Art, Symbol & Imagination
Ekalavya before Drona’s Image: Nanda Lal Bose
Original caption: Ekalavya
A solitary student and the image before him give Bose’s Ekalavya a severe, inward atmosphere. The accompanying Mahabharata retelling describes an aspiring archer refused by Drona, who then makes a clay image of the teacher and practises in the forest. His skill becomes so great that the royal pupils notice him, leading to Drona’s demand for a teacher’s fee. The plate centres the extraordinary discipline of the excluded pupil. Read beside the surrounding narrative, the apparently devotional scene also raises the story’s difficult questions about access to instruction, rivalry and the price imposed on achievement.
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Citation
Nanda Lal Bose. "Ekalavya before Drona’s Image: Nanda Lal Bose" [source caption]. In Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists, Sister Nivedita and Ananda K. Coomaraswamy. Original scan, 1914, George G. Harrap & Co.. Source scan leaf 159. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/hindu-ekalavya
Source details
Title from the printed caption. Editorial description. Source details from the Library catalogue.
Artist credited in the printed list of illustrations. Full source leaf and the adjacent narrative reviewed; historical scan colour and texture retained.
Sources
From the book
Myths of the Hindus and BuddhistsSister Nivedita and Ananda K. Coomaraswamy1914More from this book
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The Death of Maricha: K. Venkatappa’s IllustrationRelated illustrations
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Cite this illustration
Nanda Lal Bose. Ekalavya before Drona’s Image: Nanda Lal Bose. Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists. Scan leaf 159. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/hindu-ekalavya