Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c5.1088

c5.1088

With his wife and child Droṇa went to Drupada who did not care to recognize him as a friend. Droṇa tried to remind him of their former friendship. But Drupada shunned him and said, “If I had friendship with you, it was to achieve certain ends. There is no friendship between the rich and the poor, the learned and the illiterate, the brave and the coward. So if there was any friendship at all it was not real. You, are slow of brain! Kings of high status cannot have friendship with such people especially the poor. A Brahmin learned in Vedas won’t befriend a Brahmin who is not learned in Vedas, a man seated in a chariot cannot befriend a man who is not seated in a chariot and a King cannot befriend one who is not a King. So a friendship of bygone days is no friendship at all”.