Talk:Ekalavya

By Swami Harshananda

One of the boy heroes of the epics who has made an indelible impression upon the minds of masses, not only for his excellence in the science of archery but also for his gurubhakti, is Ekalavya. He was the son of Hiraṇyadhanuṣ, the chieftain of the niṣādas, a forest tribe.

When he approached Droṇācārya, the unrivaled preceptor of archery and military sciences, to be accepted as his disciple, the request was rejected since Ekalavya was a śudra by caste. The military sciences were the preserve of the kṣattriyas at that time. Undeterred, Ekalavya prepared a clay-image of Droṇācārya, kept it in the field of his practice and started training himself before it after duly worshiping it. He had mentally accepted Droṇācārya as his guru. The intensity of his devotion to the guru and the relentless practice very soon made him an expert archer.

One day, when the Pāṇḍava princes had come to the forest for hunting, they found that one of their hunting dogs returned with its mouth packed with seven arrows, unable to bark but absolutely unharmed. When the Pāṇḍava princes discovered that it was the hunter-boy Ekalavya’s feat, they were dumb-founded. On learning that Droṇācārya was his ‘teacher’, Aṛjuna became upset, since the latter had promised to make him the greatest archer of his times.

Being in a fix, Droṇācārya asked Ekalavya to give his right thumb as his Tees’. Absolutely unmoved, the boy cut off his right thumb and offered it at his feet. Thus Ekalavya lost his supremacy in archery though he was still good at it, but gained a permanent place in our history. It is believed that he once challenged Śrī Kṛṣṇa for a fight and died in that fight.

References

• The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore