About
Bhimasena — King of Hastinapura, Son of Parikshita I
Bhimasena · Bhima (dynastic, not the Pandava) · son of Parikshita
Bhimasena is an ancestral king of Hastinapura belonging to the Puru branch of the Lunar dynasty. He is the son of Parikshita I — the first of two kings named Parikshit in the Kuru genealogy, a figure who is referenced in the Vedic Brahmana literature — and is the father of Pratisravas, whose son in turn was Pratipa. This Bhimasena is an ancestor of the Pandava and Kaurava lines and must be distinguished from his much later and more celebrated namesake Bhimasena, the second of the five Pandavas. He appears in the Mahabharata's Adi Parva king-list and is also attested in the Shatapatha Brahmana, where he is named among the sons of the Vedic Parikshit who performed the Ashvamedha sacrifice.
✦ The Name
Bhimasena means one whose army (sena) is fearsome or terrible (bhima) — a name denoting martial power appropriate to a king of Hastinapura. The name is shared by the celebrated Pandava warrior, which has caused occasional confusion in secondary literature. The dynastic Bhimasena treated in this profile belongs to the pre-war Kuru genealogy, several generations before the Pandava period.
✦ Lineage
- Father: Parikshita I — king of Hastinapura, son of Anashvan (himself the son of Viduratha and grandson of the dynasty-founder Kuru). Parikshita I is the first of two kings named Parikshit in the Kuru line and is referenced in the Shatapatha Brahmana and Aitareya Brahmana as a historical Kuru ruler.
- Mother: Suvasa — daughter of the Vahudas; the Mahabharata Adi Parva records this parentage.
- Spouse: Sukumari (also called Kumari) — princess of the Kekaya kingdom, a realm to the northwest associated with the Kekaya tribe, one of the prominent Kshatriya kingdoms of the epic period.
- Son: Pratisravas (also called Paryashrava) — king of Hastinapura and father of Pratipa, who was in turn the father of Shantanu and the grandfather of Bhishma.
✦ Vedic Attestation
The Shatapatha Brahmana names Bhimasena among the sons of the Vedic king Parikshit who performed the Ashvamedha (horse sacrifice). The Shatapatha Brahmana passage lists four sons of Parikshit — Janamejaya, Ugrasena, Bhimasena, and Shrutasena — all of whom are said to have performed this great royal rite. This Vedic reference is understood by historians to relate to the earlier Parikshit of the Brahmana period, and it provides one of the few pieces of external textual evidence for Bhimasena's existence outside of the Mahabharata genealogical lists.
✦ Textual Variants and Inconsistencies
The Mahabharata's Adi Parva Chapter 95 gives Suvasa, daughter of the Vahudas, as Bhimasena's mother. The Pranasutra recension of the genealogy states instead that Bhimasena was born out of wedlock to Amrutaa, daughter of the king of Bahuka, before his father Parikshita married Suvasa. The Puranas — specifically the Bhagavata and Vishnu Puranas — give a compressed genealogy in which Bhimasena does not appear as a separate generation, with Pratipa attributed directly as the son of Dilipa, a figure inserted between Kuru and Pratipa in the Puranic scheme. These Puranic variants reflect a different genealogical tradition and should not be taken to contradict the Mahabharata's own king-list.
✦ Connection to the Wider Genealogy
Bhimasena stands seven generations below Ajamidha — the great ancestor of the Kuru, Panchala, and related northern Indian royal lines — and is the great-great-grandfather of Bhishma, the son of Shantanu. Through his grandson Pratipa and great-grandson Shantanu, Bhimasena is a direct ancestor of both the Pandavas and the Kauravas.
✦ References
- Mahabharata, Adi Parva, Chapter 95 (Sambhava Parva): Primary genealogical source listing Parikshita, Bhimasena, Pratisravas, and Pratipa as successive Kuru kings.
- Shatapatha Brahmana, XIII.5.4: Vedic source naming Bhimasena as one of the four sons of Parikshit who performed the Ashvamedha sacrifice.
- Pranasutra (Puru Vamsha Kathana): Sanskrit genealogical text giving Amrutaa as Bhimasena's mother and Sukumari as his wife, with Paryashrava as his son.
- Raychaudhuri, H.C., Political History of Ancient India (1923): Scholarly analysis treating the Shatapatha Brahmana's Bhimasena as the same figure as the Mahabharata genealogical king.
- AncientVoice Wikidot, Kuru lineage article: Secondary compilation of the Mahabharata genealogical sequence confirming Bhimasena's position.