EKALAYVA

He was a young prince of the Nishadha, a confederation of jungle tribes in Ancient

India.Ekalavya is called as one of the foremost of Kings in the Rajasuya Yagya where he
honours Yudhishthira by offering shoes with respect.Though he did not have his right thumb, he
was noted as a very powerful archer and warrior.In the Mahabharata, Ekalavya was the son of
Hiranyadhanus, the chief of Nishada. He served under King Jarasandha's army as General. His
father Hiranyadhanu was the commander of the most powerful king of that time, Jarasandha.
Ekalavya still didn't give up on his resolute will to master archery. He once stayed hidden in the
forest while guru Drona was teaching the Kaurava and Pandava brothers, after they left for the
ashram, Ekalavya collected the mud on which his Guru walked, as a symbolic gesture of
reverence for his Guru's knowledge and footsteps. Later he went into the forest and fashioned a
statue of Drona under a big old well-grown tree. He began a disciplined program of self-study
over many years. Accepting the statue as his guru, he practised before it every single day.One
day when Drona and his students were going out into the forest, Arjuna saw a dog that was
unable to bark due to an amazing construction of arrows in and all around his mouth. This
construction was harmless to the dog but prevented the dog from barking. Drona was amazed
but also distressed: as he had promised Arjuna that he would make him the greatest archer in
the world. Wondering who such a fine archer could be, Drona and his students investigated and
came upon Ekalavya. Upon seeing Drona, Ekalavya came and bowed to him.

Drona asked Ekalavya where he had learned archery. Ekalavya replied "under you, Guruji", and
showed Drona his statue while explaining what he had done. Drona then reminded Ekalavya
that to truly be Drona's pupil, Ekalavya would have to pay guru dakshina. Readily, Ekalavya
offers to do anything for Drona. Drona knew Ekalavya in the future will work for Magadha which
was the enemy of Hastinapur. Drona asks Ekalavya to cut off his right thumb as Guru Dakshina.
Happy and smiling, Ekalavya cuts off the thumb and presents it as Gurudakshina to
DronacharyaEkalavya assisted Jarasandha, when he attacked Mathura, to take revenge of the
death of Kansa.[5]In this battle Ekalavya was killed by Lord Krishna, because Krishna knew
about the future war of Mahabharat and Ekalavya could become an obstacle in the
establishment of dharma. Later Eklavya was born as Drishdyumna, son of Panchal Naresh and
helped in establishing dharma as he was born as Dronahantak and killed Acharya Drona to
complete his revenge. In the Malaysian text, there is a mention that King Phalgunadi was killed
by Acharya Drona and later Phalgunadi took birth as Eklavya.