Drona Demonstrates His Skill and Meets the Kuru Princes
The Kuru princes are helpless when their wooden ball falls into a well. A stranger witnesses their failure, retrieves the ball with a chain of mantra-imbued reeds, and tells them to report him to Bhishma. The awestruck princes obey, bringing the master to the city's gate.
The Kuru princes were playing outside the city with a wooden ball. In the middle of their game, the ball fell into a well.
They tried everything they could think of to get it out. They reached. They threw things. They conferred. The ball remained at the bottom, and the princes stood around the well, defeated.
Drona saw them. He watched their futile efforts for a moment, then laughed softly. "Shame on your Kshatriya prowess," he said. "Shame on your knowledge of weapons. You are born in the Bharata lineage, and you cannot recover a ball?"
He picked up a handful of reeds. "Look at the power of these," he told them. "I have invested them with the mantra of my weapons." He took one reed, aimed, and sent it flying. It pierced the wooden ball cleanly. He took another reed and shot it, piercing the first reed. He shot a third, piercing the second. In moments, he had created a chain of reeds linking the ball at the bottom of the well to his hand at the top. He pulled. The ball came up.
The princes stared, their eyes wide with wonder. They had never seen anything like it. This was not strength; it was a science.
They spoke to the stranger with new respect. "O Brahmana! We pay homage to you. No one else has the knowledge to do that. Who are you? We wish to know your lineage. What can we do for you?"
Drona did not give his name. He gave an instruction. "Go to Bhishma," he said. "Tell him of my appearance and my qualities. He has great intelligence and will know what should be done."
The princes agreed. They went straight to their grandfather, Bhishma, and told him exactly what they had seen: the ball, the well, the reeds, the chain, the impossible retrieval. They described the Brahmana who had done it.
Bhishma listened. He did not need to hear more. He recognized the description immediately — the skill could belong to only one man. He thought, *This would be the right preceptor.*
He went to Drona in person and paid him the highest respects. Then Bhishma, the greatest of warriors, skillfully asked the question that had brought the master to their gates: "What is the reason you have come here?"