Abhimanyu-The glorious hero who learnt the science of warfare in mother womb
In preceding article, we learnt why chakravyuha was the most deadliest and brilliant military formation of mahabharata. We learnt how the warrior gets trapped in the seven layers of the formation and why it is difficult for the warrior to enter and exit the formation. Complexities of Chakravyuha formation can be comprehended from the fact that during the era of Mahabharata, only four warriors namely Krishna, arjuna, Drona and pradyumna knew about how to enter and exit the formation. In this article, we will learn how Abhimanyu, who learnt the science of breaching the chakrvayuh formation in his mother womb, managed to enter the Chakravyuha formation but died miserably inside the formation.
How Abhimanyu got incomplete knowledge of breaching Chakravyuh?
Abhimanyu learnt the technique of breaking Chakravyuh when he was inside the womb of his mother Subhadra while her valiant husband Arjuna was busy devising the Chakravyuh formation for the upcoming war. Bored by Arjuna explanation of Chakravyuh formation, Subhadra dozed off to sleep. After talking for some time and not receiving any response in return, arjuna turned back to see subhadra into REM sleep mode. Arjuna then stopped the narration in between and therefore, Abhimanyu was unable to grasp the knowledge of exiting the Chakravyuh formation.
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Why chakravyuh formation was devised by Dronacharya?
After the death of the great Bhishma on 10th day of war, When Dronacharya took over the command of the kaurava army, he promised Duryodhana of capturing Yudhistra alive. Capturing yudhisthira as “prisoner” would have finished the war as his defeat would have ended his claim over the kingdom of hastinapur. However, despite trying his best for 2 days, all attempts of drona to capture yudhisthira was easily thwarted by Arjuna. Therefore, on 13th day of the war, Dronacharya’ hatched a ploy to drag Arjuna to a far corner of the battle field, by ordering group of warriors to openly challenge him for a dual fight which Arjuna cannot refuse as per the kshatriya dharma( code of conduct for the warriors). So, as per the plan, Arjuna was distracted into another battle by the Samshaptakas. Seeing arjuna away from the battlefield, Abhimanyu along with four Pandavas undertook the task of protecting yudhisthira from the clutches of kaurava warriors. But then something happened which they totally unexpected. Drona ordered his army to form the impregnable Chakravyuh formation and moved forward with the sole aim of capturing Yudhistra alive.
Chakravyuh formation of Indian army
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Why abhimanyu stepped in to break the chakravyuh formation?
Lacking Arjuna and Krishna, the four pandavas were totally clueless on how to defend themselves from the devastating effects of Chakravyuh formation. To protect yudhisthira from the advancing Kaurava army, there was no other option than to breach the Chakravyuh formation. Very confident of his power and military skills, Abhimanyu requested yudhisthira to let him break the vyuha as he was the only knowledgeable person who knew how to do it. All of them then grouped together to devise a strategy of defeating the Chakravyuh formation. When Abhimanyu told them that though he know how to enter the vyuha, he don’t know how to exit the vyuha, Yudhistra asked the four Pandavas and other maharathis to follow Abhimanyu closely into the Chakravyuh.
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How Abhimanyu got trapped in chakravyuha?
Plan seems to be perfect but it failed miserably as the pandava army led by bhima were blocked by rapid movement of soldiers and jayadrath, who got the boon from lord Shiva of being invincible for that day. Taking advantage of the boon bestowed by lord shiva, Jayadratha, kept Yudhistir, Bheem, Nakul, Sahadev at bay. Abhimanyu penetrated deeper and deeper into the Chakravyuha but was all alone as the Pandavas could not follow him as they fought fiercely with Jayadratha. Placing invincible Jayadratha at the entrance of the chakravyuha was a well-planned strategy of the kauravas. As a result, Abhimanyu got trapped in a treacherous battle against the Maharathis of the Kaurava army, eventually resulting in his brutal death.
When arjuna learnt how Jayadrata prevented the Pandavas to enter the Chakravyuh, he took the vow of killing Jayadrata the very next day before sunset or committing suicide by entering a pyre.
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How jayadrath got the boon of invincibility for only one day?
Apparently, during the exile period, Jayadratha attempted to forcibly make Draupadi the queen of his sindhu kingdom. When Draupadi was abducted by Jayadratha, Arjuna and bhima caught him and were about to kill him before Yudhistir stopped them as he didn’t wanted to make their sister Dussala, a widow (Jayadratha was married to dussala, sister of kauravas). Jayadratha's life was spared, but he was punished by shaving his head in insulting fashion.
Shaving of Jayadrath head
Unable to bear this humiliation, jayadrath performed severe penance for many years to please Lord Shiva with the purpose of defeating the pandavas. Lord shiva rejected his request for a boon of defeating all the pandavas, especially Arjun, who was under the protection of lord Krishna. However, he granted him a boon of holding back the Pandavas for one day, that too excluding Arjun.
How abhimanyu broke Chakravyuh formation?
Technically, chakravyuh was a very complicated and fearsome formation. So, the question that may arise in your mind is how Abhimanyu, the great son of Arjuna, who learnt the science of breaking Chakravyuh while he was inside in his mother womb, managed to breach layers of Chakravyuh.
To break such a tactical formation, one has to be very agile, courageous, a skilled charioteer and must have superb fighting skills in archery. Trained under the patronage of lord Krishna for 14 odd years, Abhimanyu was young, courageous and prodigal in archery skills. But, he didn’t knew that mobility was the key in breaking the Chakravyuh. Inside the Chakravyuh, one needs to move constantly and keep killing the central archer’s one or two at a time, so as to not give them any chance of ganging upon you. However after reaching the innermost layer, instead of moving and fighting against all, Abhimanyu stood at his ground and fought against all the central warriors simultaneously which ultimately led to his downfall
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Strategy followed by abhimanyu
Below is the step by step explanation on the moves followed by Abhimanyu to break the chakravyuh
Being a master of archery, Abhimanyu shot multiple arrows in quick succession to kill multiple soldiers such that a huge gap is created between soldiers.
Certainly, moving formation of soldiers would take some amount of time to fill up by the gaps properly (blue block in left of below image shows soldiers killed by invading warrior and red line depict flow of moving soldiers).
After killing the soldiers at outer layer and having reached inside the inner layer, if the layer was moving in a clockwise direction, then strategically abhimanyu moved in anti-clockwise direction to minimize the attack and to locate & target the weakest group of soldiers in the ring. After locating and attacking the target, he moved tangentially into the inner layer like this
Using above technique, breaching the few initial layers was easy but as the density of soldiers increased in the inner layer, gap created was filled by shorter and shorter span of time, thus making it more and more difficult to breach the layer. Moreover, the constant rotation and changing arrangements of soldiers casted doubts and confusion in the mind of the warrior. Being aware of this trap, Abhimanyu followed the strategy of creating the path straight through the formation. Being a skilled and intelligent archer, he followed this strategy to successfully breach all the seven layers.
Intricate rock carvings at Belur, Halebid depicting Chakravyuha Military Formation Scene from the Mahabharata War
Unrighteous strategies were not allowed in war
Chariot of the warrior offered much needed protection from the attack of grounded soldiers but it also slowed down the process of breaching the layers. Breaching the layers would have been very easy if the chariot were designed like this
But as Mahabharata was dharma-yudhha(righteous war), such chariots were not allowed in the war. Ancient Indian wars was not just about winning, but winning the war with ethics, honor and integrity. An elite warrior class (Kshatriyas) existed that never compromised with ethics, valor and integrity. All participants of the war had to abide by the rules and regulations formulated before the war which is better known as “Dharmashastra”. Dharmashastra is a pre-defined compilation of all rules and regulations to be followed by the warrior participating in the war.
Why Abhimanyu failed to escape Chakravyuh?
As mentioned earlier, Abhimanyu gained knowledge of only breaking the Chakravyuh formation and not exiting the Chakravyuh formation.
After penetrating the sixth layer of spiral formation, abhimanyu killed Lakshman(son of Duryodhan), Shalya's younger brother and son Rukmaratha and numerous other warriors to reach the innermost layer.
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Abhimanyu was now in a high density ring against best warriors of the kaurava army. At the same time, when the news of son death and brother “dushasan” unconsciousness reached duryodhan ears, he chose to abandon all rules of war and ordered his warriors to attack Abhimanyu. As a result, against the rules of Dharma-yuddha, all the best warriors of kauravas attacked Abhimanyu from all directions simultaneously, thus making a fight of one versus many. Fighting against the continuous onslaught of kaurava warriors of the highest order (Duryodhana, Drona, Karna, Ashwaththama, Kripa, Bhurisravas, Bhagadatta, Dushshasana), Abhimanyu got physically and mentally exhausted. Also, combined attack from all the kauravas warriors made impossible for him to exit the Chakravyuh. As a result, Trapped in a rapidly changing maze with many deadly opponents who attacked him in unison from all directions and that too in the middle of a rotating formation, Abhimanyu had nowhere to go and was mercilessly tortured before finally being killed.
Why Lord Krishna did not taught breaking the Chakravyuh formation to Abhimanyu?
Well, there are multiple reasons. Lord Krishna knew everything and he believed Abhimanyu death was the need of that time. He chose not to interfere in the fate of Abhimanyu and silently observed everything from his divine eyes.
The actual story goes like this:-
Abhimanyu was the reincarnation of Varchas, son of the moon god. When the moon god was requested to let his son incarnate on earth, he bargained a deal of letting his son live on earth only till adolescence (16 years) as he cannot bear the long separation from him. This is why lord Krishna did not intervene in the Chakravyuh formation of dronacharya despite knowing very well that without adequate knowledge, Abhimanyu would be killed in Chakravyuh.
Also, as per the promise given to Pandavas and Kauravas, lord Krishna was not supposed to participate in the war and his role was limited to just being an advisor. Moreover, lord Krishna knew that Abhimanyu was so skilled that he would have killed all the kauravas alone, which would have left the vows (killing 100 sons of dhritarashtra) of the Pandavas incomplete.
Furthermore, Krishna wanted to incite anger and revenge in the mind of Arjuna to make him annihilate the kauravas swiftly without any feeling of guilt and remorse. Incident of treacherous murder of Abhimanyu was reiterated by lord Krishna, when Arjuna chose not to kill unarmed karna, seeing him attempting to lift the chariot stuck in the ground.
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Death of Mahabharata hero ‘Karna’
Thus, Krishna with his power could have easily rescued Abhimanyu easily, but was bounded by many reasons to not do so.
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Why Arjuna did not taught breaking the Chakravyuh formation to Abhimanyu?
Serving 13 years of exile, Arjuna was never the trainer or martial arts instructor of Abhimanyu. Abhimanyu lived in Dwaraka with mother Subhadra and uncle ‘Krishna’ while father arjuna wandered across the forests of India along with his brothers.
Dwaraka-Legendary city of lord Krishna
It was Krishna who trained Abhimanyu in all military formation and martial arts. Being the lord of the universe, Arjuna must have expected lord Krishna to train Abhimanyu in every aspect of military training. Moreover, Arjuna repeatedly heard about the bravery and courage of Abhimanyu from all other warriors. Thinking that Abhimanyu is well-trained in all techniques of martial combat, he didn’t thought about training him as that would have been the direct insult of his best friend “lord Krishna”.
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Why didn't Shri Krishna rescue Abhimanyu?
As per the strategy of the kauravas, before drona ordered the formation of chakravyuha, Susarman of the Kauravas challenged Arjuna for dual fight and lured him away along with his chariot driver Shri Krishna to the southern part of the battle field. Had they been present there, then Arjuna would have certainly done something if not Shri Krishna, as He had given his word to not use weapons in the battle.
What were the factors that contributed to Abhimanyu’s death?
Abhimanyu was destined to die on the thirteenth day of the war of Kurukshetra. A person's destiny is influenced by his past & present actions along with the karma performed by his near and dear ones. Abhimanyu death by illegal means was pre-decided by gods so as to induce extreme wrath and anger in the mind of Arjuna and other Pandavas brothers.
This served as the catalyst in finishing off the war within the next 5 days.
Some of the factors that contributed to Abhimanyu death are:-
1) Krishna desire to not let arjun tackle the Chakravyuh.
2) Violation of pre-decided rules by kaurava warrior
3) Abhimanyu overconfidence and thirst for glory(Breaching Chakravyuh without knowing how to escape)
4) Abhimanyu complacency(insulting and mocking kaurava warriors)
5) Yudhisthira mistake of not having a contingency plan(in absence of arjun)
6) Yudhisthira inability to prepare a defensive formation.
7) Samshaptaka vow to keep arjun engaged in a fearsome battle on the other side of the battlefield.
8) Jayadratha boon of invincibility against the pandavas.
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Summary
In yudha kanda, Chakravyuh is described as the formation of utmost mystery that incites horror in the mind of any mortal. Thus, Chakravyuh resembles the mysterical formation that requires skills of the highest order to survive as many warriors easily forget the ethics of war in such a cruel formation.
Thus, Abhimanyu is justifiably remembered as a glorious and tragic hero who lost his life in the great battle while breaching the mythical and deadly Chakravyuha.
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