Karna & Arjun - The Union of Brothers

4. Best of the Quiver

Assemblies were not uncommon in Dronacharya's aashram, which was located in the outskirts of Hastinapur, but usually they were accompanied with some kind of exercise. The 105 kuru princes and Drona's son Ashwathama were standing in the rows of 10-12 students, while Dronacharya was swinging his sword in various fighting positions. Every time his sword swung in the air, it used to leave behind some glowing grains of sand, dazzling drops of water, and shining sparks of fire. These particles would stay in the air for some time and then follow the wind to accumulate at a spot behind the preceptor. While everyone was looking at the figure, it was Arjun who was trying to decode the mantras by reading his lip movement as he stood at the front of the central row.

After a while, they could all see a bull sized hawk standing behind Dronacharya. It looked like a jewel made up of forces of nature. Each element looked like a cluster of precious stones with transparent gaps of well directed wind keeping them together.

"Looks beautiful, ain't he?" Dronacharya said as he stopped swinging his sword and stood straight facing the students.

"In a few minutes from now, a Vimaan while arrive to pick champions from our institute for Vishwa Yodha Spardha. However I have written to the organizers a very special request," he started sharing the information about the task.

"That it should take all of us, Gurudev," innocent Nakul interrupted in his sweet voice.

"Aren't you guys tired of getting freebies," Sushasan said and all the sons of Dhritrashtra started laughing at Nakul. This enraged Bheem but he knew that Yudhishtir wouldn't be appreciative of his violent actions.

Arjun was unaffected by all of this. He couldn't stop admiring the marvel that Guru Dron had conjured.

"I believe that only the best amongst you should be taking part in this competition. Best of warriors from institutes across Bharatvarsh will be participating in this competition. I believe that I can't decide that for our institute, so I leave that decision to you," he said as he pointed towards Yudhishtir and that generated a wave of rage among the sons of Dhritrashtra.

"You, you, you and you," he kept on pointing his fingers towards different students randomly and then Suryodhan and his brothers were relieved.

"The Vimaan will stop at about 50 feet from the ground and that too for a couple of minutes. Do whatever you can to get inside it but you can't use your weapons," Dron started instructing them about the task.

"Gurudev, we can't fly and there aren't any tall trees in this part of the aashram. I believe we can ride that hawk standing behind you," Vikarn interrupted.

"Certainly you can. Only one of you can ride this Tatv-Shyen. The one who can beat me in a solo combat and take this sword away from me. Because Tatv-Shyen will only follow the command of the warrior who wields the weapon that was used to conjure him. And you will be allowed to use a shastra only while combating me. You have about ten minutes to prepare," Dron further clarified the task.

Arjun knew that he wasn't allowed to use his bow, but that didn't mean he couldn't make one. He went into the woods and scanned a few trees. He used a sharp stone to chop off a couple of branches. Using the same stone, he tore off a couple of long lines from his dhoti. He used one of the lines to tie the ends of the longer branch and make a bow out of it. One end of the second line was tied to the short and hard branch and the second end was tied to Arjun's right wrist. He then ran back to the assembly area, affixed the shorter branch like an arrow, to his hand made bow, and started chanting mantras. His mind was focused on the brown colored flying object that approached them.

In the mean time, some of the students had already lost to Dronacharya, while a few didn't even dare to go near him. Drona made sure that he wouldn't attack his students with his sword to avoid any serious injury. While Bheem and Suyodhan were among the strongest warriors in the aashram, they couldn't match their preceptor's agility. Sahdev with his sword and Yudhishtir with his spear impressed him the most. They continued to combat him on an alternate basis. Dronacharya had conjured an invisible armor around himself, that protected him from normal attacks. During the course of multiple combats, Yudhishtir noticed that there were a few cuts around Dronacharya's wrist and elbo. He understood that there were a few gaps in the armor around the joints to facilitate fluid movements. In his final attempt, he targeted and drove his spear through the space around Doonacharya's left elbow. His hesitation to attack his teacher was obvious as he made sure that the spear should only cause a small cut and not a serious injury. Dronacharya felt outwitted by his student and chopped off his spear into pieces using his sword. Sahdev learnt from his brother and attacked his wrist when Dronacharya was anticipating a sword clash. Despite his swiftness, he suffered a deep cut on his right wrist and dropped the sword almost immediately. Sahdev caught the sword before it hit the ground. A smile of satisfaction replaced the pain on his face. Both Sahdev and Yudhishtir touched his feet.

"I would like to allow both of you to ride Tatv-Shyen and participate in the competition, but I know Yudhistir, you wouldn't let me do that," Dron said as he placed his hands on their heads.

Yudhishtir simply nodded with a smile and patted on Sahdev's back. Dron then guided Sahdev to sit on Tatv-Shyen's back. As warriors were not allowed to carry any weapon to the tournament, he took back his own and Sahdev's sword, but ordered Tatv-Shyen to take Sahdev to the Vimaan. By then, the Vimaan had arrived and was stationary at about 50 feet from the ground. The Viman had rectangular carvings at every level. Two curved lines emerged from the top edges of the rectangles and formed an isosceles triangle at the top. All these window like designs had pictorial representation of various stories of the divine trinity - Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. The biggest door placed at bottom most level had a beautiful image of tridev together in one frame. The rectangle moved on the right hand side and the door opened for Sahdev to enter.

Ashwathama was next warrior to enter the Vimaan. He had gone to collect hard grass while everybody was focused on beating Dronacharya. He invoked Vayuvyastra on these pieces of grass, made them fly towards the Vimaan, and with a lot of precision, he conjured a rope with those. He used that rope to climb up to the lowest level of the Vimaan and the followed Sahdev inside it.

Everyone inside the Vimaan noticed a pair of hands at the bottom of the open door. Suyodhan pulled himself up and everyone could see a jacked up teenager making his presence felt. Suyodhan had realized that it was difficult to beat Dronacharya, hence he came up with a plan that was inspired by the Vimaan itself. He asked his brother to form multiple layers of human rings, placed one above the other. His ninety nine brothers followed his advice and created a human pyramid, with most number of humans in the base ring. The pyramid was tall enough to reach the base of the Vimaan, and Suyodhan leveraged it to reach the Vimaan. Bheem wanted to stop him by making the pyramid collapse, but he was stopped by Yudhishtir. Yudhishtir believed that Suyodhan used his wit and deserved to participate in the tournament.

The door of the Vimaan started sliding and suddenly a silver bolt of light entered the Vimaan and it was difficult to look at it directly. The light went off after few seconds and everyone could see some broken pieces of wood and a lean young warrior with dark brown skin and slightly torn dhoti.