Ekalavya was born to
Hiranyadhanus, a Tribal Chief near Hastinapura. Even as a little boy, Ekalavya
was interested in learning the nuances of archery and was determined to become
a great warrior.
On his search towards Education
He heard about the great Guru,
Dronacharya and travelled to Hastinapura to enrol himself as Drona’s student.
Drona was then the Royal Guru of the Princes of Hastinapura (The Pandavas &
Kauravas). Enquiring about his whereabouts, Drona realized that Ekalavya could
not be inducted in the Gurukul (Teacher’s place where the students stayed and
underwent the education process) where he was supposed to tutor only royal
blood. With a heavy heart in turning down a student, Drona sent him away from
the Gurukul.
However, Ekalavya, as determined
as he was, returned to the forest and sculpted a statue of Dronacharya. He
decided that he would practise archery under the supervision of the stone
sculpture of Drona and would consider the sculpture as his Guru. With rigorous
practise, Ekalavya soon became an ace archeror.
Rendezvous with the Princes
Once as he was practising his
skills, Ekalavya was disturbed by the barking of a dog from a distant place. To
silence the continuously barking dog, he used his skills of archery using sound
and shot seven consecutive arrows that filled the dog’s mouth without injuring
the creature. Just around that moment, the Pandava & Kaurava princes were
out on a hunting spree. They spotted the dog with the seven arrows, traced the
shooter of the arrows and found Ekalavya. On enquiring how he acquired such
skills of shooting without knowing where the object was, they were told that
Drona was his Guru.
A baffled group of princes left
to Hastinapura and immediately approached Drona. Prince Arjuna, the Guru’s
favourite student questioned the Guru as to why they were not taught these rare
feats but a tribal was taught the same. On hearing the events of the day, the
Guru himself was confused as he had not accepted any other pupil other than the
princes and asked the princes to lead him to the tribal lad.
The Guru accompanied to the
forest and met Ekalavya. He questioned Ekalavya as to how he could claim
himself to be his student. Ekalavya led Drona to the statue and narrated how he
had learnt the various skills he possessed. The Guru was truly surprised and
impressed with the lad’s sincerity and determination towards archery and his
devotion towards the Guru.
The Guru Dakshina
Drona had promised to Arjuna that
he would not let anyone surpass Arjuna in his skills as a warrior, but after
having seen Ekalavya, Drona realized that he had not protected his vow. He quickly demanded Guru Dakshina
(fee given to teachers for the learning bestowed on students) from Ekalavya.
Ekalavya was only too happy that his Guru had accepted him as his student and
was asking him for Guru Dakshina. He said he would be ready to give whatever
his Guru demanded.
Drona demanded that Ekalavya
severe his right thumb and offer it to him as Guru Dakshina. Drona had used
this opportunity to make sure his promise did not go in vain, if Ekalavya was
disabled, then Arjuna would regain his position as the best warrior. Without
any hesitance, Ekalavya took out his knife and cut his thumb. He offered the
same to his Guru who stood rooted to the spot at the devotion that Ekalavya was
exhibiting. He blessed Ekalavya with longstanding fame and left the forest.
**It was not just the promise that Drona had considered before making
the demand for Ekalavya’s thumb. In his opinion, the rarest weapons and skills
need to stay with educated and righteous, who would never sway towards the
wrong path or misuse the skills. Ekalavya, being a tribal, had high chances of
negative influence and his skills could be disastrous.
Death of Ekalavya
Ekalavya continued practising his
archery skills and even without his thumb, rose to become one of the greatest
warriors of his times. In the later part of his life, he
got acquainted with King Jarasandha and stayed in his kingdom. During the
Mahabharat War, he took sides with the Kauravas and was killed by Lord Krishna.
