Abhimanyu (Sanskrit: अभिमन्यु, IAST: Abhimanyu) is a character in the ancient Hindu epic Mahābhārata. He is portrayed as a young and valiant warrior of the Kuru lineage, born to Arjuna, the third of the Pandava brothers, and Subhadra, a Vrishni princess. According to the epic, he was among the few individuals, along with his father, who knew the technique to enter the Chakravyuha, a powerful military formation.
Abhimanyu was raised by his maternal family at Dvārakā, as the Pandavas had been sent into exile for thirteen years by their cousins, the Kauravas. After his father's return, his marriage was arranged with Uttarā, the princess of the Matsya Kingdom.
Abhimanyu plays a significant role on the Pandava side during the Kurukshetra War. On the thirteenth day of the battle, the Kaurava forces arrayed themselves in the Chakravyuha formation in an effort to overpower the Pandavas. With Arjuna drawn away to another part of the battlefield, Abhimanyu was the only warrior able to break into the formation and engage the Kaurava soldiers within. At that point, seven maharathis (powerful warriors) launched simultaneous attacks on him in violation of several kshatriya codes of combat, and he was killed at the age of sixteen.
Abhimanyu's posthumous son, Parikshit, is credited in the tradition with saving the Kuru lineage from extinction. Parikshit went on to become a well-known monarch celebrated in both the Mahabharata and the Bhagavata Purana.
Adapted from the English Wikipedia article on Abhimanyu.