01Drona’s best pupil
Drona set a wooden bird in a tree and asked each prince what he saw. The others saw the tree, their brothers, their teacher. Arjuna saw only the bird’s head, and Drona told him to shoot. One night, when the wind blew out the lamp while he ate, he noticed that his hand still found his mouth, and began practising archery in the dark. Drona promised him that no pupil would ever surpass him. For his guru’s fee he captured Drupada of Panchala. At Drupada’s svayamvara, in a brahmin’s guise, he strung the great bow and hit the target, and won Draupadi.
02Khandava and the twelve years
The brothers had agreed that whoever intruded on another while he was alone with Draupadi would go away for twelve years. To fetch his weapons and save a brahmin’s cattle, Arjuna broke the rule and went. In those years he married the naga princess Ulupi, and Chitrangada of Manipura, and on Krishna’s advice carried off Subhadra from Raivataka. Back at Indraprastha, he and Krishna helped Agni burn the Khandava forest, and Agni gave him the Gandiva bow, a white-horsed chariot and two quivers that never emptied.
03Weapons from the devas
In the exile Arjuna went alone to the Himalaya for tapas. A boar charged him, and he and a Kirata hunter shot it at the same moment. They quarrelled, and Arjuna could not defeat the hunter even hand to hand. The hunter was Mahadev, and pleased, he gave Arjuna the Pashupata. Then Indra took him to Amaravati, where he lived five years learning the celestial weapons. In the thirteenth year he lived at Virata’s court as Brihannala, teaching dance to the princess Uttara, and alone he turned back the whole Kuru army that came to raid Virata’s cattle. The katha of Urvashi’s curse, which explains that disguise, is printed in the appendix of the Critical Edition.
04Kurukshetra and after
On the first morning he saw his grandsire and his guru across the field, and his bow slipped from his hand. Krishna’s answer is the Bhagavad Gita. He brought down Bhishma, and after Abhimanyu’s death swore to kill Jayadratha before the next sunset or enter the fire, and did. He killed Karna when Karna’s wheel was stuck. Following the horse of Yudhishthira’s Ashvamedha, he was killed in battle by his own son Babhruvahana in Manipura and brought back to life by Ulupi with a naga jewel. After Krishna left the world, Arjuna could barely string the Gandiva against the herdsmen who attacked the Yadava women he was escorting.
Famous verses
कार्पण्यदोषोपहतस्वभावः पृच्छामि त्वां धर्मसंमूढचेताः । यच्छ्रेयः स्यान्निश्चितं ब्रूहि तन्मे शिष्यस्तेऽहं शाधि मां त्वां प्रपन्नम् ॥
My nature is struck by weakness and my mind is confused about dharma. I ask You: tell me for certain what is better. I am Your disciple; teach me, for I have come to You for refuge.Bhagavad Gita 2.7 = Mahabharata 6.24.7 (BORI CE)