The story of Ekalavya occurs in the Mahabharata.

A long time ago in the deep dense Indian jungles lived a young boy Ekalavya. He was the son of a mighty tribal chief. As a young boy, he had always wanted to be an archer, so he headed towards one of the great cities of those times - Hasthinapura to meet Drona an expert in archery and martial arts.

Drona was employed by the king of the Kauravas of Hasthinapura to teach his five sons the fine skill of archery. On reaching his destination he learnt that he could meet Drona at the palace in Hasthinapura. The next day he met Drona at the palace and implored him to accept him as his disciple. Drona was quite impressed by the youth’s earnest interest and keen desire to master the art. Drona went on to probe his background and parentage. When he learnt that he was a ‘Shudra’ (belonging to the lowest social community) he was greatly displeased. Enraged he asked him how he dared to ask Drona to be his teacher.

Ekalavya was shocked and hurt at Drona’s angry unkind words. He suddenly realized that Drona’s other students were looking at him scornfully and mocking him. Ekalavya was thrown out of the palace, but he was determined to become an archer some day.

Disheartened, Ekalavya returned to the forest and made an image of Drona and decorated it with flowers and prayed to the image every single day. Ekalavya was steadfast in his ambition to become an ace archer and he was convinced that the image of Drona would teach him archery. Day and night he would practice incessantly sending arrows one after the other to sever the tree trunk.

One day in the forest the young Kaurava and Pandava princes from the neighbouring provinces had come hunting with their teacher Drona, one of their dogs wandered to the place where Ekalavya was practicing. On seeing Ekalavya, the dog began to bark. The barking angered Ekalavya because it disturbed his concentration. Furious, Ekalavya shot arrows into the dog’s mouth in such a way that he did not hurt him, but merely stopped him from barking. Ekalavya resumed his practice without any more trouble from the dogs.

The dog returned to the princes who had come to the forest on a hunting expedition. The Pandavas were amazed at the unusual manner in which the arrows were shot. They gently removed all the arrows from the dog’s mouth. The dog then led them to the place where Ekalavya was practicing. Drona was impressed at the way Ekalavya had shot the arrows. All the princes were jealous of Ekalavya’s archery skills. Drona asked Ekalavya who his teacher was, and was surprised to hear Ekalavya reply humbly that it was Drona himself.

Drona asked Ekalavya to prove his mettle by fighting with the princes. Ekalavya accepted the challenge and defeated every one of them including Arjuna (the famous Pandava prince who was a expert archer). Drona was both upset and angry that Ekalavya had defeated even Arjuna his best disciple. So he demanded Ekalavya to give him ‘guru dakshina’ (A disciple’s offering to a teacher after mastering a subject). Ekalavya, the devoted disciple was only too happy to give whatever his teacher asked for.

Drona blinded by his anger asked Ekalavya to give him the thumb from his right hand. Unhesitatingly, Ekalavya drew out his sword and severed his thumb in a trice. Drona returned to the kingdom of Hasthinapura content that he had disabled an opponent of Arjuna leaving behind Ekalavya the most faithful disciple of all times without so much as a word of thanks.