Ekalaiva is the annual sports and athletic festival of the Gurukulam School. Ekalaiva, a well known, famous character in Mahabaratha and Ekalaiva is the most talented person in archery.

Ekalaiva was an epitome of a disciple. He was a Nishada youth. He had a burning passion to become master of archery. He prostrated at the feet of Dronacharya & begged the great master to teach him archery. Dronacharya was mighty pleased with the well behaved boy. But he could not teach the art to anyone other than from royal family. So the master politely turned down his request.

The boy was dejected & depressed and went away.

He made an image of his master in mud and worshipped it every day & learnt the art of archery.

He attained astounding skill & incredibly fast too. One day the Pandava & Gaurava princes went to the forest on a picnic. The Pandavas hunting dog strayed where Ekalaiva was practicing archery. Ekalaiva was clad in leopard’s skin. On seeing him the dog barked furiously. To still the dog he discharged arrows in terribly quick succession which made a lace like formation around the dog’s mouth rendering the dog impossible to bark. The dog went back to Pandavas.

They were amazed to see what an unknown archer had done. They felt it ought to be the culmination in archery.

They were curious to see who had achieved this great feat. They traced Ekalaiva and asked who he was. The boy said he was Ekalaiva, a Nishada & learnt archery under Dronacharia. Arjuna was unhappy that his master had trained another disciple even better than himself. Dronacharya then asked for Guru Dakshna equivalent to tuition fee which was a humble offering by a disciple to his master for a skill impaired to him. The master demanded the right thumb of Ekalaiva, Ekalaiva gladly gave it to Dronacharia.