Apasmāra

Drona was satisfied that all his students were skilled enough to use weapons, and therefore their training period was over. It was time to ask for Gurudhakshina from them. After assembling them together, he told them,“Defeat Drupada, the King of Panchala in  battle and bring him to me. This will be the Gurudhakshina (offering to the preceptor) that will satisfy me the most.” The Kuru princes marched to Panchala with their army and laid siege to the capital of Panchala. The troops were led by Duryodhana, his brothers and Karna. As the Kurus approached Drupada's capital, they informed the King of their desire for battle. King Drupada, not tolerating the attack on his kingdom, mounted his chariot and along with his brothers met the Kuru army head on. Duryodhana and his followers then competed with one another to see who could capture King Drupada first. Before the battle started, Arjuna saw the vanity of Duryodhana and his brothers. He therefore informed Drona, "O best of the b

When Dronacharya saw that his students had been sufficiently educated, he assembled the Kuru elders and informed them, the Kuru princes have now completed their education. I suggest there be a tournament of arms where they may display their prowess.Vidura made the necessary arrangements so that all will be able to witness the prowess of these mighty youths. Understanding the intentions of the King, Vidura left the palace and began making preparations for the tournament of arms. Drona chose a piece of land devoid of trees for holding the demonstration. He also chose an auspicious day and offered a sacrifice to God in the presence of a vast crowd. After this, skilled artisans built a large stage as per the specifications prescribed by the scriptures. They also built a large hall for the lady spectators. On the day of Tournament, the king accompanied by his ministers, Bhishma and Kripa arrived at the arena. Gandhari, Kunti, and the other royal ladies were also present. The public al

As stated earlier, Kunti, before her marriage to Pandu, had conceived a child by the Lord Surya, the sun god. Due to fear of her relatives, she placed the child in a basket and set it afloat on the river Ganges. The child was picked up by Adhiratha, a well known carpenter and charioteer and his wife Radha. He was given the name Karna. They raised the child very carefully for sixteen years. On Karna's sixteenth birthday, his father offered him a new chariot with horses. Not feeling a desire to drive the chariot, karna addressed his mother, expressing his desire to learn archery and fight. Radha then explained to her foster son Karna all that had happened on how she had found him at the bank of the Ganges wrapped in precious silk and floating in a basket. Hearing about his mysterious past, he was struck with wonder. After consulting with his mother and father, he took permission from them and left for the city of Hastinapura, desiring to find a martial guru. Karna's goal wa

As Training for Kuru princes continues.... One day Drona called for Yudhisthira and Duryodhana, and ordered them, to go among the citizens and find someone who has some faults. When you have found that person, bring him to me. Drona then requested Duryodhana to go among the citizens and find someone who is superior in quality to you. When you find that person, bring him to me. Both the students then left, and Drona returned to his quarters. At the end of the day Duryodhana returned to his teacher and informed him, O my teacher, I have searched the kingdom for a person who is superior in quality to me, but I have not found anyone. Having concluded my inspection, I have returned to your presence. Drona then dismissed Duryodhana. When the sun had set on the horizon, Yudhisthira arrived and offered obeisances to his martial teacher. Drona then inquired, Have you found someone of inferior quality? Yudhisthira replied, I have searched all day, but I could not find anyo

When Drona was teaching martial arts to the Kaurava princes, princes from many countries flocked to him. One of them was Ekalavya, son of Hiranyadhanus, King of the Nishadas. Since the Nishadas were of a mixed race, they were considered to be of a lower order in the social hierarchy. Therefore, Drona expressed his inability to accept Ekalavya as his student, in keeping with the conventions observed at that time. Drona refused to accept him. After bowing at Drona's feet, Ekalavya went back to the forest, made a clay image of Drona and began to worship it. He practiced with great zeal in front of this deity of Drona, and in due course all the science of weaponry became known to him. One day the Pandavas and the Kauravas set out for the forest on a hunting excursion.They took along a dog for helping them in hunting. The dog strayed away and came to the place where Ekalavya was stationed. Seeing his frightful sight, the dog began to bark. The Nishada prince, wanting to ex

Arjuna was devoted to his Guru . Though Drona taught everyone the same way, Arjuna  excelled all others in skill of Archery . Drona was convinced that none of his other disciples could match Arjuna. However, Drona  adopted a trick to teach his own son Aswadhama more than what he thought others. He would ask all his disciples to fetch water from the river. While he gave narrow-mouthed vessels to others, he would give a broad-mouthed vessel to Aswadhama so that he could fill it fast and return earlier than others. In that time, Drona would teach his son several superior methods of using weapons. Arjuna discovered this and got his narrow-mouthed vessel filled quickly by using the Varuna Astra (weapon) and managed to return at the same time as did Aswathama. He was thus able to receive the additional lessons that Drona gave his son. Arjuna soon became the favorite student of his Guru. Drona once secretly instructed his cook not to give food to Arjuna in the dark. However, one night w

Whenever Bhima was engaged in playing with the sons of Dhritarastra, his strength became apparent. Bhima proved superior in speed, striking objects, consuming food and scattering dust. Bhima would seize them by the hair, throw them down, and drag them along the ground. In his playful mood, Bhima would accidentally break their knees and shoulders. When the sons of Dhritarastra would climb a tree to gather fruits, Bhima would shake the tree until the fruits as well as Kauravas fell to the ground. He would play with them in childishness, but would never hurt them out of envy. It was obvious that Bhima could challenge all the one-hundred sons of Dhritarastra single-handedly, Duryodhana began to make deceitful plans to harm him. He thought, There is no person who can compare with Bhima's strength. He does not think twice of challenging my one-hundred brothers to combat and exterminate him. Duryodhana selected a beautiful place called Pramanakoti on the banks of th

Seeing the princes enter adolescence, Bhishma began searching for a suitable teacher to tutor them in the science of warfare. One day, while the Kuru princes were playing with ball, it fell into the well. They gathered around the well to figure out a way to retrieve the ball. Drona who was on his way to meet kripa(brother-in-law), noticed the boys. Drona teased them by saying that it was shameful that the princes belonging to the Bhrata race could not retrieve the ball. He said that he would throw his ring also in the well and retrieve both the ball and the ring, using just a blade of grass, if only the princes could offer him a dinner that evening. Drona threw his ring into the dry well. He showed the princes the blades of grass he was carrying in his hand and told them that he would empower those grasses with his Mantras, make one blade of grass pierce the ball, create a chain using a few more blades and then pull up the ball. bring up the ball. He did exactly that.

Sage Bharadwaja was living at the source of the river Ganga, observing rigid vows. Once when he went to the river to perform his ablutions, he met Ghritachi, a celestial woman known as an Apsara. Seeing the beautiful woman emerging from the river after taking her bath, the sage was consumed with a burning desire. On seeing her clothes coming off her body, his vital fluid came out. The sage held it in a vessel called Drona. Eventually, Drona, the child, sprang out of the fluid preserved by the sage.  The child thus born studied the Vedas and other scriptures.  Bharadwaja taught his knowledge of arms to his illustrious disciple Agnivesa, who was born from fire. Agnivesa, in turn, taught the Science of Weapons to Drona. King Prishata, a great friend of Bharadwaja had a son by name  Drupada.  Drupada, came to the hermitage of Bharadwaja to study under the sage. He was studying in the company of Drona. They became good friends. Their friendship became so intimate that at one st

Sage Gautama had a son named Saradwata, who was born with arrows in hand. Saradwata had a keen aptitude for learning about the weapons. He acquired many weapons by means of the austerities through which students would acquire the knowledge of the Vedas. Indra, the God of the celestials became afraid of Saradwata and sent a celestial damsel named Janapadi to entice Saradwat and distract him so that he would lose his concentration on learning. Seeing Janapadi appear before him clad only in a single piece of cloth, Saradwata was momentarily stunned. His bows and arrows slipped from his hands. Though his ascetic way of life enabled him to overcome the temptation, the feelings stirred up in him for a moment resulted in his semen falling on to a bush of weeds. He left the place quickly to avoid the damsel. The semen that fell on the bush of weeds divided the bush into two parts and two children, twins, sprang from the two parts. The presence of the twins was noticed b

Dritarashtra wanted the Kauravas and the Pandavas to become well versed in the Science of Arms and other branches of knowledge. It was decided by the elders of the family that the 101 sons of Dhritarashtra and 5 sons of Pandu should grow under tutelage of the royal guru, Kripacharya (details of his origin will be discussed in next post M-126). With Kripa's eminence having become widely known, he sent the princes to Kripa, after consulting with Bhishma. Kripacharya was considered a Brahmin by all, thanks to his knowledge of the Vedas, and was a man with simplistic expectations in life. From the first day in his gurukul, Kripacharya knew that he was not going to raise any ordinary set of Kshatriya students but rather and entire generation of princes of Hastinapur. Education of princes was carried out differently than rest of the students of the society because they eventually had to evolve into beings whose life was meant for a bigger cause, optimistically speaking, welfare of

After King Pandu's demise, the  sages consulting among themselves decided to take Kunti and the five sons of Pandu to Hastinapura and hand them over to Bhishma and Drhitarashtra, Accordingly, they left for Hastinapura taking Kunti, the Pandavas. Sages were not just interested in their own salvation, but in the protection and advancement of the people in general. Knowing Pandavas to be future Kings of the earth, the great sages made arrangements for them to be placed under proper guidance.   Shakuni perceived Pandavas as a challenge to his dear Duryodhan’s claim to the throne and since beginning Duryodhan has been set against them re-insisting it in Duryodhan’s mind if there’s was somebody who was the legitimate heir to the throne, it was he and not the five random kids from the jungle. The elders of the Kuru family and the subjects of Hastinapur welcomed the Pandavas with affection. Duryodhan, along with his 99 brothers, saw them as weeds to be wiped out of the p