Poetic rendition of Abhimanyu's 'Chakravyuh' fight in play

The glorious "Chakravyuh" of the epic Mahabharata, where Abhimanyu single-handedly took on seven Kaurvas, will be reinterpreted in a play to be staged here Sunday to represent its relevance in today's time.

Under Atul Satya Koushik's direction, the ninety-minute play, "Arjun Ka Beta" aims to use mythology to reflex perplexities of life and compare those seven warriors (Kaurvas) to the seven vices of life.

"The story is very much relevant in today's time as 'Chakravyuh' has many lessons for us. This life that we are living is itself is a Chakravyuh and we are all Abhimanyu's of our battles," Koushik told IANS.

"Those seven warriors that he fought against are seven vices that mankind has to always strive against," he added.

Abhimanyu, the courageous and valiant son of Arjuna agreed to enter the complex, spiral multi-tier defensive formation after six days of the Kurukshetra war. Even though, he knew how to get into the seven-layered system, he did not know how to get out of it. And lost his life in the fight.

So using poetic verses and lord Krishna as protagonist, the play begins by establishing the importance of learning from mythology.

"I believe more in lessons than the story or incidents of the mythology, we must pass on the learning from the story to our next generation. Incidents or happenings may be questioned and their validity may be challenged. But the learning and lessons are perennial and pervasive. They must be propagated in our minds even though we forget the incidents of events that actually happened in them," he said.

The play will be staged at the Kamani Auditorium at 7 p.m.