Eklavya Kanda- The Honest Disciple

 

 

This is the story of Eklavya, one of the greatest archers from Mahabharata, the great Indian epic. From his childhood days, Eklavya, the son of a tribal chief, wanted to be an archer. To fulfill his dream he headed towards one of the great cities of those times - Hasthinapura to meet one of the finest teachers of archery- Aacharya Drona.

 

 

Drona was the Brahmin teacher appointed by the Royal Family of Hasthinapura to teach the young Kaurav and Pandav princes the fine skill of archery. On reaching Hasthinapura, Eklavya managed to meet Drona and requested him to accept him as his student. Drona was quite impressed by young Eklavya’s sincere interest and keen desire to learn, and more so, to master the art. Consequently, Drona started enquiring about Eklavya’s background and family etc. and learned that Eklavya was a ‘Shudra’ (belonging to the lowest social community according to the Vedic Caste System). Drona being a Brahmin teacher, and more than that, being the teacher of the princes, would not teach Shudra kids. He told Eklavya to go away.
Poor Eklavya’s heart was deeply hurt by Drona’s words of refusal. Disappointed but still firm on his ambition to learn archery, Eklavya left the palace. Eklavya returned to his home in the jungle and made a statue of Aacharya Drona. He accepted the statue of Drona as his guru and practised in front of the statue every single day. His belief that the statue would teach him kept Eklavya going on in his pursuit. One day the young Kaurava and Pandava princes from Hastinapur came hunting with their teacher Drona in the jungle where Eklavya lived. While the princes were hunting around in the jungle, one of their dogs reached the place where Eklavya was practising. The dog began to bark at Eklavya who was in the middle of his practice. Eklavya was distracted and could not concentrate. He was very upset and decided to do something to get back to his practice. As a means to stop the disturbance, Eklavya shot arrows into the dog’s mouth in such a skillful way that they did not hurt the dog but stopped him from barking. Having done that, Eklavya went back to practice.
The dog in the meanwhile returned to his masters, the princes who had come to the forest on a hunt. The young princes were amazed at the unusual manner in which the arrows were shot in the dog’s mouth. The princes gently removed all the arrows from the dog’s mouth and informed their guru Drona. Then the dog led them to the place where Eklavya was practising. Drona was greatly impressed by Eklavya but all the young princes were getting jealous of Eklavya’s archery skills. Drona inquired from Eklavya as to who his teacher was, and was surprised to hear Eklavya reply humbly that it was Drona himself.
To test Eklavya’s skills further, Drona asked Eklavya to compete with the princes. Confident Eklavya accepted the challenge and defeated every one of them including Arjuna, the famous Pandava prince who was an expert archer and Drona’s favourite student. As a witness to Eklavya’s fine archery skills Drona was both upset as well as angry that Eklavya had defeated even Arjuna, his best disciple. Drona did not like it, as he was very fond of Arjuna. He somehow wanted Arjuna to be the best. Drona was also infuriated by the fact that Eklavya made him (Drona) his guru even after his denial because of Eklavya being a shudra. So Drona demanded Eklavya to give him ‘guru dakshina’ (A disciple’s offering to a teacher after mastering a subject) since it was Drona who Eklavya considered to be his teacher. Eklavya was only too happy to give whatever his teacher asked for as he thought that his guru had accepted him.
But Drona had something else on his mind. He asked Eklavya to give him the thumb from his right hand as ‘guru dakshina’. This meant that Eklavya could never be as good an archer as Arjuna with his thumb chopped off. But without the slightest hesitation, Eklavya drew out his knife and chopped his thumb off. Drona returned to the kingdom of Hasthinapura content that he had disabled an opponent of Arjuna leaving behind Eklavya the most faithful disciple of all times.

 

A NEW DAWN

Waking up in a new dawn
I see the faces of my ancestors
I feel their pain and hear the scorn
In the voices of their oppressors
I'm stunned by the evil trick played by fate
The trick that branded my people subhuman
And left them at the mercy of manmade hate
Heads bowed in duty to an evil race

Angry tears claw at my eyes
Fuming fingers scratch at my heart
Because my forefathers were distinguished men
Peaceful dwellers of the Indus Valley
The were writing philosophy
When Arayans were plotting barbarities

I come from proud people
India was our country
And truth lay in the scriptures of our Guru
Bhagvan Valmikji

 And knowing this I wipe away my tears
Knowing this I hold my head high
Without hate, without fear

And even though Eklavya's blood flows through my veins
It's time to break free from history's evil chains
I don't have to cut off my thumb
I will not be branded as backward and dumb
This is our time to reclaim
Truth and beauty that belongs to us
So come stand up with me
Celebrate our heritage and history
Let's move forward and rise
Restore identity
With these words on our lips

Jai Valmiki !

Jai Valmiki ! Jai Valmiki !