Bhima’s Wife

Before Draupadi, there was Hidimbi. The first, the eldest Pandava daughter-in-law—a status denied to her through her life, through the years, down the centuries. She remains the forgotten wife, the forgotten queen, the forgotten woman, in the Mahabharata. Hidimbi was a demoness by birth and a queen by right. In the shadows of the great Indian epic, she stands alone. She saved Bhima. She bore his son. She stood by the family that killed her brother. And when the call of war came, she sacrificed her only child—Ghatotkacha, the first Pandava grandson—for a cause that never truly embraced her. Why was her story never told? Was it because she was a rakshasi, or because the heroes of the epic could do no wrong? This powerful reimagining gives voice to Hidimbi and her story of love and betrayal, strength and sacrifice.