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One of the paramount warriors of the great Sanskrit epic Mahabharata was Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna and Subhadra, nephew of Lord Krishna. Abhimanyu was trained to develop immense courage and skills in Archery, Swordsmanship and many other battle tactics by his father Arjuna, the greatest archer of all. The sixteen year old brave Abhimanyu fought alongside the Pandava King Yudhishthira in the great war of Kurukshetra, while Lord Krishna and Arjuna were averted towards the other side of the Battlefield by the great leader of the Kaurava army Dronacharya who was riding with Karna. Karna, the son of Surya was once gifted a divine weapon by Indra, for his selflessness and Karna would use the divine spear given to him to kill Arjuna. Drona realised this opportunity to evade Arjuna and defeat all the other warriors of the Pandava army by riding alongside Karna.
Drona then commanded his soldiers to form the dreaded formation of “Chakravyuha”. The Chakravyuha is a military formation that looks like a Chakra or a blooming lotus, which is why it’s also called the “Padmavyuha”. Drona was able to successfully entrap many of the greatest warriors of the Pandava army with the help of the Chakravyuha formation.
Among the greatest military formations in the Indian Mythology is the Chakravyuha formation where the soldiers encircle the enemies and trap them inside. This masterpiece, contrived by the Maha Guru of Pandavas and Kauravas, Dronacharya, could only be unravelled by his beloved student Arjuna, son of Indra. Suddenly the whole of the Yudhishthira army was surrounded by Kauravas and Yudhishthira yelled for help but was all in vain.
Abhimanyu stepped forward with great enthusiasm and excitement at the opportunity to fight the great warriors, saying he knows the secret to break the Chakravyuha and escape. Surprised by the words of Abhimanyu, Yudhishthira wondered as to how he knows the secret to the greatest mystery, the Padmavyuha.
How did Abhimanyu know the secret of Chakravyuha?
Long before the war of Kurukshethra, long before Abhimanyu was born, there lived an evil ruler of Mathura of the Vrishni kingdom named Kamsa whose nephew was Lord Krishna. Now, there was a prophecy that the eighth son of Devaki, sister of Kamsa would bring Kamsa and his torturous rule to an end. This terrified Kamsa. He had to find a way to kill this eighth son to live on to rule over the people of Mathura. So Kamsa imprisoned his sister Devaki and her husband Vasudeva. He went on to kill every child of Devaki that took birth in the prison until the seventh son. When Kamsa killed his sixth nephew, Lord Vishnu summoned Yogmaya, an eight handed woman and asked her to transfer the embryo of the seventh son from Devaki to Rohini, the other wife of Vasudeva, who was in Gokula. The seventh child was born and named Balarama. Then Lord Vishnu himself appeared in Devaki’s womb as the eighth son and was transferred to Yashoda’s womb by Yogmaya.
Lord Krishna, the eighth son of Devaki was born in Gokula and grew up with Balarama, his brother. The Lord then went on to kill his uncle Kamsa according to the prophecy and Kamsa put a curse on Lord Krishna that he shall be killed by his nephew in the same way he killed his uncle.
Years later Krishna started telling Subhadra, his sister who carried Abhimanyu in her womb, about the Chakravyuha, but Subhadra was bored and went to sleep. Nevertheless, Krishna went on telling her about the greatest military formation and Abhimanyu listened to it and kept saying ‘hmm’. The Lord started to explain to Abhimanyu all the secrets of the Chakravyuha. He explained to him how to break into the formation successfully and then woke Subhadra without letting Abhimanyu know how to get out of the Padmavyuha.
While some say the above was what happened and that was how Abhimanyu found out about the Chakravyuha, others disagree. While some say it was a plot made by Lord Krishna to get rid of the curse put on him by his uncle Kamsa, others believe it wasn’t Krishna at all who told Abhimanyu regarding Chakravyuha.
One more interesting theory is that Arjuna was the one who was telling Subhadra about Chakravyuha and when he was done explaining him how to break into it, Krishna interrupted him and took him away.
Back to the war…
Abhimanyu thus tells Yudhishthira that he knows how to break into the Chakravyuha but doesn’t know how to escape out of it and so they must come back to get him. Krishna on the other side of the war tries to keep Arjuna away from the Charkravyuha as according to one of the theories he wants to get rid of the curse on him and thus Abhimanyu. Abhimanyu then sets out to breach the great wonder, Chakravyuha along with the other Pandava warriors. He remembered everything his father had explained to his mother while he was in her womb(or by Lord Krishna). He bravely fought against the Kaurava soldiers in the formation. To the wonder of the Pandavas, Kauravas, Drona and every soldier present, Abhimanyu had successfully slipped the Pandava warriors and the army out of the deadly Chakravyuha formation. And then Abhimanyu waited eagerly for Yudhishthira and his army to come back and save him. But the gods had a different fate written for Abhimanyu. Yudhishthira immediately gathered his reinforcements, his army and all the great Pandava warriors and turned around to save Abhimanyu and get him out of the death hole only to find that the path back to Abhimanyu was blocked by Jayadhratha and his army. Soon Drona closed the Chakra breach quickly and Abhimanyu was trapped inside the Vyuha. Abhimanyu was eventually surrounded by the mightiest of the Kaurava warriors who were also his uncles and cousins. Duryodhana, Dusshasana, Lakshmana, Kritavarma, Kripa, Drona, Ashwatthama and many other great warriors started moving towards him with deadly weapons.
Every one of the Kaurava warriors attacked Abhimanyu, breaking the rule of war for a group of warriors must never attack one warrior all at once. But Drona did not care. The Kauravas thought the Pandavas broke the rule first when they brought a woman to the battlefield in reference to Shikhandi, who was a peculiar character. Shikhandi was a woman by birth but his father Drupada, king of Panchala raised him as a man saying he’ll have a body of a man when he grows up. Oracles said that he was destined to be the cause of Bhishma’s death and so when Shikhandi faced Bhishma, he lowered his bow saying he can’t fight a woman. Arjuna used this opportunity to shoot hundreds of arrows through Bhishma’s body and kill him.
Death of Abhimanyu
Abhimanyu, the brave and courageous warrior fought the Kauravas back with all his strength. He first used his bow but it was eventually broken apart, so was his sword. But the mighty Abhimanyu did not give up. He lifted a wheel of a broken chariot and killed Lakshmana, son of Duryodhana with it. But Dusshasana’s son hit his head with a mace and left him unconscious. When he regained his consciousness, the other warriors jumped on him fiercely, each one armed and ripped him apart.
Yudhishthira stood outside the Chakra helplessly listening to the cries of Abhimanyu. Jayadhratha stared at him with a cunning smile. Arjuna on the other side of the battlefield did not even come to know of the death of his brave son.
Abhimanyu’s death was an event of great importance in the war as he was the first member of the Pandava family to be killed by the Kauravas. It was also an important event as it meant that Krishna got rid of his uncle’s curse.
The story of the death of Abhimanyu leaves us with a great amount of message and moral. We come to realise, how partial knowledge can be threatening to an extent that it can cause one’s death. It can applied not only in warfare but also in our daily lives and we come to know of the failures we suffer by knowing half the path to success. Although some may say Abhimanyu was not wise in choosing to enter the Chakravyuha knowing it would cause his death, it was only his loyalty towards his king that led him to sacrifice himself. Also Abhimanyu was an incarnation of the son of the moon god who wanted to leave earth after 16 years. Thus some believe Abhimanyu was destined to die in the Chakravyuha. The death of Abhimanyu, was therefore a necessary sacrifice which later became one of the main reasons for the Pandavas to defeat Kauravas.
