Tampered Beauty

Hidimba

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. 

The dusky beauty flushed. 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!

 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."

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."