Pinaka looked bewildered and said, 'Badshah Khan, it's not possible to not to have a strategy.. ' Khan said, 'Prince, please understand.. his army is not a disciplined army.. majority of them are thieves and cutthroats.. they are majorly focussed on killing and looting.. but they have one unique capability.. they can mimic your strategy very well and counter it on the spot.. they don't have their own strategy.. their strategy is the counter strategy of the enemy.. ' emperor Surya Gupta said, 'how is it possible.. adapting the strategy of enemy on the spot.. that is too risky.. ' Badshah Khan said 'believe me great emperor, I fought against them, we have seen them.. the major advantage they had during our war was.. numbers.. they outnumbered us on 1:3 ratio.. we couldn't hold.. ' Pinaka said, 'ok, now what is the total strength of Zaffar's army? ' Khan said, 'His own force has thirty thousand men, if the Shah of Iran too gets involved, the size of the army would be fifty to sixty thousand men.. ' Pinaka said, 'combining our army and Magadhan army we will have fifty thousand soldiers, now at any cost we need the army of Grandfather.. otherwise.. it will be difficult.. ' as they were discussing, there was an attender who came in, he said, 'emperor, message from emperor Kailash Nanda.. ' he had a small scroll in his hand, he gave it to the emperor, he opened the scroll, read it and said, 'good news, Gandhara forces will join us.. ' Pinaka had a broad smile on his face.. 'that is good.. now we have the numbers.. Khan, are we having the advantage now..? ' Khan said, 'Prince, what is the size of Gandhara army? ' Pinaka said, 'may be thirty thousand.. ' Khan said, 'we will have advantage in numbers.. but our strategy must be an ever changing one.. only then we can succeed.. ' Surya Gupta said, 'ever changing? how? ' Khan said, 'we should orchestrate the whole war in such a way that we would do more damage with less numbers..the formations of your army should change in such a way that the enemy should not be able to get time to adapt.. a single strategy.. will not help.. ' Pinaka nodded, 'so once we reach Kurukshetra, we will speak to all the generals and orchestrate the sequence of formations..this is going to be challenging.. thank you Khan, you can take leave.. ' Khan bowed and left.. Pinaka looked at his father and said, 'father, what do you think? ' Surya Gupta said, 'he seems reliable.. so what would our strategy be? ' Pinaka smiled and said, 'let's go with the advice given by Khan, we will adapt a strategy that can leave the enemies confused.. instead of having a huge formation, we will have smaller formations spread accross the field.. as the enemy approaches and adapts for each formation, we keep merging two formations into one big formation and tackle the enemy.. ' Surya Gupta said, 'how practically possible would it be? ' Pinaka took blank parchment and started drawing something on it, then he showed it to his father.. he said, 'we will first go with a mandala (galaxy) formation.. here our entire army will be arranged in five to six formations or cl.u.s.ters in a huge circular fas.h.i.+on..our army will have two formations, Magadhan army will have two formations and Gandhara army will have two formations.. each formation would be controlled by a Maharathi (core general) , as the enemies approach, we change the formations, two magadhan formations will merge as one, same with Gandhara and our formations, we will align into three formations from six.. at last these three formations will allign into one formation..the great Chakravyuha (circular formation).. our aim is to surround Zaffar, and his core generals, we will completely surround them, it will end the war, '
Surya Gupta said, 'Chakravyuha? are you sure, it needs great discipline and planning.. and a single miscalculation might cost us heavily..'
Pinaka looked at the pictures he drew.. he looked keenly and said, 'father, I am confident, our army and Magadhan army are well trained in all the vyuhas (formations) I hope Gandhara army is also competent.. we have to do it.. also I am planning one element of surprise for Zaffar.. it would be the winning stroke for us.. '
Note: Vyuhas are formations, the ancient Indian battles were always based on strategy.. each army would have one formation, to counter it the enemy would adapt another strategy..
Mandala Vyuha (galaxy formation) :
It is a defensive circular formation very difficult to penetrate. The Commander-in-chief, situated at the centre of the formation, usually leads the army and is surrounded by several small groups or cl.u.s.ters of armymen, each group lead by a Maharathi (core general).
Chakravyuha (multi tiered circular wheel formation) :
The Chakravyuha, is a multi-tier defensive formation that looks like a disc when viewed from above. The pattern is of two soldiers on both sides with other soldiers following them at a distance of three hands, drawing up seven circles and culminating in the end which is the place where the captured person or object is to be kept. In order to make Chakravyuha, the Commander has to identify soldiers who will form this formation. The number of soldiers to be deployed and the size of the Chakravyuha is calculated as per the resistance estimated. Once drawn, the foremost soldiers come on either side of the component to be captured, engage briefly and then move ahead. Their place is taken up by the next soldiers on either side, who again engage the component briefly and then move ahead. In this fas.h.i.+on, a number of soldiers keep on pa.s.sing the component and keep on moving in a circular pattern. By the time the last bit of soldiers arrive, the component, oblivious of the design is captured within seven tiers of soldier formation surrounding him from all sides. The last soldiers of the formation give the signal of completing the Chakravyuha. On the signal, every soldier who so far has been facing outwards, turn inwards to face the component. It is only then that the captured component realizes his captivity. The Chakravyuha keeps on moving in a spherical order and can easily lead the component away in captivity as well.
Formation of Chakravyuha is never visible from the ground. But anyone from above can easily decipher the movement. It is a hopeless no escape situation for the captive. This is correct on formation of Chakravyuha. This strategy was applied during prehistoric days. The component even if heavily guarded, cannot escape the web of a chakravyuha.
