Then was there a clash of steel, as the King and all the princes rose in wrath. Surely for this insult Samyukta would now be bound in chains and sent to the deepest dungeon of the palace.
But quicker than wrath was love. Prithi Raja the Minstrel, mounted on Prithi Raja the King’s swiftest charger, was at her side, and stooping lifted her to his saddle, and rode away swiftly to the gates of Delhi.
And this was in the days long ago, when men were knights and fought for their ladies, and did with their own hand the thing which was not easy to do.
The Man who made himself an Archer
There was a Master-Archer whose name was Drona: and it was he who taught all the princes of India to shoot, so that none could conquer them.
Now he was jealous for the honour of the princes. And there came to him one named Ekalavya, the king of a caste that was not the soldier-caste, who said: “Teach me to shoot.”
But Drona made answer: “You are not of the knightly caste. I cannot teach you.” For he was afraid that the low-caste man might become the equal of the high-born princes.
Then Ekalavya went away very sadly to the forest, and built a shrine to Drona, the Master-Archer. And he thought about him, and fasted and prayed night and day for skill in shooting: and night and day he practised ceaselessly, shooting arrows into the distance—shooting and shooting. And he forgot the riches of his palace and all the pleasures of the world, in reaching out to his great desire.
One day Drona and the high-born princes were out shooting in the forest, and they had with them a dog. And the dog strayed from the princes and lost his way, barking in the darkness for his masters, not far from the shrine of Ekalavya.
And Ekalavya heard, and shot an arrow in the direction of the sound; and the arrow went straight into the dog’s mouth.