Chakravyug or the lotus formation in the battle field is a formidable formation mentioned in the Mahabharatha. Although, this does not have any superiority over other formations it has gained so much of popularity and was spoken in history till date due to the fact that Abimanyu was killed and his killing that changed the war disciplines and changed the emotional souls to a savage warriors.
There are so many battle formations in Indian History. The great Epic from Indian History ‘Mahabharata’ describes many such Battle formations and the most important one portrayed was ‘Chakravyug’ referred as ‘Padmavyugam’ or lotus formation.
Abimanyu killing on this day had a domino effect that caused massacres from the enraged warriors on both sides
The war in Mahabharata took place for 18 days and at the end of the war so many kingdom perished it is mentioned in Eleventh Chapter of Mahabharata Stri Parva, Yudisthra provides the following report on casualties and survivors to Dhritharashtra: “1 billion, 660 million, and 20 thousand men perished in the war. Only 240,165 heroes survived”. (Mbh 11.26)
This chakra formation made by ‘Acharya Drona’ on the thirteenth day of the war was very important for it not only captivated and inspired everyone for its complexity that remains unfathomable until now. But, also there were so much of emotions that lamented people in the continent for centuries and Yuga’s and still continue to affect the readers and followers of Gita, from the widely accepted dogma of events that took place on the thirteenth day of the war. The dreadful incident that took place had not only changed the course of the Great War, in Mahabharata. But, has also unveiled important aspects of Human life during Karma yoga………
This fateful day, for Pandavas and Kauravas had a great disheartening effect on the minds of Pandavas themself for their remaining years in this planet. This made them to realize the truth ‘The Essence of Gnana Yoga’ that finally made them give their kingdom to King Parikshit and to depart on their final Journey through Himalayas. However, during their time the Pandavas kept up the masquerade of happily ruling the kingdom for 36 years post war.
I shall expound my views on the formidable chakra formation and later the events that took place on the 13th Day of war in Kurukshetra.
Military Characteristics of ‘Chakravyug’
This is a spiral formation with two key Commanders at both end of the chain that forms a loop. The chain of the loop is formed by mixture of infantry, cavalry, chariots and elephant army. However, this mixture of army is arranged in orderly way alternating each other to reinforce the loop. The elephants reinforce the cavalry and the infantry is supported by chariot.
The chakra formation is a formidable formation to challenge a large army and it is mainly a defense formation to protect a king or equivalent person. The strength of this formation is in its continuous reinforcement and Speed.
The formation is a column of constantly moving military units and the idea is to confuse the attacking force and tire them out, as they can never be able to engage the enemy fixedly in the moving column.
The advantage for the soldiers in this formation is they can have a respite after the short burst of engagement over their enemies, as the frontline warriors in the formation will swirl around the loop before they emerge to engage again.
Moving column is not an easy target for the engaging army. It resembles like lions hunting a zebra. The pattern of marks on zebra is very unique like the fingerprints. When the zebras start moving together for a fear of attack by the lions. The constant moving patterns with cross overs will confuse the lions to chose and fix a target and the failure rates are high for the lions to grab a prey in moving column of zebras.
Characteristics of ‘Chakravyug’ are
1. Normally there will be two Generals, Commanding at point A and B. the alternating military units are formed between these two points. (Like the battery – and +)
2. Point A is the Supreme Commander (The Center)
3. The point A sets the motion and decides on the period of this formation and reform into various formations when the objective is accomplished.
4. The Commander in point B is responsible for initiating the attack and maintaining the speed that is crucial for this formation.
5. The nodal points are the chariot warriors and Elephants. They are responsible for maintaining the link and any breaches are soon revamped.
[Imagine the Diwali crackers ‘Sangu Chakra’ when it is fired at the outer end it sets up circular motion continuously picking up momentum until it burns out.]
The weakest point in a lotus formation is infantry followed by cavalry. The strongest position is the Nodal points [chariot followed by elephant army]. The infantry; of the lotus formation can be engaged by any military units from the offending army. Therefore, this is the weakest point overall to engage. Besides, the only unit, that would and can support the infantry for reinforcement is the chariot behind them. Although powerful, this chariot can be distracted by a similar unit in the offending Army.
The way to break into lotus formation is to cut and make a hole in the loop. The engaging unit to break a lotus formation should be well trained for this ordeal in a way that they know what they are doing and there is no room for error. As the loops are constantly reinforced quickly there is a very short time before the enemy can gain entry to it.
I shall discuss this in detail here about the training the military unit for the purpose of breaking the lotus formation.
Warriors trained in all aspects of military tactics form the unit to break the lotus formation. Ultimately the warrior themselves become a lead depending upon prevailing circumstances as the units quickly engage and disengage to swap over between secondary and primary units and with continuous break down of units That are subdivided into primary unit and secondary units and these units will swap over quickly over preponderant circumstances.
The primary unit will engage the enemy in its weakest position chosen by the Supreme Command of the engaging unit, once the primary unit engages it slows the loop in the lotus formation and makes a hole in the link through which the secondary unit is delivered. Once the Secondary Unit is delivered the remaining primary unit retreats and fortifies its strength again to engage enemy at a different position in a similar manner to deliver secondary units again.
The nodal point (General commanding) is usually on an Elephant or Chariot and he quickly seals the breaches in the loop. However, the secondary unit that is delivered through the breach is now becomes autonomous and starts to divide into primary and secondary units and attacks the inner loop and this process is continuous until a smaller unit (Sometimes it may be a single warrior) reaches the center of the formation.
[This is like the sperm with its tail once it reaches the ovum the tail detaches itself and the nucleus gets in to fertilize and finally cell starts to divide mitotically inside evenly].
However, the reinforcement for this small unit comes from all direction by repeated attempts in a similar manner described above by the engaging units.
But, for the military units in the lotus formation the strength lies in its speed and the weakness is its inability to engage backwards. As the loop in forward motion can only attack at the front and move on keeping the link steady to maintain the unit’s constant speed.
What happened in Mahabharata!!!!!
13TH Day Battle formation by Acharya Drona
The ‘PADMAVYUG’ in Mahabharata made by ‘Acharya Drona’ was not intended to defend. But, was a trap set to capture Yuthisra alive so the war can be ended. This lotus formation is very effective and certainly not for a novice soldier to break open this formation.
The supreme commander; who can penetrate with varying tactics to engage and disengage quickly disposing themselves from the primary unit to join the secondary unit and to charge further; needs extreme maneuvering skills and this was mastered by very few warriors like Arjuna, Abimanyu, Krishna and Pradyumna from Pandava side.
Bhīma was a great warrior with powerful disposition. However, he is not swift enough to engage and dispose to penetrate the lotus formation. Moreover, he had a main objective to protect Yudisthra for which he was commissioned by Krishna that day.
Duryodhana distracted Arjuna; by summoning [the King of Pragjyotisha] Bhagadatta to attack Arjuna with his mighty elephant force that resulted in a fierce battle were Bhagadatta Intention was mainly to keep Arjuna far away from Yudisthra.
The Lotus formation is generally a defense formation. However, can be very destructive if not properly engaged, as once the formation is set in motion will have a tornado effect over the enemy military formation and will cut through like a laser causing severe damage.
Yudisthra realizes the situation and in dilemma to take any action in the absence of Arjuna and Krishna who have the expertise to defend the formation.
He consults Bhīma and they decide to use Abimanyu in the primary unit to deploy Bhīma alongside Abimanyu to break open the formation. Abimanyu engages on the Commander at point B [Jayadratha] sending showers of arrows at him. The torrential arrows sent by this young genius break the bowstrings of Jayadratha slowing him down. This was a standard tactics and was deployed by Bhīma and Yudisthra trying to make an entry into the formation. But, They were taken by surprise when Jayadratha breaks open himself from the formation to attack the Pandavas with the military support from behind. Before, anyone could realize that Jayadratha was not actually a point B commander but was merely a decoy; the inevitable has happened that Abimanyu has been deployed inside the formation but with no major support unit behind him. Jayadratha was able to hold Bhīma and Yudisthra at bay despite all the effort from Bhīma the Pandavas were helpless in assisting Abimanyu that epitomized Bhīma as inexperienced and unprepared warrior to handle ‘Padmavyugam’ formation.
Confusion prevailed on both the armies for a period for the fact that Yudisthra didn’t enter the formation as expected by the Kauravas. And, for Pandavas Jayadratha were merely a decoy and not the commander of the outer ring. The ploy of capturing Yudisthra was evident but before it was realized in Pandavas side Abimanyu was deployed inside the ‘Padmavyugam’ in this chaos situation.
The ploy of Duryodhana to use Acharya Drona and Karna to capture Yudisthra to end the war was had now become evident from the cleverly executed plan by Jayadratha who now is attacking the Pandavas forbiddingly and the Pandavas then had no option other than to relegate Yudisthra from his position unwillingly.
Yudisthra fears for the worst and knew what would be next, during the remaining hours of the battle the most effective fight that Bhīma did was on the 13th day. Ignoring his own safety he puts all his effort to save the child, but sadly all were ineffective in breaking through Jayadratha.
The only way to save Abimanyu is now to deploy multiple units around the lotus formation to weaken it to gain entry. This would mean that Bhīma and Yudisthra to command separate military units to attack the formation at different points to gain entry. Furthermore, this maneuver would put Yudisthra at risk of being captured. Therefore, this leaves with the solitary option of killing Jayadratha and continue forward adhering to the original plan that was proposed early before the break attempt that unfortunately did not materialize due to the enhanced skill of Jayadratha from the boon that he received from Lord Shiva.
It is a common folklore that Abimanyu knows the tactics of breaking the formation but uninformed of exiting the formation. Here, I must clarify that there is no such thing like exiting the formation. Once the soldiers are inside the center of the formation the objective is to disarm the Supreme Commander (Point A general). When this is achieved the formation loses the Nucleus and has to reform but unfortunately without the Supreme Commander (Point A) there is no way the Military unit from Lotus formation can be reformed therefore the formation is now open for the army that has engaged to exit. This means ‘Defeated objectives failed exit’.
Unfortunately for Abimanyu for his dexterous skills was valuable enough to gain momentum to dispose through the breaches in the loops progressively. Albeit, was unable to accomplish the mission of capturing the Supreme Commander who was Acharya Drona himself and was fortified with General Karna and his personal bodyguard General Ashwathama.
The Supreme Commander and his Generals were astonished to see Abimanyu there. They had mixture of emotions over their face so did they froze!! Abimanyu engaged in no time before anyone could recover from the shock. Duryodhana was the first to regain his sense and he was fuelled by Animosity.
Abimanyu blighted Duryodhana hopes of trapping Yudisthra. Disappointed and enraged Duryodhana attacked Abimanyu. But, he came under heavy firing of arrows from the young warrior who saw Duryodhana as no match for him.
Acharya Drona and General Karna had no choice other than rescuing Duryodhana from this invincible young warrior as they were bound by the Onus to Duryodhana and their responsibility as a General, friend, Guru and as a Warrior circumstantially imposed a wanton disregard over the young Abimanyu on their minds. Who to their eyes at that given moment was only an Intruding Adversary!! ………………[to be continued in my Book]
Mahavatar Babaji The Great Himalayan Master 