This document provides background information on the character of Eklavya from the Indian epic Mahabharata. It discusses how Eklavya, a Nishada boy from a tribal community, aspired to learn archery from the guru Dronacharya but was rejected due to his lower caste status. As a result, Eklavya trained himself and became a skilled archer. However, when discovered by Dronacharya's student Arjuna, Eklavya was forced to cut off his right thumb as guru dakshina to Dronacharya, despite not having received any training from him. The document analyzes Eklavya's portrayal as a

1. NAME:- SEJAL R PARMAR
COURSE:- M.A SEM-1
BATCH:- 2018-20
ROLL NO:- 40
ENROLLMENT NO:- 2069108420190033
EMAIL ID:- sejalparmar095@gmail.com
PAPERNO:- INDIAN ENGLISH LITERATURE
TOPIC:- CHARACTEROF EKLAVYA ASA SUBALTERN
GUIDED BY:- HEENABA ZALA
INTRODUCTION
T. P. KAILASAM:-
Thanjavur paramasiva kailasam( 1884 – 1946 ), was a
playwrite and prominent writer of Kannada literature. His
contributionto Kannada theatricalcomedy earned him the
title prahasana prapitamaha,“ the father of humorous plays”
and later he was also called “ Kannadakke obbanekailasam”
meaning “ one and only Kailasam for Kannada”.

2. CHARACTER OF EKLAVYA AS A SUBALTERN
The play “ purpose” by T. P.KAILASAM is a short play. The story
of this play is based on Mahabharata.In this play we find
character is taken from Mahabharata.Here in this play we can
find character of eklavya as a subaltern. In the story of
Mahabharata ‘arjunas’is the hero while studying under
Dronacharyaor throughout the epic . but here in the purpose
kailasam more focus on the character of ‘ eklavya’. and he is
the main hero of character of the purpose . the protagonist of
the play is Eklavya . purpose , by T. P. Kailasam, is a short play
dramatizing event that occurred in the Mahabharatainvolving
Drone, Arjuna, and Eklavya… Arjuna is a prince of a prince of a
great kingdom. Eklavyais a tribal boy from a relativelyfar away
area.
EKLAVYA:-
Ekalvyameans self learned person, is a character from the epic
the Mahabharata.He was a young prince of the nishadha,a
confederationof jungle tribes in ancient india.hewas offered as
the son to vyatraj hiranyadhanus by sulekha and possessed

3. powers given by bhumi devi. As he was her son in previouslife.
Ekalavyaaspired to study archery in the gurukul of guru drone.
WHAT IS SUBALTERN
A subaltern means someone with a low ranking in a social ,
political, or other hierarchy.
“ subaltern” means someone who has been marginalizedor
oppressed.
Gayatri chakravorty spivak has given “ subaltern theory”
She is best known for her wsay.
“ CAN THE SUBALTERN SPEAK ?”
in can essay she had written about marginalize people and also
given voice to oppressed people of society.
“ subaltern” – who oppressed by someone in society.
In society we find many example of subaltern who marginalized
and oppressed

4. THE VARIOUS KIND OF SOCIAL FORMATION AND
THE SUBALTERNS THEY CONSTRUCT:
Social formation: class , empire , patriarchy ,
nation
Subaltern: working classes , natives , women
ethnic – minorities
Dominant group: capitalism – bourgeois Europeans
, men majority
Ideology: capitalism , colonialism , gender ,
homogenization and nationalism.
In this play “ purpose” we find character of ‘ eklavya’ as a “
subaltern” .
We find that he is oppressed by Arjuna and in many dialogue
we find at that time and in this way we cansee or saidhim asa
subaltern.
In play we find Arjuna’s dialogueto eklavyalike:
“ an arya is an arya!

5. And a nishada is only
A low – born nishada” !
So in this dialogueof arjuna we can find that arjuna feel proud
about his caste and considere his caste as a higher and he said
eklavya A nishada – a lower class person, and according to my
opinionhe treated as he is superior than eklaya.
ARJUNA : ‘ I do not like you ! I dislike you ! very
much” !
Eklavyawas a nishadaboyso Arjuna dislike hiscaste because
Arjuna belongs to “ Arya” . here we can find that T . P . kailasam
conflict also . due to eklavya’slow caste he is not able to learn
Archary from guru Dronacharya.
We also find eklavya’svoice as a oppressed when he thinking
that :

6. “ I fear he will never take me as his pupil ! he will
mayhap think that I am not fit to be a fellow –
pupil of these princes !
eklavya is in fear that due to his lower caste and he is a
nishadhaso guru will never ready to taught him . sowe can say
that eklavyaas a nishadhahe had not right to learn archery
from guru Dronacharya.
Drona didn’t teach archery to eklavya because he belonged to ‘
Nishadha’ tribe … but sadly bound to hiswords to Arjun he
asked for guru dakshinawgich eklavya couldn’trefuse and gave
his thumb to guru as adakshina…thus ending a great warriors
feat …
Doctoring of an ideal life Mahabharata, Ramayana,
Upanishadsare rich heritage .
If you want an answer from current perspective it will seem
that eklavyawas victim of caste bais ,and that dronacruelly
denied him his destiny to be a great warrior for his own selfish
reasons.
However there are two more incidentsabout drona that need
to be compared with the above incident befour we call drona
selfish

7. 1. The most powerful weapon that drone had was
brahmashira which he gave to arjuna buthisown son
ashwatthamawho was also a Brahman by caste he gave
only a partialknowledge of it . so that aswathamacan use
it as a defense but not offense. Why ? because he noticed
that his son whom he loved so dearly was impulsiveand
short tempered and therefore not worthy it fully.
2. Drone accepted drishtadyumn as his student and trained
him well knowing fully that dhristadyumn was born to kill
him.
Can we call such a man selfish. Would a selfish man deny
his knowledge to his own son on the ground of merit.
Would a selfish man personallytrain a person to kill
himself
So why did drona do what he did.
It’s about right and responsibilities.
Responsibilies
As a teacher appointedfor kshatriya princes by hastinapur
he was bound by rules of hastinapursociety to accept only
the peinces allowedby them. Drone was not running his

8. personal gurukul. He was fulfilling the responsibilityof an
employee.
Just like today a woman’s no means a no. at that time a
Teacher’s no meant a no. drona rfused to accept him as a
teacher. But there were other gurus to whom he could
have gone instead he chose to practice by making a statue
of drone as his guru and not only that when asked by
pandavaand kauravaprinces he declares himself as
student of drone proudly
If groan did not punisheklavya’stransgression than blam
would be on drone that hetaught eklavya indirectlyagainst
the prevalent rules, when he had actuallynotdone such a
thing.
Rights
A teacher had the right to ask for any gurudakshinahe
desired. Krishna’s guru sandipani asked him to bring back
his long lost son. Drone himself asked kaurava and
pandava princes to wage a war against drupd with whom
they had no personal enmity. Against a very well known
warrior and formidablearmy their first battle. The
princes could have died in the war, not everyone was a
great warriorin the 105 princes. But they all went and
risked their lives. So he had every right to aks eklavya for

9. the thumb, but drone tells eklavya, “ if eklavya indeed
considered him as a guru then he should give his thumb
as afee” . he was giving an option to eklavya,that if he
wants he can still say that drone is not his guru and keep
thumb.
It is a credit to eklavya that he chose to forego his thumb.
But he tried to force drone to be his guru which he had
no right to.