Kripa, also known as Kripacharya or Krupacharya is an important character in the Mahabharata, one of the eight Chiranjivis. He was the son of Sharadwantha and Jalawathi, born in a particularly extraordinary manner. He along with his sister Kripi were adopted by King Shantanu. Later on Kripa became an acharya, teacher of the royal children, giving him the name Kripacharya. His twin sister Kripi married Drona. Kripa was among the Maharathis who fought on the Kauravas’s side against the Pandavas in the Kurukshetra war in the Hindu epic of the Mahabharata. Along with others, Kripa is considered to be foremost among the rishis in Kaliyuga. Kripa will also become one of the Saptarishi in the 8th Manvantara. Gautama Maharishi had a grandson called Shardwana (or Sharadvanta). Sharadvanta was born with arrows, making clear he was a born archer. As he matured, he became such a great archer, and began doing penance to become an unbeatable one. This threatened the gods, especially Indra. He then sent a beautiful Apsara, Jalavathi, from heaven to distract the celibate saint. Sharadvanta was distracted by the sight of such a beautiful woman and lost some control, dropping his weapons and retreating into the forest to undergo more penance. His semen fell on some weeds by the wayside, dividing the weeds into two – from which a boy and a girl were born. The king of Hastinapura, Shantanu was crossing from there and saw the children by the wayside. One look at them was enough for him to realize that they were the children of a great Brahmin. He named them Kripa and Kripi, and decided to take them back with him to his palace. When Shardwanta came to know of these children he came to the palace, revealed their identity and performed the various rituals which are performed for the children of Brahmins. He also taught the children archery, the Vedas, and other Shashtras. The children grew up to become experts in the art of warfare. Kripa was now assigned the task of teaching the young princes all about warfare. On reaching adulthood, Kripa was the chief priest at the court of Hastinapura. His twin sister Kripi married Drona, the weapons master to the court – who, like her and her brother, had not been gestated in a womb, but outside the human body. He fought in the great battle of Kurukshetra for the Kaurava side. He was one of the three survivors remaining from the Kaurava side. Afterwards, he was appointed to be the teacher and preceptor of Parikshit, the grandson of Arjuna. Drona or Dronacharya or Guru Drona or Rajaguru Devadrona was the royal preceptor to the Kauravas and Pandavas; an avatar of Brihaspati. He is the friend of Guru Sukracharya, the teacher for Asura Mahabali. He was the son of rishi Bharadwaja and a descendant of the sage Angirasa. He was a master of advanced military arts, including the divine weapons or Astras. Since Drona was not born from a womb, but from a vessel made of leaf, he was named ‘Drona’ which means ‘vessel made of leaf’. The story of Drona’s birth is related dramatically to the Mahabharata. Bharadwaja rishi went with his companions to the Ganga River to perform his ablutions. There he was beheld by the beauty of a beautiful apsara named Ghritachi who had come to bathe. The sage was overcome by desire, causing him to produce semen involuntarily out of excitement. Bharadwaja Muni captured the semen in a vessel called Drona, and Dronacharya himself sprang from the semen thus preserved and is the only recorded mythical human being who was created without a female egg (ovum) Dronacharya spent his youth in poverty, but studied Dharma and military arts such as archery, in which he gained expertise, together with the then prince of Panchala, Drupada in the gurukul of Rishi Bharadwaja. Drupada and Dronacharya became close friends. Learning that Parasurama was giving away his possessions to brahmanas, Drona approached him. Unfortunately, Parasurama only had his weapons left. --- Send in a vo