Dhanurveda (dhanurveda)

Dhanurveda is the science of archery and, more broadly, the whole discipline of arms, taught as a formal body of knowledge with mantras, postures and grades of mastery. Drona is its supreme teacher in the epic and Parashurama its most dangerous, and the tournament at Hastinapura is essentially a public examination in it. The Mahabharata insists that the science includes ethics as well as technique, which is why the breaches of the rules at Kurukshetra are described as failures of training as much as of character.