One who was exceedingly well versed in military tactics and the most proficient user of vedic weaponaries like devastras, brahmashtras, brahmashira etc
He was the royal teacher to the pandavas (one of whom was arjuna) and it was his duty to train the pandavas to become the best warriors in the land.
However, the greatest criticism of Dronacharya comes from the incident when he demanded the thumb of eklavya, as gurudakshina (gurudakshina is loosely translated as tution fees for services of a teacher) for having obtained knowledge of archery from him.
According to the epic, eklavya had learnt the art of archery by watching the practice lessons of Arjuna and others while hiding behind the trees in the forest and he is said to have practiced those lessons incessantly till he attained a level of competence equalling the great Arjuna himself.
When Drona discovered eklavya in the forest and saw his terrific archery skills, he immediately demanded his thumb as gurudakshina from him. This would put a conclusive end to all his skills.
Many critics have argued that Drona was very cruel when he demanded the thumb of eklavya because eklavya was a pupil whom he did not even teach formally.
Further demanding the thumb would make eklavya incapable of any form of archery as he will never be able to pull string of the bow again.
The action of Dronacharya was regarded as the cruelest form of injustice and an act unbecoming of a noble teacher.
Now let us analyse from Drona's perspective whether his decision of demanding the thumb as gurudakshina was right or wrong.
Firstly Drona was a greatest practitioner of archery, his skill was unparalleled in his time. Numerous superlative words are used to describe in the epic for his exceptional level of expertise. If arjuna was regarded as the most powerful warrior of mahabharatha, it was only a reflection of the brilliance and competence of his great teacher.
His exceptional skill was matched by his passion and dedication towards the art of archery.
This is known from the fact that he did not allow the pandava princes (except arujuna) to shoot the eye of a parrot when they lacked adequate concentration skills for the task. This is because he considered a person not possessing sufficient concentration ineligible even to try and shoot the eye of the parrot.
Given the above zeal and passion, he was delighted to see Eklavya and was deeply touched by his level of comepetence acquired just by watching the lessons given to pandava princes. His admiration for eklavya was very deep though he did not show it out.
But now there was a problem, eklavya was not a prince but a son of a village chief and did not legally (under laws of that time) have any right to learn archery from a teacher and even less from a great expert like him. Eklavya had now broken the law of the land.
Before Drona could react his mind went back to the time when he and his wife was starving for food and were very indigent. A few years ago Drona was an extremely poor. He went to the king pandu for help to provide him with sustenance for living and also an opportunity to teach and practice his passion of archery.
King pandu granted him his request and gave him an identity and sustenance. So there was a burden of grattitude on Drona for all that king pandu had done for him. He respected the king for having provided him his needs and giving him an identity and was deeply loyal to the king. There is no way he would be disloyal to the king or break the laws of the land. It was his sacred duty.
Morever royal teachers at that time were sworn under a bond not to teach those skills of weaponary to persons other than those of royal household. There were two reasons for this
One, The reason was that the skills were regarded as the divine right of the royals alone and only the royals were supposed to learn it and Arjuna who showed a lot of promise was being groomed as the greatest warrior on earth.
Two, if those skills were learnt by common people they could use it in revolt against the king and the royal house hold.
Given the above drona now had the following dilema before he could speak to eklavya:
1. Drona was duty bound under his terms of appointment to not let eklavya have those exclusive skills that was the right of the princes alone. Drona's loyalty to the king could be questioned in the court with insinuation if it was learnt that he allowed (even if unknowingly) eklavya to learn the archery skills. Some people may even think drona was secretly training outsiders like eklavya in an attempt to over throw the king or his kingdom
2. Drona was also bound by his grattitude to the king for having given him and identity and sustenance when he needed them the most. To disrespect king's laws and be ungrateful was not his inclination. It would be a treachery. He had promised the king that arjuna will be the greatest warrior on earth and now he had unwittingly created a warrior who looked seemingly capable of defeating the great arjuna himself and had all the pottential to become the greatest warrior without even being formally taught.
3. Drona loved the art of teaching archery he was deeply satisfied when he found that arjuna was competent to learn his skill and moreso when he surpassed his expectations. Nothing gives a teacher greater pleasure than to see his pupil succeed.
Now here was eklavya a boy younger than arjuna whose devotion to art of archery was incomparable. Arjuna needed to be taught and would practice only with his master but this little fellow has just listened and seen his classes while hiding behind trees practiced probably all day and night and learnt the art by himself. Surely he was a warrior far greater than arjuna himself and his passion knew no bounds. Drona's heart and admiration went to the little boy and he was filled with great enthusiasm to see him.
Now drona was caught with indecision and was torn between his passion and duty. What should he do to eklavya now was the question? He had already learnt much of his skills.
Now there was another twist to the tale. By gaining knowledge of archery through improper means (ie by hiding in woods) eklavya was to be considered as a thief of royal tressure since knowledge was also a tressure in those days.
A thief of any royal tressure was to be punished by death. If any gaurds see eklavya practicing his exceptional archery skills, they would immediately arrest him and take him to the king
who would execute him to ward of future dangers to him and his state.
The boy will be dead and this would affect dronas relationship with the king and all fingers will point to him for teaching royal skill to an outsider.
Even if drona tries to let the boy escape now and forget this incident totally, the other princes could tell the royals about it putting drona into trouble and gaurds could also hunt down this boy and kill him.
Now how does drona protect the life of this great genius and also not violate the law of the land and his grattitude towards the king? Drona asks for his thumb, a punishment harsh but better than execution of the boy.
We all face challenges in our life and we are some time torn between our passions and duty. How we react determines our importance of it in our lives.
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