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Ekalavya wanted to be an archer his entire life. As long as he could remember, he dreamed of being the best archer in all the lands. Being a Bhil, Ekalavya knew his chances were slim, yet he knew he had to try to achieve his dreams. So when the call for new trainees to come, Ekalavya traveled for days to reach Drona, who was the best trainer in all the land. When Ekalavya arrived to train with Drona, Drona immediately dismissed him because he was a Bhil and seemingly unworthy of training with Drona. Drona obviously had some unhandled childhood trauma he was projecting onto Ekalavya, but nevertheless he sent Ekalavya away.
As a young boy, this was devastating to Ekalayva and for weeks he wept. He just wanted to be like the other boys and get to pursue his dreams. One day, Ekalavya woke up in the early morning and knew what he had to do. If Drona refused to teach him, Ekalavya would have to teach himself. So every day before dawn, Ekalayva woke up to train. He was very disciplined and never missed a day of training. As he grew older and stronger, he became a spectacular archer because of his hard work and dedication. His notoriety grew from town to town, and soon everyone knew that the best archer was Ekalavya.
Drona heard these stories of an amazing archer, but thought it could not be true because he hadn’t trained the boy. So Drona headed off to find out for himself. As he reached the Bhil Kingdom, he stopped to hunt for food. He was just about to shoot his dinner, when an arrow whizzed past him and killed the rabbit he was aiming at. He looked around to see who had disrespected his hunt. Ekalavya rode up and brought the rabbit to Drona. Drona was enraged by this act of what he thought was insolence and disrespect.
"Who do you think you are?" exclaimed Drona.
Ekalavya explained that he was just trying to prove his skills to impress him, but Drona did not believe him.
"No, obviously you are just stealing my hunt and embarrass me, but that will not happen today. You will pay for what you have done," said Drona.
Ekalavya was disheartened by Drona’s anger as he had hoped to finally win Drona’s praise for his archery, but his display had had the opposite effect. Drona was not pleased with the act, though, and so with one swift motion, he cut off Ekalavya’s right thumb as payment for the disrespect. Then satisfied that he had restored his honor, Drona rode off.
Ekalavya went back to his home. Once again, Ekalavya was disheartened by the actions of Drona. This time Ekalavya was a man and skilled, but he had still not been worthy of Drona and was now maimed. Little by little, though, Ekalavya healed, and the same determination from his childhood drove him to learn how to shoot a bow with his middle fingers. It was extremely hard and healing his hand was very painful but soon he was even better than he was before. News of his greatness once again spread and because of this everyone in the Bhil Kingdom copied him and started using their middle fingers for shooting their bows. This is how the archers from the infamous Bhil Kingdom got their unique style and became the best archers in all the land.
Author's Note: This story is an adaptation from part of the Mahabharata. In the original, Drona turns Ekalavya away, but Ekalavya still worships Drona and works hard to become a great archer. In the end, Ekalavya and Drona meet again, and Drona asks for Ekalavya to cut off his own thumb, which he does to try and appease Drona. This makes him a lesser archer and he still does not gain him the respect of Drona. This all seemed mean and sad to me because Ekalavya tried so hard to be a great archer and it was unfair from the beginning that Drona would not train him, so I switch the ending around for Ekalavya. Ekalavya seemed to work so hard just to be punished for his dreams, aspirations, and hard work. I love the side characters in these epics because they have such rich back-stories.
Throughout this class, I have tried to give some justice to characters who were mistreated or had misfortune, so I felt like Ekalavya was deserving of his own new story. Drona judged Ekalavya for being a Bhil, a group of tribal people in India who are mainly farmers and are still that way today. They still today live a hard life due to lack of education and living in land that is hostile territory, which often faces drought. So Ekalavya was being judged from where he came from, which is something people still unfairly face today. Overall, the theme and storyline changed, but the characters stayed the same to create a new story that was more just for Ekalavya.
The Bhil Tribe
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