Padmavyuha
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Arjuna, the great Pandava warrior, was once recounting the secret of penetrating the 'padma vyuha', or lotus formation of battle, to his wife, Subhadra. Abhimanyu, the unborn child, was also listening in his mother's womb. Since the art of penetrating the chakravyuha was esoteric, the unborn child, already destined to be a great warrior, was receiving an unfair amount of information. Lord Krishna, incarnation of Vishnu, did not want the final battle between the Pandavas and the Kauravas to be one-sided. Krishna then intentionally gave Arjuna another responsibility at that exact time, so Arjuna could not finish telling Subahdra about getting out of the padmavyuha formation.
On the thirteenth day of the war of Kurukshetra, Acharya Dhrona took the Kaurava army out to the field in the 'padma vyuha'.. Many confuse themselves this formation with the 'chakra vyuha' or the wheel formation. These are two different formations. It would be easy to visualise the 'padma vyuha' if it is imagined as a six pointed star. The Deputy Commanders-in-Chief would be placed at each outer point of this 'petals of lotus' and at the inner end, where each end of lotus petal joins with the other, to form an inner-circle resembling the corolla of the lotus, the Commanders-in-Chief would be stationed. The space between any two 'petals' is the only access to reach the centre of the 'lotus' where the Supreme Commander - Duryodhana - was placed. If a contingent of enemy soldiers moved between any two petals for this purpose, the petals would close in and crush the invader like the powerful tentacle of a crab.
The technique and angle of attack and the weak points in this formation were known only to Arjuna and not even the other four Pandavas knew how to do it. But Arjuna was challenged for a single-combat by Susarma, the king of Samsapthakas. Susarma teased Arjuna as a coward and Arjuna was so angered that he went behind him, while he dodged him and took him a long distance away from the battlefield. This was actually a ploy to remove Arjuna from the place of action. The 'lotus formation' was moving forwards, with the sole idea of capturing Yudhisthira, leader of the pandavas. It was an emergency. Since Arjuna was not present, the Pandava army was led by Bhima on that day. The only other person who knew something about breaking the 'padma vyuha' was Abhimanyu. Unfortunately, he knew only half the job. He knew how to break and get in. He did not know how to come back. In the attempt, he was killed by the son of Duryodhana. However, he was killed dishonorably, since the warrior code was broken.
