“WHAT IS PADMAVYUHAM MEANS IN MAHABHARATA EPIC?” – By MaddaliSwetha

The Padmavyūha (Sanskrit: पद्मव्यूह) or Chakravyūha (चक्रव्यूह) refers to a Military formation narrated in the Hindu epic Mahabharata.

Vyuha is strategic placement of available resources of an army at war. It is a formation and derives its name and ways to act and perform according to many things found in nature and in daily use. In case of the Padma-vyuham, the army formation is in the form of a lotus with strategic placement of the cavalry, foot soldiers, swordsmen, charioteers, elephants, etc, in an attempt to deliver maximum damage to the opposing force as well as protecting the principal participants from the enemy. 

The lotus formation facilitated and worked on the pattern of opening of petals thereby Surrounding more of the enemies and then closing of the petals there by trapping them and rendering them ineffective. There are a number of such formations and operate on the basis of the objects/animals they derive their names from, like 
suchika-mukha-vyuham (shaped like a needle tip)

makar-vyuham (shaped like a crocodile, with powerful jaws and flexible tail piece delivering blows) garuda-vyuham (shaped like a hawk, its beak part and wings doing the trick)

baana-vyuham(shaped like an arrow)

ghata-vyuham(shaped like a pot)

And so on...

Hence,

1. padma-vyuham has been referred to been laid to trap abhimanyu, which is not correct, actually abhimanyu was trapped in the chakra-vyuham(formation like a turning wheel, wherein the army in consequent concentric circles moved in the opposite direction thereby trapping and confusing the enemy, and protecting its core which was the only vulnerable point of the entire formation. the core once pierced would throw the entire vyuham in a disarray.

2. A person in the battle field totally surrounded with the enemies.

3. It is a siege where all routes of escape are sealed or guarded. The alignment resembles a lotus.

4. The strategic positioning and deploying of an army in such a way that the opponent's force is blunted and increases the threat to the opponent is called "Vyuham". 

Padmavyuham was the legendary 'positioning' of the kaurava army against the pandava might to trap abhimanyu. Elephants and foot soldiers formed the main component. The outer most perimeters were the foot soldiers, the next was the horses, then again the foot soldiers, then the elephants, and then again the foot soldiers and finally it was again the elephants.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmavyuha

Google – images/Padmavyuha

“MAHABHARATA is the second Hindu Epic. It contains the Bhagavad Gita. It is the biggest book known to mankind.