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Guru Dronacharya was the royal teacher of the Kuru kingdom. He was bound by oath to teach the sacred art of war and archery only to the princes of Hastinapur or to those approved by the Hastinapur administration. For example, he taught Karna basic archery and war skills as well. However, Karna later left his ashram to obtain divine weapons (Divyastras/Brahmastra) from Parashurama. According to the rules and regulations, only royals and individuals entrusted with responsible decision-making were allowed access to such divine weapons, just as nuclear codes today cannot be shared with everyone, even in a democracy. Eklavya, on the other hand, belonged to the enemy state of Magadh, where his father served as a commander in King Jarasandha’s army. Eklavya, by secretly learning the sacred skills of archery while hiding near the gurukul, was effectively acting as a spy for Magadh. The Kuru kingdom and Dronacharya showed remarkable leniency by only demanding his thumb to neutralize the skills he had acquired, whereas in most cases, spies caught stealing state secrets would face execution.

Eklavya shot arrows on dog because dog disturbed him , imagine what he would have done after getting access to divyastras ( we all know what impatient Ashwathama did with Brahmastra).

Guru Dronacharya was kind and loyal to his state. Any other Hastinapur official would have beheaded that Magadh spy Eklavya for trying to steal the secret weapon training and usage that belonged to Hastinapur only.

Who is the greatest among Karna, Arjuna, Ekalavya?

We all know a lot about Karna and Arjuna but nothing much about Eklavya, according to me he is the best archer of the three mentioned in the question, he had phenomenal prowess with the bow. He was an exceptional charioteer and was cousin of Lord Krishna, his father was brother to Vasudeva(Father of Lord Krishna). He is said to be lost in forest and from there the king of Nishads Hiranayadhanu took care of him.

He learned archery by staying at Ashram of Drona as help and watching other prince taking the lessons, later he made a statue of Drona and practiced archery in front of it. He gave his thumb as fees to his teacher Drona which weakened him thoroughly. He never gave up and continued to practice by left hand and became best archer. He never had a mentor or teacher who could have provided him divine weapons and powerful bows as of ranks of Gandeeva or Vijaya still he managed to be a warrior as his father Hiranyadhanu was a commander in army of Jarasandha so he also joined army of Jarasandha. He became powerful and also developed pride in his achievements as an esteemed archer.

During various conquests of Magadha over Mathura he accompanied the army and did huge devastation, in one particular battle he alone eliminated almost complete Yadava army, it is highly noticeable that Yadava army was extremely powerful and comprised of Vrishni warriors about whom Lord Krishna has said that no one in the world can annihilate them, Eklavya mutilated army. He even challenged Lord Krishna directly during the abduction episode of Rukmini. Some sources say he was slain by Lord Krishna during the above mentioned conquests of Mathura where he devastated the Mathura forces or according to some sources during abduction of Rukmini he was Killed by Lord Krishna.

His prowess with the bow is established after the Mahabharata war when Lord Krishna confesses to Arjuna that to establish and maintain Arjuna as the best archer in the world he has got killed all the warriors in the world including the great Bhishma, Drona, Karna and later discloses killing his own cousin Eklavya so that position of Arjuna is untouched. Though Krishna got Eklavya killed as his association was with those who were against the side of spiritual and moral principle bound and he could have been a great threat to all the Pandavas and allied forces later.

The description of Lord about the ability of Eklavya as a potential threat to everyone, that when he without his right hand thumb, without any mentor, without any proper teaching, without any great bow and without any weapon of mass destruction or divine weapon was responsible for eliminating most fierce warriors army of that time and was unconquerable, his ability was so much that Lord had to kill him by his own hands, though it is evident that all those who are against the guiding principle of human life no one can save them, they will perish. Still we can surely assume what course the history would had taken if he had everything right in his life than surely all Bhishmas, Dronas, Karnas, Bheemas and Arjunas would have sought retirement or would have had been killed and seeing this Ashwatthama would have had himself given his forehead jewel to Eklavya so that he can find peace after life.