Today I read that Ekalavya (student of Dronacharya who practiced in front of Dronacharya's statue) is the cousin of Lord Krishna and Krishna killed him.
How are they cousins?
Asked
Active
Viewed 2,188 times
7
-
1I do remember reading somewhere that he was born in Yadu vamsa, the same vamsa in which Krishna was born. But, ekalavya was abandoned by his parents and was bought up by nishadas. Not sure about the exact reason why ekalavya was abandoned? – Aug 20 '15 at 21:09
-
2To shed some light on why Ekalavya was abandoned as a child, it is said that when he was born, saints advised his father to abandon the child because he was destined to be a curse to the society. So if such a person gets to wield power the destruction to the society can be immeasurable. A similar advice was given to the King of Hastinapura when Duryodhana was born, but he chose to ignore the calls for sacrificing his first born. – Madhu Sreedhar Sep 01 '15 at 22:49
1 Answers
11
Yes, Ekalavya was Krishna's cousin. Specifically, he was the son of Vasudeva's brother Devashrava, but he was raised by the Nishadas, as described in this chapter of the Harivamsa:
The fourth brother of Vasudeva, namely AnAdhR^iShTi begot on his wife Ashmaki an illustrious son by name NivR^ittashatru, and Devashrava, the third brother of Vasudeva, begat a son by name Shatrughna. There is hearsay that Devashrava had another son who for some reason is discarded in his infant stage, and brought up by tribal people and they call him as Ekalavya.
It's not clear, at least to me, why Devashrava abandoned Ekalavya as a baby though. In any case, this makes it all the more tragic that Krishna had to kill Ekalavya as I discuss in this question.
Keshav Srinivasan
- 98,014
- 18
- 293
- 853