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Drona is the guru of the Pandavas and the Kauravas. How did he get his name 'Drona'? What is the incident or reason which gave this specific name to him?

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2 Answers2

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Droṇa in Sanskrit means "bucket" (or something like it - not sure of the nuance here). Per the Monier Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary:

n. (fr. 4. द्रु) a wooden vessel , bucket , trough &c ; a सोम vessel ([cf. Zd. draona]) RV. MBh. &c (ifc. f(आ). Hcat. )

It is said that Drona was born from a bucket, and that that is how he got his name:

And as it came out, he [Bharadwaja] held it in a pot (drana), and of that fluid thus preserved in a pot was born a son who came to be called Drona (the pot-born).

Source: Mahabharata, book 1 (Adi Parva), section 168 (part of the Chaitraratha Parva), using the Ganguli translation.

Kedarnath
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senshin
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  • How do you use that dictionary. I enter many wordsbut it says not found –  Jun 28 '14 at 13:13
  • @GovindBalaji You have to enter text using their somewhat unusual transliteration system. To find the entry I quoted above, you should enter droNa (case-sensitive). – senshin Jul 09 '14 at 11:57
  • @senshin did Drona born without Ovum? – Hindu Jun 15 '17 at 17:53
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Droṇa implies that he was not gestated in a womb, but outside the human body in a droṇa (vessel or a basket). We do know this in another name, as test tube babies.

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    That's not how test tube babies are grown. The baby still develops in the mother's body. It is only fertilized in a test tube. Drona was gestated outside the body. Test tube babies are gestated in the mothers body. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/262798.php – Notty Apr 12 '16 at 15:35
  • Did he born without ovum? – Hindu Jun 10 '17 at 17:59