Abhimanyu and the Wheel

On the thirteenth day of the war, Drona, commander of the Kaurava host, devised a plan to win the war at a stroke: to capture Yudhishthira, the Pandava king, alive, and so end the conflict. To do this he arrayed his army in the Chakravyuha, the wheel formation - a vast and intricate spiral of warriors, ring within ring, like a great revolving discus of men and chariots, which only a very few warriors in all the world knew how to penetrate. Once an enemy entered it, the rings would close behind him, and he would be trapped within, surrounded on every side.

To make sure that Arjuna, who alone among the Pandavas could break the formation and rescue their king, would be far from the field, the Kauravas sent the samsaptakas, the sworn warriors of the Trigartas, to challenge Arjuna and draw him away to a distant part of the battlefield. Bound by his honor to answer their challenge, Arjuna rode off to fight them, leaving the main Pandava army to face Drona's wheel without him. And so the trap was set: the deadly formation arrayed, the one man who could break it lured away, and the Pandava host in peril of losing their king. They needed someone who could pierce the Chakravyuha; and there was only one among them who could, and he was a boy of sixteen.