Guru Drona and the Bird's Eye

One day the princes were playing with a ball, and it fell into a dry well. No one could get it out. Just then a thin brahmin came by. Using a mantra, he turned blades of grass into arrows, joined them one behind another, and pulled the ball out. The boys were amazed and ran to tell Bhishma. Bhishma understood at once: this was the great archer Dronacharya.

Drona was very poor. As a boy, Prince Drupada had been his friend, but after becoming king, Drupada had insulted Drona when he came asking for help. Bhishma respectfully appointed Drona as teacher of the princes. Drona taught the Kauravas and Pandavas together: the bow, the mace, the sword and the chariot.

Of all the students, Arjuna was the most devoted. One night, as he ate, the wind blew out the lamp, yet his hand still found his mouth in the dark. Arjuna thought: if practice lets the hand work without seeing, why not the bow? From that day he began practising archery at night as well.

One day Drona held a test. He placed a wooden bird on a branch and asked, 'What do you see?' Yudhishthira said, 'The tree, you, my brothers and the bird.' Drona sent him aside. The other students gave similar answers. Then came Arjuna's turn. 'Gurudev, I see only the bird's head,' he said. In the popular telling this is remembered as 'the bird's eye'.

'Shoot!' said Drona. Arjuna's arrow struck the target exactly. Drona embraced him. When their training was complete, Drona asked as his guru dakshina that his students capture King Drupada and bring him in. Arjuna did it. Drona gave Drupada back half his kingdom, but a fire for revenge was now burning in Drupada's heart.