Chakra Vyuha, also known as Padma Vyuha was a special Battle formation used in the Mahabharata War.
Lord Krishna,Arjuna,Jayathratha, Pradhyumna( Krishna’s Son) knew how to crack the Vyuha.
Abhimanyu knew how to enter but did not know how to come out as Lord Krishna, his Uncle, who was teaching Abhimanyu while he was in his mother’s womb, left on an errand afer teaching how to enter the Chakra Vyuha.
Read my post on Battle formations in Mahabharata.
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Chakra Vyuha Formation was used thrice in the Kurukshetra war.
Chakravyuha was formed just before the Kurukshetra war by Bhishma to counter Arjun, who was defending the Kaurava invasion on the kingdom of Virat (insisted by Duryodhan and aimed at uncovering the anonymity of Pandavas, during their 1 year anonymous exile, following the previous 12 years exile.
The second time Chakravyuha was formed to capture Yudhishthir during the 13th day of the war.
Abhimanyu died at this instance.
The third time, Chakravyuha was made was in the 14th day of the war, to protect Jayadratha from getting killed by Arjun (which according to Arjun’s vow will result into Arjun’s self-immolation, and will further result into an easy victory for Kauravas). Chakravyuha (Wheel or Disc formation), Sarpavyuha (Snake formation) and Soochivyuha (Needle formation) were made to protect Jayadratha. Consequently Arjun broke all the formations with his incredible skills and bravado (and some help from Lord Krishna as well), and by the end of the day killed Jayadratha, thereby completing his vow.
How Chakra Vyuha Was formed.
The rotating Chakravyuha consisted of warriors of various calibres. The Other Pandavas or anyone in general could not breach it because of 2 primary reasons. Firstly, they usually attacked the stronger warriors in the ring and consequently were repelled. Secondly as soon as they started to get an upper hand on one particular warrior, the ring rotated and another Kaurava warrior confronted them.
Abhimanyu overcame this strategy by attacking the warriors to the left and right of him, instead of the ones directly in front. As the layers of the ring rotated, the gap he had created to his left or right came in front of him and he penetrated the Chakravyuha accordingly. He repeated the same for all the further layers of the rings.
Another version of the story says that Arjun mentioned a “right time to enter” the Chakravyuha, also the “right words to enter” as well. This seems to indicate that apparently there was some sort of key to solve the jigsaw puzzle, using which one can break the Chakravyuha. This may indicate the weak points of the Chakravyuha to attack probably. This further approves the fact that probably the rotating wheel formation must be having its inner labyrinthine maze and its corresponding layers rotating too, also possibly in different directions and in varying speed too. That complex nature of coordination would require a precise time to attack, during which the formation could be its most vulnerable with a possible alignment of an attack path through the various layers. The right time, and right word can thus signify the time to find such possible course of alignment within the Chakravyuha, and the exact usage of weapons (assuming various war cries were associated with various weapons) during the attack.
There is a labyrinthine in Rajasthan resembling the Chara Vyuha formation.
The Pandavas are reported to have formed this during their exile,Ajnatha Vasa, reamaing in cognito.
This is underground.
This was probably done to escape the notice of the Spies of Duyodhana.
‘Popularly known as the Piplu Fort, it is located 30-35 kilometers away from Hamirpur district headquarters. The motivation behind visitng this fort was not the fort but it was to see the replica of labyrinth [चक्रव्यूह] that was created by Kauravas in the Mahabharat. It is believed that when Paandav’s reached that region during their exile period, they cleared the whole region within one day and made it a plane area.’
How To Reach.
In order to reach Tonk district in Rajasthan, one can take a flight to Jaipur Airport. There is a good network of roads connecting the district with Delhi, Bundi, Ajmer, Kota, Jaipur and Sawai Madhopur. There are ample number of buses operated by the RSRTC. The nearest railway station is the one at Banasthali-Newai(35 km) and the Jaipur Station(96 km). Express trains run along this route on a regular basis thereby making it convenient for the tourists to reach this place.
Citation/reference.
http://aroundtheworldin80nights.blogspot.ae/2012/07/chakravyuha-deadliest-of-formations-and.html
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Filed under: Hinduism Tagged: Abhimanyu, Arjuna, Bhagavad gita, Chakra Vyuha, Hindu Texts, Hinduism, Krishna, Kurukshetra War, Mahabharata, Padma Vyuha, Piplu Fort
