KARNA: Son of the Charioteer

Chapter 6

Radheya realized that it would be difficult to find a teacher willing to teach him the art of war and martial arts, as he clearly came from the sudra caste. He looked up at the sun above him and then prostrated himself.

"God Surya, you who bestow your rays on everyone regardless of caste, let yourself be my teacher." After paying homage like a student to a teacher, he went to a forest with a plan to train in martial arts on his own. He knew that to master martial arts, discipline in training was crucial.

Quickly, his feet ran through the trees and bushes to find a high place. Along the way, Radheya found a natural cave that was uninhabited. He unloaded his belongings containing an axe, sword, spear, bow and arrows—items he had ordered from a blacksmith a few months ago.

Radheya cut down some trees with his axe, arranged them neatly, and made them into a door for his cave. He turned branches into arrows and spears. The rest became firewood.

Every morning, Radheya would train himself with various weapons and then specialize in arrow training. During the day, he would worship the sun by the river and then continue his arrow training until evening, often into the night.

Once, Radheya was curious about the training done by Dorna's students. He tried to spy on the military school's training field to learn something.

However, after a day of spying, he didn't gain anything useful. It seemed that Drona only trained ordinary things for other princes, or perhaps he kept the advanced lessons secret and only taught them to certain individuals.

After that, Radheya never approached Drona's training grounds again.

One day, he shot a rabbit and was surprised to find two arrows in it. A dark-skinned man appeared nearby. "It was my arrow that first touched that rabbit," the young man said.

Radheya didn't want to argue about the rabbit, so he just pulled out his arrow and left the rabbit there.

"What's your name and who is your teacher?" the dark-skinned young man asked.

Radheya glanced at him and then replied nonchalantly, "Before asking, you should introduce yourself."

The young man smiled, "My name is Ekalavya, a student of Drona."

Instantly, Radheya felt a dislike for Ekalavya, remembering how he had been mistreated by that teacher. "I am Radheya, and my teacher is Surya. I won't give this rabbit to you," Radheya said. "Do you see that guava fruit? The arrow that hits it deserves this rabbit."

The guava pointed out by Radheya was about forty steps away from them, depending on the tree and hidden by leaves.

Ekalavya quickly drew his bow and the arrow flew to hit the guava, causing both the arrow and the guava to stick to the tree trunk. Angrily, Radheya pulled his arrow and shot it right at the guava wedged between Ekalavya's arrow and the tree. The guava was cut in half and fell.

"Let's split the rabbit," Radheya said angrily, feeling that he was on par with Drona's student. He had trained two to three times harder than the training he knew Drona gave to his students, yet he was still evenly matched with the dark-skinned young man. Frustration consumed him.

"Fine," the young man said, taking the rabbit. "I will cook it, and we will split it into two."

Radheya wanted to protest because if the young man took him to the military school, he would surely not be allowed in. However, as Ekalavya walked in the opposite direction of the military school, Radheya fell silent.

"Where are you going?" Radheya asked.

"To my place," the young man replied, starting to run, with Radheya following him.

When they arrived at a small field, Radheya was surprised to find a clay statue resembling Drona. Ekalavya prostrated himself before the statue and then took out a small knife to clean the rabbit.

"Don't you practice at the military school there?" Radheya asked.

Ekalavya shook his head. "Guru Drona forbade me there because of my low caste. But he is still my teacher."

Radheya was intrigued by this and wondered if Drona was secretly teaching someone from a low caste.

"Does he teach you personally?" Radheya inquired.

"No. I learn by watching him teach other students," Ekalavya replied.

"In that case, he is not your teacher," Radheya said, growing even more disenchanted with Drona.

"No, he is my teacher. And I worship him," Ekalavya insisted.

Radheya rolled his eyes. He had met another person rejected by Drona, but this one seemed a bit crazy, still worshipping Drona while Radheya was starting to hate him. He felt a desire to one day defeat Drona or his proud students.

Radheya left Ekalavya and returned to the forest. Not long after, he came back with three rabbits. "One rabbit won't be enough for both of us."

They then became friends. Ekalavya was the son of the Nishadha tribe chief, part of the Magadha kingdom.

He was the son of Vyatraj Harinyadhanu, a tribal chief and a warrior of King Jarasandha's kingdom. He came to Hastinapur wanting to become a student of the famous Drona.

However, Drona soon rejected him because he was not a prince of the kingdom. Despite not diminishing his respect for Drona, Ekalavya made a clay statue of Drona and treated it as his teacher. He then trained his abilities by observing Drona teach other students. Ekalavya had been training for two years longer before Radheya arrived in the forest.

"He is not your teacher," Radheya reiterated after they finished eating. "He has refused to teach you."

"No," Ekalavya stood up, his expression serious. "He cannot teach me because he is the special guru of the Kuru Kingdom and is bound only to the princes. He would teach me if I did not burden him with his status as the special guru of the Kuru Kingdom. Doesn't a teacher never refuse a student seeking protection from him? In my heart, he is my teacher, and everything I have learned is from him."

Radheya waved his hand dismissively. "If that's what you want, then do it. He has also rejected me, and I consider him unworthy of being a teacher because he judges someone not by their abilities but by their status and caste."

"You have insulted my teacher," Ekalavya replied angrily. "Let's fight."

Radheya looked at Ekalavya and stood up. "The rabbits are gone, my stomach is full. It's daytime, and I must worship my teacher Surya. We can fight for game in the evening to prove who is the best archer. I'll wait for you."

Ekalavya agreed.

Over the next three days, they both knew their strengths were equal. However, Ekalavya couldn't accept this reality and created an unreasonable competition, such as shooting at distances that were impossible, even for himself.

Thus, they both had to try hard, competing to be the first to hit the target. Radheya won the competition after a few weeks.