Drupada captured: Droṇa's fee

Classical

After the tournament Droṇa judged the time had come to claim his fee. He gathered his pupils and said, "Seize Drupada, the king of Pāñcāla, in battle and bring him to me." The princes agreed and set out in their chariots with Droṇa. Duryodhana, Karṇa, Yuyutsu, Duḥśāsana, Vikarṇa and others raced one another to be first to attack. They laid siege to Drupada's capital and rode into the streets. Arjuna had held back the Pāṇḍavas. He told Droṇa to let the others show their strength first, because Drupada could not be taken by them. The Pāṇḍavas waited a mile outside the city. Drupada came out of his palace on his white chariot and rained arrows on the Kauravas; he moved so fast that they thought there were many Drupadas.

The citizens poured missiles on the Kuru army from the walls, and the Kauravas broke and ran, calling for the Pāṇḍavas. The Pāṇḍavas bowed to Droṇa and went in. Arjuna told the twins to guard his chariot wheels, and Bhīma went ahead with his mace and smashed the Pāñcāla elephants like cliffs struck by lightning. Arjuna beat the general Satyajit, cut Drupada's bow and flagstaff, leapt from his chariot onto Drupada's, and seized the king as Garuḍa seizes a serpent. The Pāñcāla troops fled. When the princes began to sack the city, Arjuna stopped them: Drupada was a kinsman of the Kurus, and they had come only to pay their teacher's fee. They brought Drupada, with his friends and counsellors, before Droṇa. Droṇa reminded him of his words: a poor man could not be a king's friend.

He said he had laid waste Drupada's kingdom and that Drupada's life was in his hands, but he would not kill him, and offered friendship again. As a gift he would give back half the kingdom: Drupada would rule south of the Gaṅgā, Droṇa the north. Drupada agreed and wished for lasting friendship. Droṇa let him go. Drupada returned to Kāmpilya, sad and humbled. He had learned that he could not defeat Droṇa by Kṣatriya force alone, since Droṇa was his superior in spiritual power. He began to wander the earth, looking for a way to get a son who could kill Droṇa. Droṇa settled at Ahicchatra, the northern half. This is how the quarrel between two schoolfriends became the root of two births, Dhṛṣṭadyumna's from the fire and Draupadī's, and eventually of Droṇa's death.

The structure of the capture is neat. The Kauravas go first, as the higher-ranking, and fail. Arjuna, who held back, succeeds where they failed, which confirms Droṇa's choice of him. Yet Droṇa's generosity is also a form of insult: he gives back half of what he took, saying that Drupada said only a king can be a king's friend, and now Droṇa is a king too. Drupada does not forget. His quest for a son ends in the sacrifice from which Dhṛṣṭadyumna and Draupadī are born, and he will have them marry into the Pāṇḍavas, the only people strong enough to fight Droṇa. A schoolboy friendship thus gives the epic both its heroine and its villain's killer.

Told by Vaiśampāyana → Janamejaya

Who: Droṇa, Drupada, Arjuna, Bhīma, Duryodhana, Karṇa, Satyajit

Bound to

Drona born in a pot; Dhrishtadyumna born from fire to kill him origin

Draupadī's svayaṃvara: Arjuna wins the target origin

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

Kaṇika's counsel and Yudhiṣṭhira made heir origin

Places: Pāñcāla, Kāmpilya, Ahicchatra, Gaṅgā

Where this comes from

read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (Roy edition, archive.org full text) Adi Parva, Section CXL (Droṇa's fee; the siege of Pāñcāla)
read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (mahabharataonline.com) Adi Parva, Section CXXXII (the original insult)

See it on the tree · All stories

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