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The chakravyuha formation.

The Chakravyuha is an army formation mentioned in the Hindu epic Mahabharata.

It is a seven-tier defensive spiral formation, used by Dronacharya, commander-in-chief of the Kaurava army.The formation is likened to a chariot wheel.

The various vyuhas (army formations) had been studied by the Kauravas and Pandavas alike, with most of the vyuhas having their counter formations to break the enemy formation. It is important to observe that in the form of battle described in the Mahabharata, it was important to position the powerful fighters in positions where they would inflict the maximum damage on the opposing force or defend against the attacks of key warriors of the opposition.

This particular vyuha was special in being the only vyuha that none of the Pandava warriors except Abhimanyu, Arjuna, Krishna and Pradyumna knew how to lead an offensive against it. Arjuna's son Abhimanyu had the knowledge of penetrating into the Chakravyuha but not how to exit from it. He learned it when he was still inside the womb of his mother, Subhadra. Ironically, Subhadra fell asleep while she was being explained about the formation by Arjuna, and so Abhimanyu could not learn how to escape from it. He died in the Kurukshetra War trying to break free from the Chakravyuha. Mahabharata also has references wherein the rules of Chakravyuha were broken by Kauravas to kill Abhimanyu. After Abhimanyu penetrated the sixth tier of spiral formation, All the Kaurava warriors attacked him in unison.

It was against the rules of Dharmayuddha, which stated that multiple warriors should not attack a single warrior.

• In Hindi, Chakravyuha can refer to an impasse or difficult problem
• The game of kabbadi is claimed by some to have originated from the Chakravyuha [1]

• In the Bollywood movie Iqbal (film), the main character Iqbal learns how to set up a trap like the Chakravyuha on a batsman of an opposing cricket team.

• Karna

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