funeral.

The others objected to Yudhishthir’s idea. If they went back to Hastinapur so soon, some folks may not even realize that they were missing. No, for maximum effect they had to wait patiently.

“Let’s not rush things,” Kunti agreed, “Patience is a virtue. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day”

Arjun, the third oldest Pandav, pointed out that Rome wasn’t built at all. From what his time-traveling friend Narada had told him, it wasn’t going to be built for a few more centuries. But he agreed with her in spirit. Especially because he had a really great idea for where they should go next. The World Cup.

There were only puzzled looks all around. What was this World Cup thing that Arjun spoke of?

Arjun mumbled something about living under a rock, which wasn’t technically far off given they had just been staying in a cave. Patiently he explained that it was a tournament, and the Cup in the name was actually a Goblet. 

“The Goblet of Fire?” Nakul asked excitedly.

“No, of course not”, Arjun replied. Whatever gave Nakul such a ridiculous idea? It was a plain old metal cup, but it was awarded to the best Gilli Danda players in the world. And very soon a bunch of people from all over the country were going to play against a bunch of people from another country. These foreigners were sailing to Bengal from somewhere across the Indian Ocean just to play this game.

Nakul and Sahadev were disappointed that the tournament was the standard version of Gilli-Danda and not the version that’s played on horseback. And their disappointment is understandable. The twins were expert horsemen seeing as their fathers were the Ashwins, twin Gods who were expert horsemen themselves. Ashwin literally means Horse possessor, some depictions of the Ashwins even show them with the heads of horses. So you could say the affinity for horses ran in the family. And that’s why Nakul and Sahadev now said that they wanted to do a farmstay.

Bhima said he preferred to do a culinary tour of the country. He had read in a LonelyPlanet guidebook all the street food highlights all over the country. But being royals they never got to really experience it. Now they were free to sample all the local delicacies straight from the vendor who made it – Vada Pav in Mumbai, the Kachoris in Vanaras, and the Rasgullas in Bengal.

The situation may seem like a deadlock, given everyone wanted to do something else entirely. But not so. Kunti broke the tie, as usual. They’d do all of the above, she said, surprising everyone. They would go back to Hastinapura, after attending the Gilli Danda World Cup, which would come right after the farmstay, and on the way there they would make sure to stop at every street food stall on the way! Everyone would have their way. Kunti had a swayamvar/carnival in mind, but they would work that into their path somewhere.

So the six of them set out. It was a long walk that seemed even longer because of the frequent stops they made. The good thing about it was that every street vendor they came across sold out their entire stock of food that day. On the flip side, every one of the six travelers was still very hungry. Four Pandavas and Kunti were hungry because Bhima didn’t leave them enough food. Bhima was hungry, because all the food combined from 11 Golgappa stalls, 6 Samosa stalls and 9 Bhel Puri stalls was barely enough to fill him.

In typical Obelix fashion, if you’ve read the Asterix comics, Bhima said he felt rather weak. And could they please stop to eat now? A lifetime of experiencing these types of questions had taught the others patience and restraint. So they calmly promised to stop at the next opportunity.

That was perfect timing, because just then they reached a signboard. It said “Welcome to Ekachakra,” and stated that the population of this little village was 20. But the name of the village, which meant one wheel, wasn’t the only thing that was curious about it. The population had been struck out and rewritten over and over. It had started from the thousands, and then dwindled down to the mere twenty. Maybe the villagers here were emigrating in large numbers. The Pandavas entering this town had suddenly boosted its population by over a quarter.

There were farms here and there as they explored the almost deserted main street. Which was good. So now Nakul and Sahadev would get their farm stay. There weren’t any horses around. But hey, tough luck. 

Bhima raised his hand for silence. He breathed in deeply and said with a big smile that he knew that smell! It was Gulab Jamoons! He broke into a run heading straight for the source of the heavenly aroma. It was coming from a little hut. Bhima’s fine sense of smell could distinguish between multiple dishes. There were Gulab Jamoons for sure, but also Pooris, Mutter Paneer, there were parathas, rice, fresh daal, and Rasagullas. Despite the excitement he felt, he did not knock down the door the way Obelix might have done. He knocked gently instead, and was promptly welcomed in by a lady about Kunti’s age.

Inside the little home, it was quickly clear that Bhima had accurately sensed each dish. It was being prepared in multiple iterations and used to fill enormous baskets. This seemed to be too much food for a village with a population of 20.

Kunti explained to the lady that they were travelers looking for shelter for the night. The hostess, whose name was Patni, said they were welcome. She’d serve them food first, and then join them as well. Her husband, Pati, and her son, Beta, would not join them because they were busy preparing and packaging food. 

Her demeanor was unusual. She did not seem enthusiastic as they might have expected of someone who is about to consume all that delicious food. 

The six hungry and weary travelers sat down expectantly, and were a little taken aback when Patni offered them crumbling days old roti and stale dal. Patni served herself the same stale food.

Sahadev whispered to Kunti that he wasn’t trying to look a gift horse in the mouth, but why were they getting to eat this, while all that delicious food was ready? We are guests in their home, and by rights they should treat us like God.

Kunti thought it would be rude to ask to eat all the food that was being prepared. So tactfully, she asked if the family was in the catering business? And, after dinner, could she and her boys help with anything?

Patni said that her entire village was into catering, but it was not a business for any of them. She left it at that, and refused to say more. But there was an air of doom and gloom about her. Suddenly Kunti realized that Patni had been crying. A lot.

Kunti understood psychology and knew that the best way to get Patni to speak of her troubles was woman-to-woman. So, after dinner, with the Pandavas out of earshot, Kunti cornered Patni and had it all out of her. In between sobs, Patni explained that they were under a protection racket.

The village had made a bad deal. Years ago, there had been some unexplained attacks on them from some raiders. The villagers were just peaceful farmers and craftspeople. They couldn’t defend themselves. So they had contracted outside help. Bakasura, who was a demon, lived nearby. He claimed that he could take care of their problem for them. But he needed to be paid.

“And you signed a contract without reading the fine print?” Kunti interrupted to ask

But no, Patni said, “Their entire village had read it thoroughly. And what’s more they had hired a consulting firm to go over the contract in great detail. The consultants read it for a few months, and look here’s the report.” She handed Kunti a large binder about the size of an encyclopedia volume. Luckily though, there was a summary on a post-it note. It went like this:

In a comprehensive and exhaustive evaluation of the contractual documentation at hand, it is incumbent upon us to elucidate that the assessment, due to its inherent complexity and multifaceted nature, potentially yields a scenario where the contract may be deemed congruous with the desired parameters or, conversely, may be fraught with certain elements that are antithetical to the prescribed requisites. The ultimate determination, however, remains contingent upon a meticulous and painstaking examination, the outcomes of which could conceivably oscillate between a favorable validation of Bakasur’s compliance or, on the contrary, the identification of substantial irregularities warranting further deliberation and potential rectification.

All that to say, it may be good or or it may not. Kunti said, that only showed that the villagers’ contract with the consulting firm wasn’t all that good. 

Patni agreed. She said impatience and fear won over the village and they signed Bakasura’s contract. Kunti wondered why they hadn’t simply referred the consultants to the raiders. There was a surefire way of making the raiders ineffective. And they might get a referral bonus in the bargain.

The substantial irregularities that the consultants talked about quickly became apparent. Bakasura terrorized them! He ate people from the village liberally. He said it was just his payment for all the protection he was providing them. Patni had to admit though that the raids had stopped instantly. But Bakasura’s terrorism was a lot worse. They would take ordinary looting and plundering over this situation.

So they made another deal with Bakasura. They would cook food for him. Ordinary food. Rice, Parathas, Subji, Rasagulla etc. But, he had to stop eating them. Bakasura took the deal. However, he didn’t quite stop eating them. You see, he ate not just all the food that was sent, but also the bullock cart with its bulls and much more importantly, the cart driver. 

The villagers figured this was still a little better. If Bakasura stepped into town, he’d eat multiple people at once. Instead, eating just one person a day was acceptable. Or so they thought.

“And so, here we are,” Patni explained. I had 5 sons, just like you. And now I’m down to my last one. It’s his turn to drive the cart tomorrow. 

“Cheer up,” Kunti said. “Your problem is going to be solved for you. Bhima will drive the cart tomorrow.”

“I can’t let you risk your son for mine!” Patni started to say. But Kunti stopped her. Relax, what’s the use of having 5 sons if I can’t send one into mortal danger when I want to?

Patni accepted this offer even if she did so reluctantly. Kunti hadn’t really meant what she said, but it was what Patni needed to hear.

So that night, Patni silently turned off the alarm that was set for midnight. That was when her son, Beta, was supposed to go to Bakasura’s cave. Instead, Kunti woke up Bhima.

When asked to do her a favor, Bhima asked if he could do it after breakfast? He was hungry.

Kunti said it couldn’t wait. It was a matter of life and death. Bhima needed to take all these enormous food baskets, load them up into the cart and take them to such and such a cave. And just between you and me, she added, I don’t think anyone will notice if a Gulab Jamoon or two goes missing.

That was enough incentive for Bhima to wake up fully. He easily carried and loaded up all the baskets into the cart in just a single trip, while Patni stared wide-eyed.

Bhima thanked Patni for the turn by turn directions and headed to Bakasura’s cave.

To Bhima’s credit, he controlled his hunger until he was out of Patni and Kunti’s sights.

Round the bend, he immediately stopped and began with the Parathas and the Mutter Paneer. Maybe because he was feeling particularly weak, or maybe it was the memory of the dry roti and stale dal from last night. But regardless, within just a few mins he had finished everything. Someone expecting their package was going to be disappointed. But Bhima would square it away with them. Maybe he’d even help them cook more food. That way he’d himself get a bit more to nibble on.

As he approached the cave, he heard a roar. Lion? Asura? Didn’t matter, he wasn’t worried. The roar may have been loud, but Bhima’s stomach grumbled louder than that in moments of excessive hunger, like last night.

Inside the cave Bakasura was getting very impatient, as you might expect from someone who did not have access to any tracking mechanism. A villager should have delivered the food, the cart, and themselves by now. Where were they? He decided he would visit the village and eat a few people there. That would teach them to be prompt.

But the doorbell rang just then. As he saw Bhima, he observed that this was a big cart driver. Good, at least Bakasura would be full this time. But first, he must eat the food. “Out of my way,”  Bakasura said and went to the cart. Which was completely empty.

The Asura roared in anger. 

Bhima was eager to jump in, before Bakasura did something rash. “Relax, relax, if I can just explain. Hey now, put down the cart, the bulls don’t like being handled that way. Wait, don’t sprinkle salt and pepper on them. You’re going to make them sneeze!”

But it was only when Bakasura put on a bib and got out his large fork and knife that Bhima decided enough was enough. “Mustn’t. Eat. Cattle” he said, striking Bakasura across the face with each word.

Bakasura was stunned. A lifetime of terrorizing people and he hadn’t encountered a person who had dared lift a finger against him. Surprise turned to anger, anger turned to hate, and in his passion to crush this insignificant little bug, Bakasura turned on Bhima with fangs and claws bared. 

What followed should not surprise anyone. In Bakasura’s defense, he couldn’t have known Bhima was the strongest person in the world. He couldn’t have known Bhima had the strength of Superman, and the Incredible Hulk combined. And he couldn’t have known that Bhima had lots of practice killing Asuras. And Bakasura didn’t expect to end up as just another practice round for Bhima. If he had known all that, Bakasura would have fled to the Himalayas and led a life of peace and austerity.

But now, Bakasura wondered nothing, and thought nothing. Bhima piled his remains onto the cart and drove it home. But first, he searched Bakasura’s cave for a nibble. The spot of fighting had left him a little peckish. He didn’t find much. There was a jar of jam cookies. And a contract between Bakasura and some raiders. Apparently Bakasura had hired them for looting and plundering villages. Well he didn’t know what that was about. But he decided to take it along with him in case it was of interest to the villagers.

It was still sort of dark when Bhima got back to the village gates. He dumped Bakasura’s remains there and nailed the contract to the welcome signpost. Clear evidence, he felt. Well, now that he looked it didn’t seem as clear anymore. Maybe Bhima shouldn’t have been eating those jam cookies with the same hand that held the contract.

It didn’t matter anyway. Unlikely the raiders would return, the contract had expired. Besides, it was time for the Pandavas to move on. If they stayed, questions would be raised. Bakasura had promised to protect the villagers. With him gone, yes – the villagers would be able to keep their lives and their food. But what if the raiders came back? Bhima knew it was not a real danger, since Bakasura had manufactured the raider crisis in the first place. But people would be anxious and unreasonable, and maybe feeling some form of Stockholm syndrome. A conversation with them may not go well.

Bhima quietly woke up Kunti and the other Pandavas. They consulted their list. Farmstay, check. Street food check. The World Cup was next. A match was to take place tomorrow. She had heard from her hosts it was in a place called Eden Gardens. It wasn’t that far, but they would still have to walk fast if they wanted to reach in time to watch it. Especially because Bhima would want to stop at every food stall on the way. Apparently the fight with Bakasura had only worked up his appetite.

That’s all for now

Some notes on the show

The Pandavas run into Bakasura’s brother later in the Mahabharata. But that’s a story that happens during a future exile. As we’ll see, the Pandavas did develop a bit of a knack for getting into sticky situations.

The motif of a terrorized group offering a fixed amount of food daily is something we’ve seen before in Episode 4, where a group of animals offered an animal daily to a Lion. In that story, a rabbit tricks a Lion showing that Brains overcome Brawn. But today’s story demonstrates that Brawn also can overcome Brawn.

If you’ve heard just the last two Mahabharata episodes it may seem to you that Bhima is the hero of all these Pandava adventures. But that is not so. Arjun will get to show off his archery skills as well. 

But the overall theme is that there aren’t really any heroes and villains in the Mahabharata. There are just a bunch of people who sometimes behave well, and sometimes do not. If there’s one lesson to be learned from this great epic, it is to appreciate or criticize actions rather than personalities.

As is the custom on this show, the names of some of the characters are based on the roles they play. The words Patni, Pati, and Beta are hindi words that mean Wife, Husband and Son.

Check out the links in the show notes and on the site sfipodcast.com to previous Mahabharata episodes.

That’s all for now. 

Next Time

In the next episode, we’ll talk about Urvashi and Pururavas. It’s a love story between an Apsara and a King.

Feedback

Thank you all for the comments on Social Media and on Spotify’s Q&A! I can’t directly reply to the questions there, but I’ll address them here on this show.

Thank you for the feedback Archit, Suman, Cool Bros and Pokemon Master 101

Aniver – I love your dedication to this podcast and for having listened to all those episodes at a stretch. I always welcome your feedback and would love to know what I can do better.

Naomi – thank you for the kind words. I’ll try to get to the Radha episode soon.

Darsh we’ll have Ramayana coming up soon. Others have asked for this as well.

Moshroom, that is a very interesting perspective you’ve raised. Yes, there is a bit of a DDLJ moment there with the Lioness and the Jackal. With the one small difference that Amrish Puri didn’t have to threaten Simran if she did not go live her life.

Suman, Elina, and Ankur, I’ve added to my list your requests for stories about Dhyan Chand, about Ancient Indian Science, and something from the future. I appreciate your patience as I work through my backlog.

If you have any other comments or suggestions or if there are particular stories you’d like to hear, please do let me know by leaving a comment or a review on the site sfipodcast.com, or reply to the questions on Spotify Q&A. You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook, and on X.

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A big thank you to each of you for your continued support and your feedback.

The music is from Purple Planet.

Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time!