In this episode of Mahabharata, we learn the reason for Dronacharya’s angst and the reason he has lived away from his wife and son for years.
When a three year old Ashwathama demanded milk, Dronacharya resolved to get a cow from his childhood friend Prince Drupad of Panchaal, who is now its king. As a child Drupad had told Dronacharya “we are friends, so what’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine”, and Dronacharya intended to make him honor that promise. When he went over to Drupad’s court and demanded a cow based on their “old friendship”, Drupad had scoffed at him. He ridiculed Dronacharya for taking immature ignorant childish words seriously, and said that their situations have changed. He said that only people of equal status in society can be friends, and as a simple Brahmin, Dronacharya can never be a king’s friend. He states that if Dronacharya wants something, he should beg for it like all Brahmins beg for alms. As a king, Drupad would then be obligated to give Dronacharya what he wanted as a charitable donation. An incensed Dronacharya returned back to Hastinapur but never went home, since he never got a cow from Drupad.
Kripacharya asks Dronacharya what the big deal is about one cow, as Kripacharya himself has several cows and would be happy to let Dronacharya have some. Dronacharya retorts that it’s about the way Drupad treated him. Dronacharya states that the Kuru princes owe him guru’s dues and he intends to collect - by making them capture Drupad alive and bring him before Dronacharya.
Duryodhan and the Kauravas take some of Hastinapur’s soldiers and invade Panchaal to make Drupad do battle with them. Drupad however, cleverly holds a large chunk of his army back, waits until the Kauravas fully commit all their forces to the fight, then has his reserve force launch a surprise flanking attack. This sends Duryodhan and his forces into a pell mell rout.
Can the Pandavas succeed where Duryodhan failed?
And will Krishna and Sudhama’s friendship be any different than Dronacharya and Drupad’s?
Tropes found here are
- Adaptational Villainy: In the original poem, Dronacharya straight up went to Drupad and demanded half his kingdom because of a childhood utterance by the king. This makes Drupad’s insulting dismissive behavior towards Dronacharya look more justified, as no king in his right mind would hand over half his kingdom to some Brahmin he knew as a child, simply because that Brahmin demanded it “one friend to another”. Over here, Dronacharya demands just one cow, making Drupad’s behavior more unsympathetic. This is so he can be the
Designated Villain in this episode. The series returns to a canonical adaptation after this by having Dronacharya seize half of Drupad’s kingdom anyway and hand it over to Ashwathama to rule. - Attack! Attack! Attack!: Duryodhan and his army fling themselves full tilt into Drupad’s army. The crafty old king let them fully expend themselves trying to smash through just a part of his army. He then deployed troops he’d been holding in reserve in a flanking attack that routed Duryodhan’s forces.
- Blasting It Out of Their Hands: Arjun blasts all of Drupad’s weapons out of his hands with very accurate arrows, before capturing him.
- Foreshadowing: Krishna tells Sudhama not to come to Mathura to visit him. This is because Krishna will relocate along with his entire clan to Dwarka.
- Hold the Line: At first, Drupad’s army holds against an onslaught by Duryodhan and Hastinapur’s army, until the entire OPFOR has engaged, then Drupad deploys his reserve force in a flanking attack that routs Duryodhan’s army.
- Four Pandavas, Yudhistir, Bhim, Nakul and Sahadev hold against an onslaught by Drupad’s soldiers, long enough for Arjun to get within arrow range of Drupad.
- Overzealous Underling: When ordered by Dronacharya to bring Drupad back as a prisoner, Duryodhan states his intent to kill Drupad instead. Dronacharya scolds him that he explicitly asked for Drupad to be brought back alive, then states that doing something beyond the scope of an order is just as bad as not following that order.
- Pride: Both Dronacharya and Drupad have loads of it. Drupad let his Royal status go to his head and treated Dronacharya shabbily. But Dronacharya was also too prideful to instead just follow standard protocol and beg the king for a cow, instead of demanding one as a friend. Moreover, as Kripacharya stated, he has several cows and would gladly share some with his impoverished sister’s family. But, no! Dronacharya’s pride was hurt by Drupad so his family had to be bereft of him for a few years.
- Secret Test: When Arjun demands why only the Kauravas were sent to capture Drupad, Dronacharya says that this assignment is a test for Duryodhan - to see whether he has learned to not let arrogance cause him to underestimate an opponent. Sure enough, Duryodhan fails the test badly.
