In the previous episode, we had witnessed a huge war of words breaking out between Karna and Guru Dhronaachaarya as the former stormed into the “Ranga-Bhoomi” to showcase his talents. He was initially given the permission to have a one-on-one with Arjuna with the bow and arrow, and Karna was too good to be handled by Arjuna! With his exceptional skill set, Karna literally made Arjuna run for his money! This shocked the entire gathering out there, and till that point, the world did not realize that there was another person who is either as good as Arjuna or even better than him in the art of handling the bow and arrow. As the others were feeling happy and were starting to appreciate Karna for his exceptional talent, Guru Dhronaachaarya had other ideas! He did not like anyone getting better than Arjuna in this art form. He was looking for ways and means to downplay Karna, like he did in the case of Ekalavya previously. However, as the entire “Ranga-Bhoomi” was up in applause, Karna wanted to showcase his talent in the “Dvanda-Yuddha” with Arjuna. Karna was growing in power all of a sudden, and this time, Guru Dhronaachaarya stopped him then and there! He did not want Karna to proceed any further!
This created a huge war of words and Karna defended himself that he had every right to be part of the “Ranga-Bhoomi” event and participate in it. However, Guru Dhronaachaarya maintained that Karna was a charioteer’s son and he is not eligible to be here. Finally, Duryodhana saw this as an opportunity to quickly pull Karna by his side, and immediately appointed Karna as the king of “Anga Desha”. Now Duryodhana replied to Guru Dhronaachaarya on behalf of Karna that he has every right to be part of the “Ranga-Bhoomi” and he should go ahead with the “Dvanda-Yuddha” with Arjuna! Irked by this, Guru Dhronaachaarya got up immediately and walked away! This insulted Karna even more! Thus, from this day, Karna carried this insult in his heart and every time he came across Guru Dhronaachaarya, he was fuming with anger!
Thus, we can see here how opportunistic Duryodhana was. He was looking out for someone who can excel Arjuna in the bow and arrow, and correctly spotted this Karna who was ticking all the boxes! He thus wanted to use Karna to defeat Arjuna and prove a point. It is only with this intention did Duryodhana gave Karna a shoulder to lean upon. However, Karna mistook Duryodhana’s gesture as a great friendship and went behind Duryodhana without understanding the fact that he was being used! This is where Karna went wrong! Thus, the learning for all of us here is that, if someone is trying to glorify us for no reason, we should first think as to why is this person doing it. We should analyze and find out keenly whether we’re being used by this person for something else. Karna failed to do this analysis and thus fell into Duryodhana’s trap right royally! In due course, we’re going to witness how Duryodhana madde Karna dance to his tunes, and made him a dummy!
Moving on further thus, as the “Ranga-Bhoomi” event was over, Guru Dhronaachaarya finally called up all his students to express his wish. This is when he talks about his earlier revenge with King Drupada. He explains to the students as to how he was once insulted by King Drupada for asking a section of his kingdom as promised by him. Guru Dhronaachaarya wanted someone from the students’ group to take up the challenge, wage a war against King Drupada, win over him, tie him and bring him to Guru Dhronaachaarya’s feet! Accordingly, Guru Dhronaachaarya sent all of them together – The Paandavas and Kauravas. At that time, all were together only and there were no differences between both the camps.
Thus, the Paandavas and Kauravas make their way together to King Drupada’s city entrance. At this point in time, Duryodhana and Karna felt that they both should go first, along with Ducchaasana and the others and the Paandavas should wait outside. Arjuna too agreed to Duryodhana’s words and the Paandavas did not come to the warfield. Duryodhana and Karna called King Drupada to come out and fight with them! King Drupada too got the signal and realized that these people were none other than Guru Dhronaachaarya’s disciples. He got angry and thus a huge war broke out between King Drupada and the Kaurava army! King Drupada was not an easy person to be defeated by any means. He was an expert in the art of warfare and he made Karna and Duryodhana run for their money! Youngsters as they were, Duryodhana and Karna at that time did not have the maturity, smartness and the precision to counter King Drupada! It was thus a battle of youthfulness vs. experience! King Drupada was not an easy nut to crack and thus, he chased away all these Kauravas, who ran back!
As Duryodhana and Co. came back with bruises all over their bodies, the Paandavas decided that they should have a go at King Drupada. They made a plan to keep Yudishtra with Guru Dhronaachaarya and the rest of the four people set out to fight King Drupada. However, this time the enemy camp was super strong with Bheemasena and Arjuna in the forefront! King Drupada underestimated these four people to be the same like Duryodhana and Co. who he had defeated earlier. A huge war broke out now, and King Drupada was made to run for his money! Arjuna ensured that he took on King Drupada in such a way that he wouldn’t be able to retaliate to any of Arjuna’s sharp and precise arrows! Thus, King Drupada at one stage gave it up and accepted defeat! As King Drupada was defeated, Bheemasena now started to destroy the entire kingdom of Drupada Desha. He saw this as a chance to show his strength and immense raw muscle power.
However, Arjuna stopped Bheemasena from doing this, because the instruction from the Guru was only to defeat King Drupada and bring him as a captive. Nothing other than this should be done! Bheemasena too agreed and the four Paandava brothers bring King Drupada along with them as a prisoner to Guru Dhronaachaarya! So for today, let us understand up to this point and let us witness in the next episode how Guru Dhronaachaarya reacted to this entire heist event! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 