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About
Guru Dronacharya |
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In
the epic Mahabharata, Drona or Dronacharya was the royal guru
to Kauravas and Pandavas. He was a master of advanced military
arts, including the Devastras. Arjuna was his favorite
student. Drona's love for Arjuna was second only to his love
for his son Asvatthama. He was considered to be a partial
incarnation of Brhaspati.
Birth and early life
Drona implies that he was not gestated in a womb, but outside
the human body in a drona (vessel or a basket). The story of
Drona's birth is related dramatically in Mahabharata.
Bharadvaja went with his companions to the Ganga River to
perform his ablutions. There he beheld a beautiful apsara
named Ghrtaci who had come to bathe. The sage was overcome by
desire, causing him to produce a reproductive fluid.
Bharadvaja Muni captured the fluid in a vessel called a Drona,
and Dronacharya himself sprang from the fluid thus preserved.
Drona would later boast that he had sprung from Bharadvaja
without ever having been in a womb.
Dronacharya spent his youth in poverty, but studied religion
and military arts such as archery, in which he gained
expertise, together with the then prince of Pancala, Drupada.
Drupada and Dronacharya became close friends.
Dronacharya married Krpi, the sister of Krpa, the royal
teacher of the princes of Hastinapura. Like Drona himself,
Krpi and her brother had not been gestated in a womb, but
outside the human body. Krpi and Drona had a son, Asvatthama. |
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Guru Parasurama |
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Learning that Parasurama was giving away his possessions to
brahmanas, Drona approached him. Unfortunately, Parasurama only
had his weapons left. He offered to give Drona the weapons as
well as the knowledge of how to use them. Thus, Drona obtained
all of his weapons, including the very powerful Brahmastra. With
Parasurama's knowledge, Drona became an acharya. |
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Drona and Drupada |
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For
the sake of his wife and son, Drona desired freedom from
poverty. Remembering the promise given by Drupada, he decided to
approach him to ask for help. However, King Drupada refused to
even recognize their friendship.
Drupada gave Drona a long and haughty explanation of why he was
rejecting him. Friendship, said Drupada, is possible only
between persons of equal stature in life. As a child, he said,
it was possible for him to be friends with Drona, because at
that time they were equals. But now Drupada had become a King,
while Dronacharya remained a poor. Under these circumstances,
friendship was impossible. However, he said he would satisfy
Dronacharya if he begged for alms befitting a Brahmin, rather
than claiming his right as a friend. Drona went away silently,
but in his heart he vowed revenge. |
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Dronacharya - As a teacher |
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Dronacharya's legend as a great teacher and warrior is
marred by notoriety from his strong moral and social
views, which inspire great debates about morality and
dharma in the Mahabharata epic. |
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The ball and the ring |
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Dronacharya went to Hastinapura, hope to open a school of
military arts for young princes with the help of King
Dhrtarastra. One day, he saw a number of young boys, the
Kauravas and Pandavas, gathered around a well. He asked them
what the matter was, andYudisthira, the eldest, replied that
their ball had fallen into the well and they did not know how to
take it.
Dronacharya laughed, and gently reproached the princes for being
helpless over such a plain problem. Drona first threw in a ring
of his, collected some blades of grass, and uttered spiritual
Vedic chants. He then threw the blades into the well one after
another, like spears. The first blade stuck to the ball, and the
second stuck to the first, and so on, forming a chain. Drona
gently pulled the ball out with this rope of grass.
In a feat that was even more amazing to the boys, Drona then
chanted Vedic mantras again and fired a grass blade into the
well. It struck within the center of his floating ring and rose
out of the well in a matter of moments, retrieving Drona's ring.
Excited, the boys took Dronacharya to the city and reported this
incident to Bhisma, their grandfather.
Bhisma instantly realized that this was Drona and his prowess
having been exemplified - asked him to become the Guru of the
Kuruprinces, training them in advanced military arts. Drona then
established his Gurukula near the city, where princes from
numerous kingdoms around the country came to study under him.
This village came to be known as Guru-Gram ("guru" - teacher,
"gram" - village), and has now developed into the city of
Gurgaon. |
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Arjuna, the favorite pupil |
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From
all Kaurava and Pandava brothers training under Drona, Arjuna
emerged as the most dedicated, hard-working and most naturally
talented of them all, exceeding even Drona's own son Asvatthama.
Arjuna persistently served his teacher, who was greatly
impressed by this devoted pupil.
Arjuna surpassed Drona's expectations in numerous challenges.
When Dronacharya tested the princes' alertness and ability by
creating an illusion of a crocodile attacking him and exhausted
him away most of the princes were left amazed. Arjuna, however,
quickly fired arrows to slay the illusioned animal, and
Dronacharya congratulated Arjuna for passing this test. As a
reward Drona gave Arjuna mantras to invoke the super-powerful
divine weapon of Brahma known as Brahmastra but told Arjuna not
to use this invincible weapon against any ordinary warrior. The
weapon had a sharp edge surrounded below by three heads of Lord
Brahma.
Drona was greatly impressed by Arjuna's concentration,
determination and drive, and promised him that he would become
the greatest archer on earth. Drona gave Arjuna special
knowledge of the Devastras that no other prince possessed.
After some time, Arjuna earned Ashwatthama's jealously. When
Ashwatthama demanded that Drona give him proof of Arjuna's
excellence, Drona complied. Drona gave each prince a pot to fill
with water before he imparted lessons. He gave his son
Asvatthama a wide-necked pot unlike the others' narrow-necked
ones, and gave him special knowledge, when others took time to
return. But Arjuna used his knowledge of a spiritual water
weapon, Varunastra to fill his pot quickly and started returning
as early as Ashwatthama. Ashwatthama apologized to his father
for doubting him. Drona responded that while he loved
Ashwatthama as his son, as a guru, he loved Arjuna because of
Arjuna's excellence. |
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Dronacharya in the war |
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Dronacharya had been the preceptor of most kings involved in the
Kurukshetra, on both sides.Dronacharya strongly condemned the
sending into exile of Pandavas by the wicked prince Duryodhana
and his brothers and for their rude treatment of the Pandavas,
beside usurping their kingdom. But being a servant of
Hastinapura, Dronacharya was duty-bound to fight for the
Kauravas, and thus against his favorite Pandavas.
Dronacharya was one of the most powerful and destructive
warriors in the Kurukṣetra. He was an invincible warrior, whom
no person on earth could defeat. He single-handedly slayed
hundreds of thousands of Pandava soldiers, with his powerful
armory of weapons and incredible skill.
After the fall of Bhisma, he became the Chief Commander of the
Kuru Army for 5 days of the war. He was also the mastermind
behind a tricky method to surround and kill Arjuna's son,
Abhimanyu, because he could not find any other means to defeat
Abhimanyu in battle. He was also extremely hurt by Abhimanyu,
and stayed in battle, only because he had to.
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Yudhisthira's capture and Dronacharya's death |
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In
the war, Yudhisthira was targeted by Dronacharya to get
captured. For this plan to be successful, Duryodhana invited
King Bhagadatta, who was a son of the asura Narakasura, in order
to fight against the Pandavas.
Bhagadatta was the King of Prajokiyatsa (in present-day Assam or
Burma). As Krishna had killed his father Narakasur, Bhagadatta
agreed to join the Kauravas opposing Śri Krishna. But in spite
of Bhagadatta's support, Drona failed to capture Yudhisthira
alive. The Kuru commander and preceptor did, however, kill
hundreds and thousands of Pandava warriors, thus advancing
Duryodhana's cause.
On the 15th day of the Mahabharata war, Drona got initiated by
King Dhritarastra's remarks of being a collaborator. He used the
Brahmadanda against the Pandavas. Brahmadanda was a spiritual
heavenly weapon that contained the powers of seven greatest
sages of Sanatana Dharma .But Dronocharya did not impart this
knowledge either to Arjuna or to Asvatthama. Thus, he proved to
be unconquerable on the 15th day of war.
Observing this, Krishna set up a plan to bring down the
invincible Drona. Sri Krishna knew that it was not possible to
defeat Dronocharya when he had bow and arrow in his hands. Sri
Krishna also knew that Dronocharya loved his son Asvatthama very
dearly. So, Sri Krishna suggested to Yudhisthira and other
Psndava brothers that, if he were convinced that his son was
killed on the battlefield, then Dronocharya would get
disheartened to such an extent that he would lay down all his
arms on the ground and it would be easier to kill him.
In order to find a way out, Sri Krishna suggested Bhima to kill
an elephant by name Asvatthama and claim to Dronacharya that he
has killed Drona's son Asvatthama. Following this plan, Bhima
located and killed an elephant named Asvatthsma, i.e. the same
name as Drona's son. He then loudly proclaimed that he had slain
Asvatthama, so as to make Dronacharya think that his son was
dead.
Dronacharya however, did not believe Bhima's words and
approached Yudhisthira. Drona knew of Yudhisthira's firm
adherence to Dharma and that he would never ever utter a lie.
Sri Krishna also knew that it was not possible for Yudhisthira
to lie outright. On his instructions, the other warriors blew
trumpets and conches, raising a turbulent noise in such a way
that Dronacharya only heard that "Asvatthama is dead", but could
not hear the latter part of Yudhisthira's reply.
Out of grief, and believing his son to be dead, Dronacharya come
downed from his chariot, laid down his arms and sat in
meditation. Closing his eyes, his soul went to Heaven in search
of Asvatthama 's soul. In the meantime, Drupada's son
Dhrstadyumna took this opportunity and beheaded the unarmed
Dronacharya who was not aware of the whole proceedings on Earth.
This was considered an act of fearfulness on Dhrstadyumna 's
part. All fifteen sons of dhristadyumna were killed by drona.
In this way, Drona was killed in the Mahabharata War. His death
greatly aggrieved and enraged Arjuna, who had huge affection
towards his teacher, and had hoped to capture him alive rather
than killing him.
It is believed that the city of Gurgaon (literally - "Village of
the Guru") was founded as "Guru Gram" by Dronacharya on land
given to him by Dhrtarastra, the king of Hastinapur in
recognition of his teachings of martial arts to the princes, and
the ' Dronacharya Tank', still exists within the Gurgaon city,
along with a village called Gurgaon. |
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