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Bhimasena — Son of Parikshit, Prince of the Kuru Line
Bhimasena · Bhimasena Kaurava
Bhimasena is a prince of the Kuru dynasty recorded in the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata as one of the four sons of King Parikshit and his wife Madravati, a princess of the Madra dynasty. He is the brother of Janamejaya — the eldest son and the celebrated Kuru king who performed the Sarpa Satra serpent sacrifice — and of Shrutasena and Ugrasena. Beyond his identification as a son of Parikshit and a brother of Janamejaya in a single verse of the Mahabharata's Adi Parva, no narrative episodes, no account of a reign, no personal characteristics, and no descendants are recorded for this Bhimasena in any primary text. The profile is accordingly brief in honest reflection of the limited textual evidence.
✦ Disambiguation
The disambiguation requirement for this Bhimasena is more pressing than for any other figure of limited attestation in this reference system, because the name Bhimasena — or Bhima — belongs most prominently to one of the five Pandava brothers, the second son of Pandu and Kunti by the grace of the god Vayu, celebrated throughout the Mahabharata as the greatest physical warrior of his age, the killer of Duryodhana, Dushasana, Kichaka, and numerous other adversaries, and the pupil of Balarama in the art of mace combat. This Bhima the Pandava is also Parikshit's own great-granduncle — Parikshit being the grandson of Arjuna, who was Bhima's younger brother. The Bhimasena who is the son of Parikshit is therefore the great-grandnephew of the famous Bhima, and any genealogical tree placing both figures must carry unambiguous disambiguating labels at each node to prevent conflation. A further figure named Bhimasena appears in other Puranic contexts as well, making the disambiguation requirement at this node a matter of particular care.
✦ Lineage
- Father: Parikshit — king of Hastinapura and ruler of the Kuru kingdom in the opening period of the Kali Yuga; son of Abhimanyu and Uttara; grandson of the Pandava hero Arjuna and the princess Subhadra who was the sister of Krishna and Balarama; the last surviving heir of the Pandava lineage, revived in the womb by Krishna after Ashvatthama's Brahmastra weapon threatened to extinguish the line entirely; died from the bite of the serpent Takshaka as a consequence of a curse pronounced by Shringi, son of the sage Shamika, after Parikshit in a moment of fatigue and disrespect draped a dead serpent around the meditating sage's neck.
- Mother: Madravati — a princess of the Madra dynasty, the northwestern royal house that also produced Madri, the second wife of Pandu and mother of Nakula and Sahadeva; named in the Mahabharata's Adi Parva as the wife of Parikshit and mother of his four sons. The Bhagavata Purana presents a variant account naming Parikshit's wife as Iravati, daughter of Uttara son of King Virata of the Matsya kingdom, rather than Madravati — a genuine textual inconsistency between the two primary sources that remains unresolved within the tradition.
- Brothers: Janamejaya — the eldest son of Parikshit, king of Hastinapura, and the performer of the great Sarpa Satra serpent sacrifice undertaken to avenge his father's death; the king in whose court the sage Vaishampayana narrated the Mahabharata in full. Shrutasena — named in the same Adi Parva passage as a son of Parikshit; no independent narrative is recorded for him in the primary texts. Ugrasena — named alongside Bhimasena in the same verse as a son of Parikshit by Madravati; discussed separately in the profile immediately preceding this one.
✦ References
- Primary Sources:
- Mahabharata, Adi Parva, Chapter 95, Verse 85 — the sole primary source for Bhimasena as a son of Parikshit; names him alongside his brothers Janamejaya, Shrutasena, and Ugrasena as the four sons of Parikshit by Madravati; provides no further information about him beyond this genealogical listing.
- Secondary Sources:
- Vettam Mani, Puranic Encyclopaedia (Motilal Banarsidass, 1975) — consulted for cross-references to Bhimasena across the tradition; confirms the limited textual footprint of this specific Bhimasena as entirely distinct from the Pandava hero Bhimasena and from other figures of the same name elsewhere in the Puranic and epic canon.