Itihāsa / Mahābhārata chronicle / Ādi · 6 of 50
6. The teacher's school
Ādi (आदि)
The princes need a master of arms. Droṇa, a brāhmaṇa who has been poor and who has been insulted for it, comes to Hāstinapura carrying the weapons of his teacher, the same Paraśurāma who appears at the edge of Rāma's story. Bhīṣma hires him. Droṇa makes Arjuna the pupil he loves, and he asks a price that is not a fee. One day the princes will attack Pañcāla, whose king Drupada was Droṇa's childhood friend and later his humiliator. Teaching, in this house, is already a campaign.
A tribal boy, Ekalavya, wants the same teaching and is refused because of his birth. He builds an image of Droṇa in the forest and practices before it, and he becomes extraordinary. When Droṇa finds him, he asks the fee a teacher may ask. Ekalavya gives his thumb. The poem records the gift and does not comfort the reader. Skill has been protected for the princes by taking it from someone the school would not admit.
At the exhibition of the princes, Arjuna seems unmatched, until a charioteer's son walks in and matches him. Karṇa. The princes sneer at his birth. Duryodhana anoints him king of Aṅga on the spot, and buys a loyalty that will outlast every advantage. Kuntī, in the stands, knows the sun's child and says nothing. The war already has its two archers.
नेपालीमा
द्रोण राजकुमारहरूका गुरु भए, र शुल्कभन्दा बढी दामका रूपमा द्रुपदविरुद्ध युद्ध मागे। द्रोणले अर्जुनलाई आफ्नो प्रिय शिष्य बनाए। एकलव्यले पनि त्यही शिक्षा चाहे, तर जन्मका कारण उनलाई सिकाइएन। उनले वनमा द्रोणको मूर्ति बनाएर त्यसको अगाडि अभ्यास गरे, र असाधारण भए। द्रोणले उनलाई भेट्दा गुरुदक्षिणामा बुढी औँला मागे, र एकलव्यले दिए। कविताले यो लेख्छ, तर पाठकलाई सान्त्वना दिँदैन। राजकुमारहरूको परीक्षामा अर्जुन अतुलनीय देखिँदै थिए, तबसम्म सारथिका छोरा कर्ण आएर उनको बराबरी गरे। दुर्योधनले त्यहीँ उनलाई अङ्गको राजा बनाए। कुन्तीले सूर्यका ती छोरालाई चिनिन्, र केही बोलिनन्।