The birth of Dronacharya

Bheeshama decided that the Pandavas and Kauravas should be trained by someone of exceptional talent and so he took then to the great saint Dronacharya. A long time ago, there lived in a place called Gangadwar a great saint called Maharishi Bhardwaj. He was a great and renowned saint. One day he was performing a Yajna and to prepare for it he went to the river to take his holy bath. There he saw this divine nymph coming out of the water after having a bath. Seeing such a beautiful woman, he felt desire within him and deposited his semen in a pot used for the Yajna called the Drona. This is from where Dronacharya was born and named after the vessel. Dronacharya tutored himself and soon became and expert in all forms of warfare, specially archery and learnt the Vedas. He also learnt a form of warfare using the divine firearms called Agneyastra from Agniveshya, who was the pupil of Saint Bhardwaj. Saint Bhardwaj had a friend who was King Prishat. When Dronacharya was born Prishat also had a son, whom he named Drupad. Drupad and Dronacharya studied together and were best of friends. Dronacharya married Kripi, the sister of Kripacharya and Dronacharya and Kripi had a son called Ashwathama. He was called so because when he was born he made a sound like the neighing of the divine horse Uchheshrava. Dronacharya was very pleased with the birth of his son and taught him various forms of warfare too. He was now also assigned the task of teaching archery and other forms of warfare to the Pandavas.