your bridge home
The Great Epics
He was told no. So he built his teacher out of clay, taught himself in front of it, and became the finest archer any of them had ever seen.
In the forest, a boy built a man out of clay.
He shaped the shoulders. He shaped the beard, and the set of the mouth. He stood the figure at the edge of a clearing, where the light was good.
Then he strung his bow, bowed to the clay, and began to practise.
He did that every day for years. The clay man was his teacher. The clay man had never agreed to it.
The boy was Ekalavya, son of Hiranyadhanus, king of the Nishadas. The Nishadas were a forest people with their own land, their own army and their own throne. Ekalavya was a prince. And he was born to the bow.
He wanted the finest teacher of archery alive. That was Drona, at the Kuru court in Hastinapura, who was training the princes of that house.
So Ekalavya walked to Hastinapura and asked.
The rest of this story, read aloud, and a new one every day.