The strongest of the brothers, whose two vows in the assembly hall turn a property dispute into something that can only end in bodies.
Appears in
The birth of the Kuru princes — A blind heir, a pale one and a renunciant's vow leave the succession contested before any of the cousins can walk.
The house of lac — A guest house built to burn: the first attempt on the Pandavas' lives, and the escape that lets them be thought dead.
Draupadi's svayamvara — An archery test won by a supposed dead man in disguise, and a mother's careless word that binds five brothers to one wife.
The Rajasuya sacrifice — Yudhishthira's consecration as emperor — the height of the Pandavas' fortune, and the sight that decides Duryodhana to act.
Draupadi in the assembly — Dragged into a full court, the queen puts a question of law to the elders — and every one of them declines to answer it.
The yaksha's questions — Four brothers drink before answering and fall beside the lake, and the fifth is asked what a man must be before he may drink
Abhimanyu inside the wheel — A boy who knows how to break into a formation and not how to break out of it is sent in first, and the gap closes behind him
The night attack on the sleeping camp — The war has been won and the winners are asleep; three survivors of the losing side walk into their camp in the dark
Embodies
Kinship and enmity — The war is a family quarrel: across the field stand cousins, teachers and elders, all owed reverence.
The binding vow — A promise that outlives the reason it was made for, and the ruin its keeping costs everyone around it.
Questions to explore
Bhima swears his oaths while Yudhishthira stays silent — is the epic showing us the better response or the more dangerous one?
Why does the text repeatedly give the blunt character the morally clear position?
