Drona


Droṇa, also referred to as Dronacharya, is a major character of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. In the epic, he serves as the royal preceptor of the Kauravas and the Pandavas. He is one of the primary counsellors and warriors featured in the epic.
Drona is the son of the sage Bharadvaja, and a descendant of the sage Angirasa. Despite being master of advanced military arts and the divine weapons known as astras, Drona initially chooses a life of poverty until he is humiliated by his friend Drupada, the king of Panchala. With the help of his students, he captures Drupada and takes away half of the kingdom.
Drona serves as the second commander-in-chief of the Kaurava army, from the 11th day to the 15th day. The acharya fails four times in capturing Yudhishthira. He was beheaded by Dhrishtadyumna—his student and son of Drupada—when he meditates to release his soul on the battlefield.

Etymology

Drona's name means vessel, bucket, or quiver. He had many other names, including:
On a river side, Sage Bharadwaja saw an apsara named Ghritachi. He was filled with desire and his seed fell into a pot or basket. Inside it, a child developed who was named Drona because he was born in a pot and was brought to the ashram.
In Sage Bharadwaja's ashram, his son Drona and Prince Drupada were educated. Drona and Drupada became best friends, and Drupada promises to share his wealth and kingdom with Drona when he becomes king. Time passed, and Drupada became the king of Panchala, and Drona became a sage and teacher. Drona had a son named Ashwatthama. Drona was not interested in material wealth and became poor.

Drupada's insult

Once, Drona's son Ashwatthama was playing with his friends. His friends were drinking milk and he wanted to drink it too. But his friends mixed flour with water and gave it to him. Ashamed of being unable to provide for his son due to his poverty, Drona remembers Drupada's promise. He went to Drupada's palace in hopes that Drupada would remember his promise and share his wealth with him. But Drupada, having grown vain, refused. He also insulted Drona by asking how a beggar could be his friend. This outraged Drona and he wanted revenge.

Acquisition of weapons

There was a sage named Agnivesha who was the former disciple of Drona's father, Bharadwaja. Agnivesha studied the use of weapons from the sage, Agastya, and passed his knowledge to Drona and Drupada. Many years later, Drona heard that the sage Parashurama was donating his wealth. However, by the time Drona reached Parashurama's hermitage in the Mahendra Mountain, the latter had already given away all his wealth. He had only his body and his weapons to give away. Drona chose to have Parashurama's weapons and acquired the knowledge of weapons from the sage. Thus, Drona was able to become a renowned warrior and an instructor of archery and other weapons.

As the preceptor of the Kuru Kingdom

Drona along with Kripa was brought by Bhishma for the education of the Kuru princes. After being insulted by Drupada, Drona and his family went to live with his brother-in-law, Kripa, in Hastinapura. There, Drona encountered the young Kuru princes and demonstrated his skill by pulling their ball from a well using only stalks of grass attached from end-to-end with the power of mantras. Upon learning this feat, Bhishma immediately recognised Drona and appointed him as the preceptor of the Kuru princes. But out of all of them, Arjuna stood was the most prominent. Once, Arjuna had saved Drona from a crocodile while the latter was bathing in a stream. As a reward, Drona gave Arjuna mantras to invoke the super-powerful divine weapon of Brahma known as Brahmashirshastra, but told Arjuna not to use this invincible weapon against any mortal.
Under Drona's tutelage, Duryodhana and Bhima excelled in the art of maces, Ashwatthama excelled in the use of astras, Nakula and Sahadeva excelled in swordsmanship, Yudhishthira excelled in charioteering, and Arjuna excelled in archery. When Arjuna, inspired by his brother Bhima's nocturnal eating, mastered archery in absolute darkness, Drona was moved. Drona was greatly impressed by Arjuna's concentration, determination, and drive, and promised him that he would become the greatest archer on earth. In the modern time, the Don village of the Darauli block in the Siwan district of the present state of Bihar in India is believed to be the location of the ancient Dronacharya Gurukul of the epic Mahabharata.

Ekalavya

, the son of a Nishadha chief, approached Drona seeking his instruction. But since Ekalavya belonged to the Nishada tribe, Drona refused to train him alongside the Kauravas and Pandavas. Undeterred, Ekalavya began study and practice by himself, having fashioned a clay idol of Drona's to watch over his training. Solely by his determination, Ekalavya became an archer of exceptional skill.
One day, Ekalavya's focus in training was disturbed by the barking of a dog belonging to the Kuru princes. Ekalavya fired arrows that filled up the dog's mouth without spilling blood or causing injury to the dog. The Kuru princes were amazed by the trick and looked for the archer when they saw Ekalavya, who introduced himself as a pupil of Drona's. This made Arjuna jealous and sad about Ekalavya's archery skills as he said that he learnt indirectly from the same guru Drona that Arjuna was learning. Drona was in a tangle: on the one hand, he promised Arjuna that he would make him the greatest archer on earth; on the other hand, Ekalavya had indeed been training as his pupil without his consent, albeit being guided only by his idol. To resolve the matter, Drona accepted Ekalavya as his student, but demanded the thumb on his dominant hand as gurudakshina, or teacher's payment, in order to limit his abilities and further growth in archery, thus pacifying Arjuna. Ekalavya, being an exemplary disciple, immediately cut off his thumb and presented it to Drona.

Demonstration by the pupils

approved the demonstration of weapon-game by the princes. An arena was prepared. Drona entered the arena. Drona worshipped the gods as a form of preparatory rites. Then he invited the Brahmins to bless his disciples. After that the students gave gold, precious stones, clothes and other valuables to the teacher. The teacher blessed him. With this the demonstration started. Bhima and Duryodhana showed their skills by fighting with each other. The mock fight turned into a serious fight. Drona sent Ashwatthama to stop the fight because seeing this the citizens may get triggered by their fight. Then, Arjuna entered the hall with much appreciation and praises from the citizen of Hastinapura. He showed various archery skills to the people. Drona impressed by his beloved student Arjuna's skills then declared that Arjuna is the greatest archer in the world. Then, Karna gatecrashed and entered the arena and surpassed everyone's expectations and performances with the permission of Drona. He then challenged Arjuna for a duel and Kripa demanded that Karna state his lineage. Karna could not answer as he does not know who are his real parents. Duryodhana then made Karna the king of Anga. Then sunset occurred and the duel of Karna and Arjuna was stopped.

Drona's revenge

After Drona completed the formal training of the Kuru princes, he demanded that they invade Panchala and bring Draupada as their Gurudakshina. Arjuna succeeds in defeating Drupada and brings the captured king to Drona. Drona reminds Drupada about their days of friendship and his false promise before taking away half of the Panchala kingdom. Drona would make Ashwatthama the king of the annexed half of the Panchala kingdom. This action would lead Drupada to perform a sacrificial yagna in order to beget a son who would kill Drona. The sages Upayaja and Yaja helped him to beget such a son Dhrishtadyumna. The sacrificial fire also yielded a daughter, Draupadi.

Role in the Kurukshetra War

Drona had been the preceptor of most kings involved in the Kurukshetra War on both sides. Drona strongly condemned Duryodhana exiling the Pandavas, as well as the Kauravas' general abuse towards the Pandavas. But being a servant of Hastinapura, Drona was duty-bound to fight for the Kauravas, and thus against his favorite Pandavas. After the fall of Bhishma on the 10th day, he became the Chief Commander of the Kaurava army on the 11th day of war. Duryodhana manages to convince Drona to try to end the war by capturing Yudhishthira. Though he killed hundreds and thousands of Pandava troops, Drona failed to capture Yudhishthira on the 11th and 12th day of the war, as Arjuna was always there to repel his advances.

Abhimanyu's killing

On the 13th day of the war, Drona formed the Chakravyuha strategy to capture Yudhishtira, knowing that only Arjuna and Krishna would know how to penetrate it. The Trigartas were distracting Arjuna and Krishna into another part of the battlefield, allowing the main Kaurava army to surge through the Pandava ranks.
Unknown to many, Arjuna's young son Abhimanyu had the knowledge to penetrate the formation but did not know the way out. At the request of Yudhishthira, Abhimanyu agreed to lead the way for the Pandava army and was able to penetrate the formation. However, he was trapped when Jayadratha, the King of Sindhu, held the Pandava warriors who were following him, at bay. Abhimanyu did not know how to get out of the Chakravyuha, but embarked upon an all-out attack on the Kaurava army, killing tens of thousands of warriors single-handedly. Drona is impressed with Abhimanyu and praises him endlessly, earning the ire of Duryodhana. With his army facing decimation and spurred on by Duryodhana's criticisms, Drona asked the Kaurava warriors to simultaneously attack Abhimanyu, to strike down his horses and his charioteer and to disable his chariot from different angles. Left without support, Abhimanyu began fighting from the ground. Exhausted after his long and prodigious feats, Abhimanyu was eventually killed.
After that, several who fought against Abhimanyu were criticized for their murder, such as Bhurishrava, Drona and Karna.