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Mahābhārata The History of the Great India
<< 19 Drona, Master Of Military Science >>
 |  | It so happened that once the great self-realized sage Bharadvaja happened to be in Hardwar, where the Ganges enters the plains. The illustrious sage, ever strict in his vows, was busy in the work of sacrifice, when he beheld an Apsara named Ghrtaci, who had just bathed. Suddenly, a wind blew past, shaking her garments and dragging them away. The girl had been drinking, and the drink made her bold and careless. She stood exposed in all her wonderful youthful beauty. Seeing this, the saintly Bharadvaja spilled his semen, but the wise sage gathered up the spilt seed and placed it in a bucket or pot, and from that vessel the wise Drona* took birth. He thoroughly studied all the Vedas with their supplements.
| | | Powerful Bharadvaja, the best of the righteous, taught the weapon of fire to the lordly Agni-vesya, who was born on the day of glorification of the fire-god. Agni-vesya then taught the same great weapon, the Rgneya, to Bharadvaja's son, Drona.
| | | O best of the Bharatas, Bharadvaja's friend King Prsata had a son named Drupada, a leader among all the princes. He used to go to Bharadvaja's hermitage, where he would play and study with Drona. When Prsata passed away, the mighty-armed Drupada became sovereign king of the North Pancala. The exalted Bharadvaja then ascended to heaven, and the illustrious Drona, by his father's command and by his own desire to have a son, took the hand of Krpi, daughter of Saradvan, in sacred marriage.
| | | Krpi, the granddaughter of Gautama, was always fond of sacrifice, religion, and self-control. Her fate was to obtain Asvatthama as her son. As soon as Asvatthama was born, he sounded forth like Uccaihsrava, the celestial stallion. Hearing this sound, an invisible being standing within inner space said, "This child has sent forth his horselike sound in all directions, and therefore his name will be Asvatthama.**"
| | | * drona: pot, bucket.
| | | ** asva: (of a) horse; sthaman: strength, neighing (of a horse).
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