The brahmin-warrior Drona came to Hastinapura seeking employment. As he approached the palace, he saw the young princes, both the Pandavas and the Kauravas, trying to retrieve a ball they had lost in a well.

"Help us, sir!" said one of the boys; that boy was Arjuna.

Drona plucked a blade of grass and threw it like a dart. It pierced the ball, and then he threw another blade of grass, and another, forming a chain so he could pull the ball out.

The boys, amazed by his abilities, ran to tell Bhishma, who engaged Drona to be their guru.

Drona trained the Pandavas and the Kauravas in warfare, and Arjuna was his best student.

One day, Drona staged an archery contest. He mounted a stuffed bird high on a pole and summoned the princes. "What do you see?" Drona asked.

Yudhishthira went first. "I see you, and a pole, and..."

"Stop!" Drona shouted. "Next!"

"I see a pole, and a bird..."

None of the princes satisfied Drona.

Then Arjuna said, "I see an eye."

"Do you see the pole?"

"No."

"The bird?

"No, only an eye."

"Shoot!" said Drona, and Arjuna hit the target.

Thus Arjuna won the contest.

One day when Drona was bathing in the river, a crocodile seized him.

Drona yelled for help, and Arjuna came running. When he saw his guru in the crocodile's jaws, Arjuna shot five arrows that sliced through the crocodile and killed it.

Drona was free!

In gratitude, Drona taught Arjuna the mantra for a secret weapon. "Use this weapon with care," Drona warned him. "If you launch it against an enemy who is inferior to you, it will destroy the universe. Use it only on an overwhelming enemy, and you will triumph, no matter how powerful your opponent might be."

Ekalavya, a boy who lived in the forest, asked Drona to be his guru, but Drona refused.

Ekalavya then made a statue of Drona and trained himself under the gaze of this statue.

He became a remarkable archer.

One day Arjuna's hunting dog was barking. To silence the dog, Ekalavya shot arrows into the dog's mouth in a way that did not harm the dog but kept it from closing its mouth.

When he saw this, Arjuna was dismayed. "Look at this, Drona!" he cried. "You promised I would be the greatest archer, but even I cannot shoot like this."

"Who did this?" Drona shouted, pointing to the arrows in the dog's mouth.

Ekalavya stepped forward. "I did!"

Drona recognized the forest-boy. "Who trained you?"

"You did," Ekalavya replied, proudly showing Drona the statue he had made, certain Drona would now accept him as his student.

But instead, Drona said, "Since I was your guru, you must now pay the guru-fee."

"Anything!" exclaimed Ekalavya.

"Give me the thumb of your right hand," said Drona.

Ekalavya did not hesitate; he cut off his thumb and presented it to Drona.

Drona smiled; the boy would never again rival Arjuna as an archer.

When the princes completed their training, Drona organized a tournament, and the public thronged the stadium.

Yudhishthira, Duryodhana, Bhima, all the princes performed brilliantly, but Arjuna was the best.

Then a stranger entered the stadium. "I challenge you, Arjuna!" he said. "Fight me!"

"But who are you?" asked Drona.

"I am Karna!" replied the stranger.

"I don't know you," Drona said. "Who is your father?"

The stranger hesitated. "My father is a charioteer."

Drona sneered at the stranger.

But Queen Kunti, sitting in the audience, fainted. She had guessed Karna's identity: he was her first-born son, now a grown man.

Karna turned to leave, but Duryodhana badly wanted to humiliate Arjuna.

"Stop!" he shouted. "I make Karna king of Anga, and the king of Anga will fight Arjuna."

"I am your loyal friend forever," said Karna. Then he turned to face Arjuna. "Now we will fight!"

Arjuna was indignant. "I won't fight a charioteer's son!"

"He is a king!" Duryodhana shouted, turning to his father for support, although Dhritarashtra only shook his head in confusion.

The crowd murmured, not sure what to think.

Then the sun set.

The tournament was over, but Duryodhana had acquired a new ally in Karna.

A charioteer had found baby Karna in the river and adopted him, but Karna's life was cursed.

First, practicing archery, Karna accidentally killed a brahmin's cow. "You will die like my cow," swore the brahmin, "struck down by an inescapable arrow."

Another time, Karna saw a girl crying because she had spilled a pot of milk. Feeling sorry for her, Karna squeezed the milk back out of the earth. This caused the earth great pain, and the earth goddess, Bhudevi, cursed Karna. "When you are in danger," she said, "I will not help you; instead, I will help your opponent."

Karna asked the brahmin-warrior Parashurama to teach him the Brahmastra weapon.

"I suspect you're a kshatriya," said Parashurama.

"No!" Karna lied. "I'm no kshatriya!"

So Karna became Parashurama's disciple.

One day Parashurama fell asleep, his head resting on Karna's lap. An enormous centipede bit Karna's thigh and sucked his blood. Karna said nothing, not wanting to wake his guru.

When Parashurama awoke and found himself covered with blood, he shouted, "Only a kshatriya would bear such pain in silence. For your deceit, I curse you: when you want to use the Brahmastra, the sacred mantra will slip from your mind."

When Drona had trained the Pandavas and Kauravas, he demanded the guru-fee: he wanted revenge on King Drupada.

This is why:

Young Drupada had studied with Bharadwaja, Drona's father. As boys, Drupada and Drona were best friends.

Time passed. Drupada became king, while Drona was only a poor brahmin, so poor he didn't even have milk to give to his little boy, Ashwatthama.

Out of love for his son, Drona went to ask his friend Drupada for help.

"Friend?" King Drupada scoffed. "Friends must be equals, but you are not my equal in any way."

Drona vowed revenge that day.