01The Moon’s son
The Adi Parva names Abhimanyu as a portion of Suvarchas, son of Soma, the Moon. A passage found in many manuscripts, which the Critical Edition prints in its appendix, adds that the Moon would lend his son to earth for sixteen years only. He was born to Subhadra at Indraprastha and was raised in Dwaraka among his mother’s people during the exile. His name means one who is fierce, ardent in the face of the enemy. When the thirteenth year ended, he was married to Uttara, daughter of King Virata, at Upaplavya.
02Into the wheel
On the thirteenth day the Samshaptakas drew Arjuna away to the south, and Drona set his army in the chakravyuha, the wheel formation. Yudhishthira turned to Abhimanyu. My father taught me how to break in, the boy said, but I cannot come out if anything goes wrong. Bhima and the others promised to follow him through the breach. He broke in. At the gap Jayadratha, strong with a boon from Mahadev, held back every Pandava who tried to follow, and Abhimanyu was alone inside. He killed Duryodhana’s son Lakshmana and Brihadbala of Kosala and scattered the great warriors one after another.
03How he fell
Drona himself praised him to Kripa. Then, on Drona’s advice, the great warriors came at him together. Karna cut his bow from behind; others killed his horses and his charioteers. He fought on with sword and shield until those were cut down, then with a chariot wheel, then with a mace. The son of Duhshasana met him mace to mace, and as Abhimanyu rose from the ground, struck him on the head. Tradition gives his age as sixteen. That night Arjuna came back to the silent camp, learned what had happened, and swore that Jayadratha would be dead by the next sunset.
04The womb and the line
In the much-loved telling, Abhimanyu learned the secret of the chakravyuha in his mother’s womb, hearing Arjuna explain it to Subhadra, and missed the way out because she fell asleep. That katha is not in the Critical Edition; there Abhimanyu says only that his father taught him how to break in. Uttara was carrying his child when he died. The boy was born lifeless, struck by Ashvatthama’s weapon, and Krishna brought him to life; he was Parikshit, the king through whom the Kuru line went on.