THIRTY-SIX
Drona saw how Arjuna had become subdued and withdrawn after the exhibition. The princes' education was complete; their guru called them all, Pandavas and Kauravas and said, "Your siksha is complete. Now give me my dakshina."
They saw the deep fire in his eyes.
Bheema said, "We can never pay you back for everything you have taught us. But say what you want, Acharya; we will move the earth for you."
"All the wealth of the Kurus is at your disposal," said one of the Kaurava princes.
Drona turned on him and snapped, "It isn't wealth I want. All my needs are already seen to." A wistful look came into his eyes. "It is revenge I want, much sweeter than all the wealth in the world."
Yudhishtira said evenly, "What revenge, Guru? We will give our lives to get you whatever you want."
A spasm of darkness twitched on Drona's face. "I want you to bring Drupada to me as a prisoner. Go to the Panchala kingdom, defeat him in battle and bring him to me alive. But remember, it was said no archer on earth could match Drupada." He paused and looked at Arjuna, then, added softly, "Somehow, I don't think that is true any more. Well? Will you give me my dakshina?"
The Kuru princes, Kauravas and Pandavas, cried together, "We will!" Bheeshma, Vidura and Dhritarashtra supported Drona's cause. An army was mustered. With the young Kurus at its head and Drona himself going with them, that force set out for the Panchala kingdom. Exhilarated at the prospect of a real battle, they rode to Drupada's capital. Their acharya was the most excited of them all, like his pupils had never seen him before.
When he saw the army from Hastinapura surround his city Kampilya, Drupada was puzzled. He had no quarrel with the Kurus. But he was a kshatriya too and a great one. In no time, his legions were ready to repulse the invaders. Outside the city-walls Kuru horsemen took their positions for the attack; but the Kaurava princes were almost coming to blows, each one was so eager to lead the first charge. Drona was having trouble keeping them calm and now the Pandavas won their first battle. Not that their blood wasn't up as well, but the sons of Pandu behaved with composure. The five of them stood aside quietly under a tree.
Duryodhana wanted to lead the first onslaught; Yudhishtira, the eldest prince, said he had no objection. When the Kaurava force charged the Panchala army, the Pandavas stayed back with their guru. Arjuna's dejection of the past weeks fell away from him. He was confident, "Drupada will prove too much for our cousins. They have no archer who can face him."
Drona murmured, "Let us wait and see", but he knew Arjuna was right. The brahmana knew what a warrior Drupada was. He also knew his own fortunes had changed; he could feel it in his body. Let Drupada tire himself against the Kauravas. Then Arjuna could go into battle.
Weapons flashing, chariots thundering, their roars deafening, the Kaurava legion charged the defending Panchala force. The front-line of the defense fell to Duryodhana, their heads crushed by his mace blows. His brothers were terrible around him and it seemed the Panchalas would be quickly overcome.
The Kauravas breached the front gates of Kampilya. On horseback and in chariots, they stormed up the streets, felling Drupada's soldiers at will. They gained the central square of the Panchala capital. The sides of his chariot bloody, a triumphant Duryodhana was about to hoist the Kuru flag there. Suddenly, deep sea-conches boomed and the palace-gates flew open. From them rode Drupada in a white chariot, like a wheel of fire.
Cutting down everything in his way he came and his arrows were a wave of wizardry. His chariot, too, was not less than magical: it seemed to be everywhere at once. Now the blood-soaked square rang with the screams of Kuru soldiers mown down like stalks of wheat. His horses were so swift it seemed there was not one Drupada, but a hundred, a thousand of him. By himself the Panchala king was like an army of Yama. Not an arrow left his bow but it claimed an enemy life; and his shafts flowed in torrent.
The flag fell from Duryodhana's fingers. He saw there was no Kaurava who could remotely match the Panchala king. Duryodhana called out to his brothers to retreat. They turned their chariots and fled before Drupada razed the army between himself and them and came for their lives.
Only Dusasana, Duryodhana's fiercest brother, stood his ground briefly. Dusasana wounded Drupada from a side with a sizzling salvo like hot light. The Panchala king broke the bow in that prince's hand and shot the helm off his head. The Kaurava fell on his chariot-floor and screamed at his sarathy, "Fly for our lives!"
Armed with staves, knives, household pestles and whatever else they could lay their hands on, the common people of Kampilya came roaring out of their homes. They fell on the last stragglers of the Kaurava army. Even as they clubbed and hacked them to death, victory conches blasted and drum-rolls resounded in Drupada's jubilant city. Drupada himself felt ill at ease. He chose not to pursue the fleeing Kauravas and finish them off outside his walls. Instead, he remained within his gates as if he were a coward.
Meanwhile Duryodhana and his brothers came howling before Drona, "You didn't warn us about Drupada! There is no archer like him on earth. We couldn't stand against him, no one can."
Seeing how they trembled, doubt clutched at Drona. He thought he might have overestimated the Kuru princes. Perhaps the time had come for him to take the field himself against Drupada.
Then five young kshatriyas stepped out from under a tree where they had been waiting patiently. They touched their guru's feet and said, "We will attack Drupada now."
Arjuna and Bheema glowed with anticipation, but none of the frenzy the Kauravas had shown. Laying his palm on their heads, Drona blessed them. Arjuna said, "There is no need for Yudhishtira to come with us. We four will bring Drupada back to you."
Duryodhana and his brothers laughed. Dusasana cried, "Four of you where a hundred of us failed! Bid farewell to your brother and your guru before you go."
Duryodhana nudged his brother to make him stop, lest Drona held the Pandavas back. The Kaurava was sure Drupada would kill the four foolhardy Pandavas. Then Yudhishtira would be at Duryodhana's mercy; he may not even need to have him killed.
Drona said, "Yudhishtira, you will be king one day; you mustn't ride into this battle. You others beware of Drupada."
Bheema, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva climbed into their chariots. Drona asked, "Won't you take the army with you?"
Arjuna replied, "We will go by ourselves."
Bheema blew a blast on his conch, rattling the masonry on Drupada's ramparts. Roaring then, a pride of young lions on their first hunt, their manes flying in the wind, their bodies shining, Devaputras that they were, the four Pandavas flew at the gates of Kampilya.
Bheema rode in front. The very sight of him, a titan with a huge mace gleaming in his hands, made Drupada's soldiers break ranks and run. But he was on them like an angry force of nature, smashing down elephants and horses, hewing down footsoldiers, blood flying, screams ringing. The Panchala ranks parted like a school of minnows for a whale. Their courage broken, they fled even as the vanaras once did in Lanka, when Kumbhakarna came to battle. In moments, a way was clear between Arjuna and Drupada.
Drupada raised his bow and arrows flared like thoughts from it: the same livid stream that had put the Kauravas to flight. But it was an archer of a different caliber who now faced him in that wide city-square. Arjuna, the son of Indra, confronted the Panchala king. From Arjuna's bow a tide of arrows rose and drowned Drupada's stream in the air. The Pandava prince matched the Panchala king shaft for shaft and beat him back.
Drupada's kshatriyas, all fine archers, surrounded Arjuna's chariot and covered him in fire. But then it seemed unearthly power was upon the Pandava prince: they did not see his shafts anymore, but a river of light seemed to flow from his bow. Most eerily, they no longer saw Arjuna himself. He was just a ghostly blur; his archery seemed to have absorbed him bodily.
Yet, screams of death rent the air. The river of light was made of deadly arrows and every one took a life. Drupada's kshatriyas had always thought their king was a matchless bowman; but this prince's archery was godlike and the fear he brought unbearable. They either fled from him or perished.
Roaring to keep his own courage and in fact awestruck by Arjuna's genius, Drupada charged the Pandava. As Sambara the Daitya once charged Indra, Drupada plunged at Arjuna, hoping to shatter the young man's nerve.
A thunderclap exploded in the space between the two rathas, then six more. Smoke billowed around Drupada's chariot. When that king looked up from that moment's destruction, he saw his sarathy and horses were dead and his flagstaff cut down. Now he felt the bow in his hands, the jeweled weapon given him by his master Bharadvaja, riven by a silver shaft. Arjuna stood facing Drupada and the king trembled with shock. No other archer on earth could have done this to him. Arjuna's bowstring was drawn to his ear and his next arrow aimed at Drupada's heart. With a moan, the Panchala prepared to die.
Then Arjuna dropped his bow and leapt down from his chariot. In a flash, he was at Drupada's side, his sword across the king's throat. Like three legions Bheema, Nakula and Sahadeva held the Panchala army at bay. Arjuna hauled Drupada into his own chariot. The shame Karna had wrapped him in falling away like a dream, the Pandava rode back to his guru with his prisoner.
Now Bheema had leapt down from his chariot; gripped by bloodlust, he was slaughtering Drupada's soldiers like helpless children. Arjuna swerved his chariot toward his brother and cried, "Drupada is related to the Kurus, Bheema! Leave his army. Let us take our dakshina to the Acharya."
Reluctantly, Bheema lowered his bloody mace and, dissatisfied though he left a hundred corpses behind him, rode out of the city. Roaring, the brothers issued from the smashed gates of Kampilya. When the Kuru soldiers saw Arjuna bring Drupada out with a sword at his throat, they rushed forward again to have revenge for their earlier rout.
Drona saw Arjuna ride toward him with his captive. Arjuna pulled Drupada down from his chariot and marched him to Drona. Drupada breathed, "You! I should have guessed."
"Yes. These are my sishyas."
Tears stung Drupada's eyes. That proud kshatriya stood with his head bowed before Drona. Drona had forgotten nothing of his own humiliation by the Panchala. He savored the moment silently.
Then, he said, "You once said that friendship was possible only between equals. It seems to me that today you have need of my friendship. Today, my old friend, we are not equals. When you spat on our friendship, Drupada, I stood helpless before you, with nothing I could call my own. Time has come a full circle.
Now it is you who have nothing, Drupada; your kingdom is not yours anymore. My pupils have crushed your army. Arjuna's sword is at your throat and not even your life is your own. One word from me and he will kill you. But we brahmanas, even the poorest among us, are forgiving. You and I spent some happy years in my father's asrama. I have never forgotten those years, Drupada. Here, I offer you my hand once more in friendship. Remember this hand holds your life in it. Take it Panchala, be my friend."
His heart dying within him for shame, but never showing a trace of it, Drupada took Drona's hand. The brahmana was so happy he forgot his anger and embraced Drupada. Drona cried, "You said that friendship can be only between equals. Well, I will make an equal of you, you poor pauper. To prove that I still want to be your friend, I return half your kingdom to you!"
No kshatriya would have committed that foolishness, but would have killed Drupada for fear of his revenge. Drona was a brahmana; he thought naively that everything was forgiven. He cried, "Look, there is the Ganga. I return all the lands south of it to you, to be your kingdom. All the Panchala lands north of the river I will keep for myself." He laughed, "So that we can always be equals and thus be friends!"
Drupada returned Drona's embrace. "Drona, let us be friends for ever."
Drona had tears in his eyes. Drupada thought, 'Ah, the young Arjuna is a peerless kshatriya! I must have a daughter whom he will marry. And, of course, I must perform a yagna and pray for a son as well, who will kill Drona for what he has done today.'
Drupada ruled his remaining kingdom from Kampilya, in the province of Makandi, from the Ganga upto the banks of the river Charmanwati. Drona ruled the northern Panchala lands with all its towns and people, the country called Ahichatra. It was the Pandavas' and especially Arjuna's, guru-dakshina to him.