Ekalavya's thumb: a student's fee

Classical

Among the many who came to learn archery from Droṇa was Ekalavya, the son of a Niṣāda chief, a forest people outside the four orders. Droṇa refused to take him as a pupil because of his birth, and also, the text says, because he feared Ekalavya might become better than his high-born students. Ekalavya touched Droṇa's feet and went back to the forest. There he made a clay image of Droṇa, honoured it as his teacher, and practised with it before him. Devotion and discipline made him extraordinarily good. One day the Pāṇḍavas went hunting in the forest with a dog. The dog wandered off and found Ekalavya, a dark figure in matted hair and dirty clothes. It barked at him.

Ekalavya, to stop the noise, shot seven arrows into its open mouth so fast that the dog came back to the princes with its mouth full of arrows and unharmed. The Pāṇḍavas were amazed and ashamed. They found Ekalavya and asked who he was. He said he was Droṇa's pupil. Arjuna, anxious, went to Droṇa and reminded him that he had once promised Arjuna that no pupil would be his equal. Droṇa took Arjuna to the forest and found Ekalavya in his usual place. Ekalavya touched Droṇa's feet and offered him honour as his teacher. Droṇa said: if you are my pupil, give me my fee. Ekalavya, delighted, asked what he could give. Droṇa asked for the thumb of his right hand.

Ekalavya, true to his word and without a change in his face, cut off his thumb and gave it to his teacher. When he took up his bow again, he could not shoot as quickly as before. Arjuna, the text says, was relieved. This is one of the most troubling scenes in the epic. The text does not condemn Droṇa outright, but it does not defend him either, and readers have argued about it for centuries: a teacher keeps a promise to a favourite, and a student pays for a lesson he never received. Later tradition tried to give it a reason. The Harivaṃśa makes Ekalavya a Niṣāda king whom Kṛṣṇa kills; another story has him reborn as Dhṛṣṭadyumna, who kills Droṇa.

Readers have found several things in this scene. Some see a plain case of caste: a teacher refuses a Niṣāda boy and then takes his skill by force. Some stress Ekalavya's devotion, which here turns into the most famous example of a student's obedience. Others note that the text has Arjuna come to Droṇa first with a complaint, which sets Droṇa's act in a promise to a favourite. The Mahābhārata itself gives no clear verdict, and a later hint of one is the story that Ekalavya's family went on to rule as Niṣāda kings, and that he was reborn to kill Droṇa. In modern India the scene is still argued over.

Told by Vaiśampāyana → Janamejaya

Who: Ekalavya, Droṇa, Arjuna

Bound to

Ekalavya's later life: Nishada king, killed by Krishna origin

Ekalavya reborn as Dhrishtadyumna to kill Drona mirror

Droṇa arrives at Hastināpura: the ball in the well and the bird's eye origin

Karna's curses: the beetle, the cow, and the sinking wheel mirror

Places: The forest near Hastināpura

Where this comes from

read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (mahabharataonline.com) Adi Parva, Section CXXXIV (Ekalavya's clay image, the dog, the thumb)

See it on the tree · All stories

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