Itihāsa / Mahābhārata chronicle / Droṇa · 34 of 50
34. The boy in the circle
Droṇa (द्रोण)
On the thirteenth day Droṇa draws a wheel, a cakravyūha, a formation that coils. Arjuna knows how to break it, and Arjuna is drawn to another part of the field. The one other person on the Pāṇḍava side who knows the way in is Abhimanyu, and he knows the way in only. A household telling says he heard that much in the womb, while Arjuna was telling Subhadrā, and that the way out was never finished because she slept. The poem's stable fact is enough. He can enter. He cannot leave.
He asks to be followed in. Yudhiṣṭhira agrees, because the alternative is to let Droṇa take the king, and because the boy believes the uncles will be behind him. He enters. Jayadratha, spending the boon he earned from the humiliation in the forest, holds the mouth of the wheel against Bhīma, against the twins, against Yudhiṣṭhira, against everyone except the absent Arjuna. The uncles do not get in. Abhimanyu fights alone inside. When his chariot is gone and his bow is gone, many surround him. The rule was that many do not fall on one. The rule is broken. He is killed. This page says that he was killed by many after he was disarmed. It does not catalogue the wounds.
Arjuna comes back at the end of the day and learns how his son died, and who held the door. The grief becomes a vow before he will eat or drink or rest. Jayadratha before sunset tomorrow, or Arjuna will enter fire. The camp believes him. Kṛṣṇa, who loves the boy as well, spends the night on how a vow like that can be kept without handing Duryodhana the war.
नेपालीमा
तेह्रौँ दिन द्रोणले चक्रव्यूह रचे। अर्जुन अर्कैतिर तानिए। भित्र पस्न जान्ने अर्का एक मात्र अभिमन्यु थिए, र निस्कन जान्दैनथे। एउटा घरेलु कथनले गर्भमा सुनेको भन्छ। कविताको स्थिर तथ्य पर्याप्त छ। उनले आफ्ना पछि आउन भने, र युधिष्ठिरले मानेर उनी पसे। जयद्रथले ढोका रोक्यो, वनको अपमानबाट पाएको वरले। काकाहरू भित्र पसेनन्। हतियार सकिएपछि धेरै जनाले घेरे। एक जनालाई धेरैले नघेर्ने नियम तोडियो। उनी मारिए। यो पृष्ठले घाइतेको सूची बनाउँदैन। अर्जुनले भोलि सूर्यास्तअघि जयद्रथलाई मार्ने प्रतिज्ञा गरे, नत्र आफैँ आगोमा जाने।