Guru Dronacharya who was the incarnation of Brahma was a preceptor to the Kauravas. The Unheard story of Guru Dronacharya is about the explaining both sides of a story. As per the Hindu mythology Dronacharya was not born out of a womb but from a leaf and that is the meaning of ‘Drona’. Dronacharya was well versed with military and archery skills which he learned together with Draupada, who was the prince of panchala. It is said that Draupada and Dronacharya were good friends. Guru Parasurama provided all the knowledge and weapons to Dronacharya and he attained the title of Acharya. After marriage Dronacharya went to Hastinapur and trained kauravas and Pandavas and of all of them Arjuna was his favourite disciple and he was so impressed with Arjuna that he gave Brahmastra to Arjuna.

Eklavya was from the so called tribal caste which was not considered to be equal to Kshatriyas. Eklavya came to Dronacharya and requested him to be his teacher but Dronacharya refused it saying that you cannot be trained along with Kshatriya. This was against the ethics of teacher and student, but still Dronacharya did it. There can be two reasons why Dronacharya denied the knowledge to Eklavya.

Eklavya was the son of the commander of Magadha and the terms between Magadha and Hastinapur were not good and Dronacharya could not teach someone from the rival state . Eklavya was from the so called lower caste. Irony is even in that Vedic age there was caste ism and one could only wonder if there was reservation then what would have been the future of Hastinapur. There is a possibility that Eklavya could have been the greatest archer of all time not Arjuna.

Eklavya was disappointed when his request was turned down, but he wanted to learn things . He made a clay image of Dronacharya and learned all the skills on his determination and hard work. When Dronacharya came to knew that using his image he has learned all the skills, He asked Eklavya that where is his Guru Dakshina(which is something that you give your teacher out of respect and gratitude) . Eklavya was such a humble person and good student that he said anything you can ask for and Dronacharya cleverly asked for his Right thumb so that he cannot use any of his archery skills, Eklavya didn’t say anything and cut his right Thumb and gave it to Dronacharya. This is how a great warrior and archer was handicapped.

This was not the first incident that showed Dronacharya was pro Kshatriyas, When Karna came to him and requested him to teach the art of warfare and archery, He rejected him also stating that he was son of a Chariot puller. Karna learner the art of warfare from Dronacharya’s teacher Parasurama.

Dronacharya also wanted revenge from Draupada who was his childhood friend and ordered Kauravas and Pandavas to attack panchal and in this he took half of his kingdom. It is said that Bhisma asked Dronacharya to teach the kauravas the art of warfare, so Dronacharya set up a gurukul and named that village as Guru Gramam which is now known as Gurgaon(Guru Gram).

Guru Dronacharya was highly trained and had great Knowledge but he has and should be criticised for Biased on Arjuna and his behaviour on Eklavya and Karna. Teacher should only teach knowledge and it should not be biased on any grounds. One can only wonder if he would had said yes to Eklavya then the story would have been entirely different and He would have emerged has the greatest warrior.

It was the 15th day of the Mahabharata and Lord Krishna knew that it is impossible to defeat Dronacharya when he is armed. Ashwattama who was the son of Dronacharya was born to be a chiranjivi. Ashwattama was also an elephant in the battle, and the plan was made that we would say Ashwattama is dead and when everyone proclaimed that Ashwattama was dead, Dronacharya went to Yudhishthira, as he never lied and he also said Ashwattama is dead and when he explained he is an elephant, at that moment Lord Krishna asked to blow trumpets and Dronacharya never heard the later part and he was so dejected that he removed all his weapons and started meditating on the floor to search the soul of his son, at that moment the son of Draupada, Drishtadyumna beheaded Dronacharya and he was killed. This was considered against the ethics of the war, but as they say its all karma, The person who never followed the teacher student ethics was also killed against the ethics.

It is for you to decide that is it good to give the title of Guru to a person who has always been biased and unethical?

Himanshuy.