Story of Ekalaivan

From the great epic of Mahabharatha : story of ekalaivan-an epitome of a desciple. there lived during this perioda nishada youth.(underpriveleged.low,scheduled class community)his name was ekalaiva.he had a burning passion to master of archery,dronacharya,prostrated at his feet &begged the great masterto teach him archery.dronacharya was mighty pleased with the well behaved boy .but could not teach the art to any one other than royal family.so the master politely turn down his request.the boy dejected &depressed went away.he made an image of his master in mud worshiped it every day &learnt the art of archery.he attained astounding skill&incredibly fast too..one day the pandava &gouravaprinces went to the forest on a picnic.the pandavas hunting dog strayed where ekalaiva was practicing archery.ekalaiva was clad in leperd's skin.on seeing him the dog barked furiously.to still the dog he discharged arrows in terribly quick succession which made a lace like formation around the dog'mouthrendering the dog impossible to bark.the dog went back topandavas.they were amazed to see what an unknown archer had done.they felt it ought to be the culmination in archery.they were curious to see who it was,that had done the feat they traced ekalaiva.asked who he was.the boy said he was ekalaiva,a nishada &learnt archery under dronachrya..arjuna(pandavas)was unhappy that his master has trained another dicipleeven better than himself. dronachrya then asked for goru daksina(equvalant to tusion fees) which was ahumble offeringby a deciple to his master for a skill impared to him.the master demanded the right thumb of ekalaivan.