Abhimanyu

Abhimanyu is one of the most important characters of Ancient Indian epic Mahabharata. He was son of Arjuna and Subhadra. He was killed in the Mahabharata battle on 13th day.

Abhimanyu was only 16 years old when he participated in the Mahabharata war. As per the legend, Abhimanyu destroyed the flag of Bhishma on the very first day of the war and kept many other fighters at bay. On the thirteenth day, he was made to enter the powerful Chakravyuha or Padmavyuha , the strategic battle formation by the Kaurva army. This was a seven tier defensive spiral formation created by Dronacharya. Only few warriors such as Pradymna, Krishna and Arjuna knew how to break such battle formation.

The legend says it that while Abhimanyu was in his mother’s womb, he heard his father describing how to enter such chakravyuha. However, when he was describing how to come out of it, he finds that Subhadra is asleep. Thus, Abhmanyu could only learn how to enter but not how to exit from the seven tier battle formation.

During the battle, the King Bhagadatta lured Arjuna away from the battle field. Yudhisthara asked Abhimanyu to break the Chakravyuha and Abhimanyu accepted it despite knowing that he might not be able to come out of it. As he entered the tiers, Jayadrath stopped the other four Pandavas to enter it. Thus, Abhimany got trapped within it and was collectively killed by mighty warriors of the Kaurva army.

Abhimanyu’s son Parikshit was born after his death in the battle. Parikshit was also the sole survivor of the Kuru clan at the end of battle of Mahabharata.