Abhimanyu and the Chakravyuh

On the thirteenth day the Kauravas laid a trap. The Samshaptakas challenged Arjuna and drew him away to a far corner of the battlefield. Meanwhile Drona arranged the Chakravyuh, a formation of soldiers that turned like a wheel, which no one but Arjuna and Krishna knew how to break.

The Pandavas were worried. Then Arjuna's sixteen-year-old son Abhimanyu stepped forward: 'I know how to break in, but not how to get out.' A popular telling says he heard this skill while still in his mother Subhadra's womb, as Arjuna described it, and Subhadra fell asleep halfway. Bhima said, 'You open the way; we will follow right behind you.'

Abhimanyu burst into the formation like lightning. But as the Pandavas tried to follow, Jayadratha, king of Sindhu, blocked the gap. By a boon from Shiv, that day he held back Bhima, Yudhishthira, Nakula and Sahadeva. Abhimanyu was left alone inside.

Alone, Abhimanyu still defeated warrior after warrior and even killed Duryodhana's son Lakshmana. Then Drona, Karna, Kripa, Ashwatthama and other great warriors attacked him together, against the rules of war. Karna cut his bow from behind; his chariot and horses were destroyed.

Weaponless, Abhimanyu lifted a chariot wheel and kept fighting with it. At last Duhshasana's son struck him with a mace, and the brave boy fell. When Arjuna returned that evening and heard the news, his heart broke.