Editing Drupada (section)

==Early life and family==
[[File:Drona and the Fire of Friendship.png|thumb|An illustration depicting a young Drupada (left) with Drona]]
According to the ''[[Mahabharata]]'', Drupada is the son of Prishata, the king of [[Panchala Kingdom (Mahabharata)|Panchala Kingdom]] and his birth name was Yajnasena. Some [[Puranas|Puranic scriptures]] provide a contradictory genealogy, according to which Drupada is the son of Somaka and Prishata is Somaka’s great grandfather.<ref name = "VM" >Puranic Encyclopedia: a comprehensive dictionary with special reference to the epic and Puranic literature, Vettam Mani, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1975, [https://archive.org/stream/puranicencyclopa00maniuoft#page/251/mode/2up 251]</ref>

Drupada's early life is narrated in the ''[[Adi Parva]]'' of the epic, according to which he goes to the hermitage of the sage [[Bharadvaja]] for education and befriends [[Drona]], his classmate and Bhardwaja's son. Drupada assures Drona that once he becomes the king, he would share half of his kingdom with Drona. After completing his education, Drupada returns to Panchala.<ref name = "VM" />

The wife of Drupada is addressed as Prishati (lit. 'daughter-in-law of Prishata') in the ''Mahabharata''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Karve |first=Irawati |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uJz4ZWsRcsAC&q=Prishati |title=Yuganta: The End of an Epoch |date=July 2006 |publisher=Orient Longman |isbn=978-81-250-1424-9 |language=en}}</ref> The epic also records Drupada praying to the god [[Shiva]], after which [[Shikhandi]]—the reincarnation of princess [[Amba (Mahabharata)|Amba]]—is born. Shikhandi is the biological child of Drupada, while [[Dhristadyumna]] and [[Draupadi]] are born from a fire sacrifice organised by him. (See [[#Kingship]] for details) In some versions, [[Uttamaujas]] and [[Yudhamanyu]], the two princes who protected  the hero [[Arjuna]] during the [[Kurukshetra War]], are mentioned as two other sons of Drupada. The Critical Edition mentions that Drupada has eleven sons, naming in addition to the aforementioned children: [[Characters in the Mahabharata#Satyajit|Satyajita]], Kumara, Vrika, Panchalya, Suratha, Shatrunjaya and Janmejaya.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Buitenen |first=J. A. B. van |url=https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/The_Mahabharata_Volume_3/wFtXBGNn0aUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=cekitana&pg=PA322&printsec=frontcover |title=The Mahabharata, Volume 3: Book 4: The Book of the Virata; Book 5: The Book of the Effort |last2=Fitzgerald |first2=James L. |date=1973 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-84665-1 |language=en}}</ref>