Abhimanyu - II

 
 The birth of Abhimanyu -
 
As there are many stories revolving around the birth of Abhimanyu, I shall go with the most popular story along with references.
 
The Sanskrit epic calls him an incarnation of the Varchas, son of Soma, the Moon God. This is stated in the Svargarohanika Parva of the Mahabharata. Abhimanyu as an incarnation of Varchas, the son of Soma, the demoniacal nature of Soma is shared with him.His glory in the battlefield, while splendid, is also demoniacal in a sense, because it is the glory of killing, albeit he is fighting on the right side of dharma.
 
As a matter of fact, Abhimanyu’s name itself has an element of evil in it. Though the word Manyu in Abhimanyu can also mean spirit, mettle, courage and so on, the more common and the first meaning of the word is anger, wrath, rage. The son of Subhadra and Arjuna, the nephew of Sri Krishna, is named after anger and the anger is prefixed with abhi, the first meaning of which is ‘to go towards’, making Abhimanyu someone who moves towards anger. Abhi also means excessive, intense and so on, making Abhimanyu excessive anger, intense wrath. The common etymological meaning of the name Abhimanyu is ‘the one with furious anger’ [abhivrddhah manyur yasya]. And anger is essentially evil, even when it is noble anger, which could be another meaning of the word Abhimanyu, since other meanings of the prefix abhi point towards spiritedness, courage and nobility.

Abhimanyu's birth and childhood -
Lemme start with the Chakravyuha training which was received when he was still the womb, which I hadn't put in the earlier post.
 
Abhimanyu's education began while he was still in Subhadra's womb. He overhead Arjuna telling Subhadra the secrets of how to enter, exit, and destroy various battle formations. Of these, it is important to note, that he only heard how to enter and not exit from the Chakravyuha as Subhadra fell asleep and thus Krishna didn't complete his explanation.
 
Abhimanyu spent his childhood in Dwaraka with his mother Subhadra & maternal uncle, Sri Krishna. He was trained by his cousin brother Pradyumna, the son of Sri Krishna, Krishna's kinsmen Kritavarma and Satyaki and ofcourse by his great warrior father Arjuna, Sri Krishna and Balarama. Most part of his life, he was brought up under the guidance of Sri Krishna and Balarama, his two maternal uncles.
 
Arjuna arranged Abhimanyu's marriage to Uttara, the daughter of King Virata. The Pandavas had been hiding incognito in the Matsya kingdom during their final year of exile. During that time, Arjuna played the role of a dance teacher to Uttara. At the end of the period of exile, upon finding out who the Pandavas were, the king offered to marry Uttara to Arjuna, however, Arjuna had come to think of her as his daughter, so, he asked to have her married to Abhimanyu instead.

- Abhimanyu