Who was the best Archer in Mahabharata? Arjuna, Karna, Bhishma, Dronacharya or Eklavya?

 

Who was the best Archer in Mahabharata? Arjuna, Karna, Bhishma, Dronacharya or Eklavya?

The first position will go to arjuna he is powerful than all these warriors mentioned.

1 Arjuna- he is the incarnation of nara and most powerful warrior of mahabharata except lord krishna and lord shiva. now karna fans may say that arjuna killed bhishma, drona and karna unfairly but just because he killed them unfairly it does not mean he is weaker. If arjuna was weaker then how did he defeat these warriors in virata yudh single handedly where he did not have krishna. It was just that arjuna always fought mildly and because of that the pandava army could lose because he was the only warrior who could defeat warriors like bhishma and drona. just see the statement of mahadeva

from kairata parva chapter 337

and see the statement of lord krishna from harana harika parva

krishna and lord shiva themselves said that no one in the world can defeat arjuna in fight. arjuna never fought the mahabharata war with his full potential except on the 14th day. he was the most powerful and destructive warrior of kurukshetra as he destroyed 8 akshauhini armies of kauravas on 14th day.

from amba upkayana parva chapter 858

here arjuna said that he could finish the entire kaurava army in one day using pashupatastra but he will not do so.

and see words of bhishma

bhishma vadha parva chapter 976

krishna himself told arjuna that he is superior to bhishma and drona

source bori ce karna parva chapter 1200

Arjuna never killed bhishma and karna unarmed if we go through bhishma vadha parva in bori ce we will see that bhishma died while fighting with arjuna. and karna was also killed by arjuna while fighting not unarmed as shown in tv serials.

So now it is clear that Arjuna is the most powerful and an underrated character of mahabharata

2 Bhishma-

Bhishma comes on the second number because he was the guy who defeated Parshurama by fighting for 24 days. Bhishma was the best among the disciples of Parshurama because he was the only disciple who defeated his guru. Bhishma was the most powerful Kaurava warrior from the Kaurava side. He was the only warrior in virata yudh who countered sammohanastra of arjuna.

3 Dronacharya

he comes on the third position. He had the knowledge of almost every celestial weapon like Brahmastra, Brahmishirastra, Vajrastra and Narayanastra. He knew about many powerful battle formations like chakravyuh and sakatavyuh. He was the most destructive kaurava commander. it is said that as long as Drona possessed the bow in his hand not even the gods could vanquish him in battle. In knowledge of celestial weapons, warfare and battle formations drona was powerful than karna

4 Karna

He was also a student of Parshurama and had weapons like Brahmastra, Bhargavastra and Vasavi shakti. It is said that as long as Karna possessed the armour he could not be killed in battle but his armour and earrings made him immortal not undefeatable. he was the physically powerful warrior of kaurava army and the only kaurava warrior who countered Arjuna,’ s Aindrastra

5 Eklavya

Eklavya comes on the last position. It is said that Eklavya had given his thumb to Dronacharya and as long he possessed the thumb he was considered invincible. However Eklavya is not powerful than these warriors mentioned above.

My answer is based on bori critical edition of mahabharata