The Death Of Abhimanyu.

The death of Abhimanyu

Abhimanyu was the son of Arjuna and his  wife   Subhadra who also was the sister of Krishna.  Abhimanyu was a great warrior and had learnt all the techniques and nuances of war from his father. Once when Arjuna was telling his wife about how to break out of a Padma  Viyuham, one  way  of fighting in war , she fell asleep and the child in her uterus learnt it but before  Arjun could tell about the break out of the Viyukam he found her sleeping and stopped his narration. The child inside her Uterus, Abhimanyu,  could only learn about entering the Padma viyukam but not to break out of it.

So during the war of Pandavas and Kauravas  at Krushetra, Abhimanyu did so many heroic fights and excelled himself in defeating and killing many of the enemy warriors. Duryoadhana was very much worried about the fighting spirit and prowess of Abhimanyu and the way he was able to kill many of his generals and army men and hence  wanted to kill him in deceit. So he told Droanachaarya to go fighting Arjuna and isolate Abhimanyu in the battle field.  As Arjuna fought some other kings, Droanacharya started attacking the Pandava army and killed many and destroyed its forces. Then Yudhishtra called Abhimanyu to attack Droanacharya by entering the Viyukam. Abhimanyu agreed but told Yudhistra that he could enter the Viyukam but cannot come out of it. Yudhishtra then said that when Abhimanyu broke the Viyuka he would be followed by the other generals and army into the viyuka of Kauravas and would support him.

So on the twelfth day Abhimanyu enetered the war and killed lots of Kaurava army and its generals and did great feats on the war field. Enemies were afraid to come near him. On the thirteenth day Abhimanyu entered the Padma Viyukam and broke into it. The Pandavas tried to follow him  but the Viyukam was immediately closed with Jayathrathan, the able and powerful king and brother in law of Duryoadhana , closing the viyukam. So Abhimanyu was alone inside the Viyukam fighting many Kauravas and their army and many were killed and many were injured by his valour.  Finally many generals of the Kauravas like Duryoadhana, Droana, Salliyan, Karna, Asvathama, Kirupar, Jayathrathan and others jointly fought with him. Finally Abhimanyu lost his chariot, horses and was on the field fighting when one son of Duchadhana hit Abhimanyu on the head when he was getting up and killed him in a treacherous way when he was not having any weapon and was getting up. This was against all norms of a war and Abhimanyu  was killed by deceit.

The killing of Abhimanyu has infuriated Arjuna so much he was about to commit suicide and only Krishna stopped him saying it was fate that Abhimanyu has to be killed like this and hence urged Arjuna to avenge the death of Abhimanyu by killing all those who killed him jointly.

So Arjuna vowed to kill Jayathratha the next day before the sun sets down  failing which he would kill himself.