THE LEGENDARY TEACHER: GURU DRONA

The epic Mahabharata is full of riddles and ironies. One such irony was that  guru Drona had to fight his own pet student Arjuna who was an expert in archery and  in the use of divine weapons in the kurukshetra war. A shade of tragedy is interlinked  with guru drona’s life. Drona was the son of the sage Bharadvaja. Drona studied the Vedas and shastras and became a great scholar. Drona studies archery and Agneyastra and the secrets of a number of divine weapons and mastered the art. He  had a son and a daughter. After some time he left the ashram and went to the Himalayas

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Drona and drupada studied together in the gurukula and were great friends. Drupada wass the king of Panchala.  Drupada had promised Drona, his friend during his studies in gurukula that he would share half of his kingdom when he becomes the king. Drone was very poor. After coming from the Himalayas he met Drupada who was throned as the king of Panchala.  But Drupada had changed after becoming the king and he insulted Drona. The dejected Drona went to Hastinapura and met  Bhishma.  Bhishma appointed Drona as Acharya to teach the Kuru princes the art of archery.

The kuru princes progressed well in the art of war. Arjuna excelled in archery. Drona was very well satisfied with their progress. Drona couldn’t forget the insults he suffered from Drupada. Now is the time to take revenge on drupada he thought. He explained everything to Arjuna and asked him to go on war against Drupada and defeat him and bring him as a prisoner to him. When Drupada stood as a prisoner, drona gave half the kingdom to Drupada.

Drona’s school was meant only for the kshatriya princes. When ekalavya who wasn’t a Kshatriya approached drona and requested him to accept him as his shishya  but drona rejected his request. Ekalavya made an idol of dronaacharya and placed it on a pedestal and began to learn lessons in archery with full of devotion and became an expert in archery. Dronacharya was informed about this by the kuru princes. Dronacahrya came face to face with Ekalavya and asked his right thumb as gurudakshina. Ekalavya didn’t hesitate even for a second and cut off his thumb and placed it on the feet of Dronacharya. This episode was a riddle, irony and tragedy in the life of dronacharya.

Before the kurukshetra war Yudishtira approached Dronacharya to side with the pandavas in the war but the great teacher said  he was bound by Duryodhana’s hospitality and was obliged to Duryodhana. Then Yudhistira asked Guru drona as to how he could beat him in the war and asked him the secret of defeating him. Dronacharya said that he would lay down his arms when he hears something from a person whom he believes the most.

In the war Krishna made Yudhistira to declare ‘Ashwatthamohataha  Kunjaraha’, an elephant named Ashwathama was dead.  But by the time he announced kunjaraha meaning elephant, Krishna sounded his Panchajanya so that Dronacharya could not hear that and Drona understood that his son Ashwathama was dead.  As soon as dronacharya heard this, he laid down his arms and Arjuna using this opportunity killed his teacher.

Indeed, dronacharya’s life was a mixture of tragedy, irony and riddle.