“Is that true?” said Drona. “Well then, I ask the thumb of your right hand.”
And Ekalavya, allowing no look of sadness to spoil his gift, cut off his thumb, without a word, and laid it at the feet of the Master-Archer. But Drona spurned it, and walked away.
Then Ekalavya turned again to his shooting. But he found that, with the loss of his thumb, his skill had gone for ever.
So were the great ones left without a rival.
But in Heaven the Gods said, “Ekalavya is truly of the knightly caste: and men knew it not.”
The Blue Bird and the Archer
One day Drona, the Master-Archer, made trial of the skill of the princes his pupils. He had them all out before him together.
“Take your bows and arrows,” said he, “and be ready to shoot, when I tell you, at the blue bird in yonder tree.”
Prince Yudhisthira, being the eldest, was called first.
“Be ready to shoot,” said Drona. “But tell me first what you see. Do you see the bird?”