Duryodhana schemes to poison Bheema

The hatred among the cousins grew and Duryoudhana, the eldest of Kauravas planned to kill Bheema, the second of the Pandavas by poisoning him. He planned a great outing near the riverside and arranged for a camp to be set up there. There was lots of food prepared and arranges for a feast. The place was named Udakkreedan. On the behest of Duryoudhan, Yudhishthir, the eldest of the Pandavas accepted the invitation extended by the Kauravas and all the cousins proceeded for the playground. Near the river they asked the guards to go back to the palace and proceeded to the playground by themselves. Duryoudhana had arranged for a great feast for the Pandavas and had porridge prepared specially for Bheema. But he put a huge quantity of poison in the rice porridge as he had planned to kill Bheema. Bheema ate the poisoned porridge and went to his tent to sleep. Due to the effect of the poison, Bheema soon fell unconscious and the poison spread to all parts of his body. The Kauravas then tied up Bheema and threw him into the deep river. Bheema started drowning and reached the abode of the snakes inside the river. As Bheema reached the abode of the poisonous snakes a lot of venomous snakes bit him. As a result the venom of the snakes acted as an antidote and the effect of the poison in the body of Bheema was nullified. The moment Bheema regained consciousness he started killing the snakes. The snakes ran helter-skelter to save themselves from Bheema and ran to Vasuki, the king of the snakes. Vasuki heard the whole story and requested another snake called Aryak to help him out. Aryak was the maternal great-great-grandfather of Bheema. He went to Bheema and explained to him that he should not kill the snakes. Bheema stopped and Vasuki blessed him. He proposed that he gift Bheema a lot of precious jewels, but Aryak requested Vasuki to let Bheema drink the potion from the jars in the snake kingdom which were capable of giving a human being the strength of a thousand elephants. The snakes then asked Bheema to perform his absolutions and then allowed him to drink of the potion from the jars. Bheema drank from the eight divine jars of the potion and was asked to sleep. After eight days he woke up and he had digested the juice. He was now as powerful as ten thousand elephants. He then came back to the playground. Meanwhile. The Pandavas and their Uncle Vidur were frantically searching for Bheema. Bheema narrated the whole story of how Duryoudhana had poisoned him and tried to drown him and of his experiences in the kingdom of the snakes. Vidur advised the Pandavas to be cautious and not to tell anyone of what Duryoudhana had tried to do. Meanwhile Duryoudhana was surprised to see Bheema back alive. He was so jealous of Bheema that he tried to poison him several times but every time Bheema escaped as he was now very powerful and the poison had no effect on him. All the Children, Pandavas and Kauravas were then sent for further education to the hermitage of Saint Kripacharya.