The Padmavyuha

Padmavyuha is a well known War formation used by Dronacharya,the chief of Kaurava army against the Pandavas in a mission to capture Yudhishtira but eventually resulted in the death of Abhimanyu.

Padmyavyuha was a lotus like dynamic defensive system which consists of multiple tiers which leads the warrior entering it to captivity. It was designed in such a way that it allows the intruder to come along the spherical formation to reach the target which was located at the center of it but as the formation is dynamic, it will be rotating and the way in which the intruder given access will be closed as soon as he passes a tier. This locking of exit results in the death of the warrior even before he reaches the target.

The distance between any two tiers will be equal to a space of three hands and the number of tiers depends on the strength of the army.Signals will be given by the fellow soldiers on completion of clearing each tier by the enemy warrior and the deeper he gets into the formation, complexity increases.

Many formations have a counter-measures using which they can be cracked but padmavyuha is not as such one. The cracking technique was only known to a few like Lord Krishna, Arjuna and Pradyumna(Son of Lord Krishna). In Mahabharata, it was mentioned that Abhimanyu learnt about Padmavyuha while in his mother's womb but was unable to listen how to escape for it.

Abhimanyu chose a unique way while entering it. In the regular way, the warrior kills the person in the front of him and thus entering the next tier.But as this was a rotating formation , the way would be blocked by the soldiers and no other person would be able to enter it. But instead of killing the person infront of him,Abhimanyu killed the two adjacent soldiers of the person in the front and thrashing him too with his chariot and thus creating much more space that would facilitate the Pandavas (other than Arjuna who was diverted and was unaware of the conspiracy) coming from behind to help him.

But because of the power of boon he got, Saindhava aka Jayadhradha,the brother-in-law of Kauravas was successful in obstructing the Pandavas in their way leaving Ahimanyu alone. Even though he was trapped , he managed to kill prominent figures like Lakshmana(Duryodhana's son),Rukmartha and King Brihadbala.

Karna cutoff his bow from behind and Kripacharya killed his chariot driver.He then took up a sword but that too was cutoff by Drona with his arrows. Abhimanyu picked up all the discarded weapons and continued his fight. He then picked up a chariot wheel and it was said that he managed to kill 10,000 people with that .He threw it on the face of Drona but he escaped the threat with the help of Karna. Finally he was killed by numerous Kauravas and his body was punched by innumerable swords.

The story of Abhimanyu and Padmavyuha clearly depicts the dangerous consequences of half knowledge . Even though one is powerful and dedicated, its not enough to succeed as was said ignorance is bliss and half knowledge is perilous.The consequences of a plethora of half-digested theoretical knowledge are deplorable and often terrible.