When Drona went to his childhood friend, Drupada, to remind him of his promise of eternal friendship made long ago, Drupada rebuked him and spurned him. Burning with anger and humiliation, Drona was filled with a desire for revenge. That was the only tragic flaw in a brave and supremely talented archer who taught the use of arms to the Kaurava and the Pandava princes.
Drona, the valiant archer, is second only to Bheeshma among the respected elders of the Mahabharata. Yet the remains an outsider. He added a streak of personal vendetta to that tale of family feud. Drona had studied together with Drupada, who later become king of Panchala, in the ashram of Agnivesha. When he is unable to buy a glass of milk for his beloved son, he turns for help to his childhood friend. But when Drupada humiliates him he goes to Hastinapura and becomes the teacher of military science to the Pandavas and Kauravas. His faith that Arjuna alone, amongst the Kaurava and Pandava princes, can avenge his humiliation makes him bestow special attention on this prince. It seems very cruel on his part to have demanded the thumb of Ekalavya, the great archer, but here again his own motives left him little choice but to pamper Arjuna.
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