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The cakrabandha is a verse inscribed in a wheel. In the specimen — Śiśupālavadha 19.120 — three lines of 19 aksharas each lie on three diameters; their tenth aksharas coincide: the shared hub “ra”. The fourth line runs around the rim and coincides with the spoke ends at six points.
सत्वं मानविशिष्टमाजिरभसादालम्ब्य भव्यः पुरो लब्धाघक्षयशुद्धिरुद्धरतरश्रीवत्सभूमिर्मुदा / मुक्त्वा काममपास्तभीः परमृगव्याधः स नादं हरेर् एकौघैः समकालमभ्रमुदयी रोपैस्तदा तस्तरे
satvaṃ mānaviśiṣṭamājirabhasādālambya bhavyaḥ puro labdhāghakṣayaśuddhiruddharataraśrīvatsabhūmirmudā /
muktvā kāmamapāstabhīḥ paramṛgavyādhaḥ sa nādaṃ harer ekaughaiḥ samakālamabhramudayī ropaistadā tastare // 19.120“That worthy one, swiftly taking his stand in battle on a strength distinguished by pride, cleansed of destroyed sin, his breast heaving with joy, casting off desire and fear, a great hunter of [enemy] beasts, then, rising, veiled the sky with a single flood of arrows — at the very moment of Hari’s roar” (working gloss).
The centrepiece is the hidden signature: aksharas 3 and 17 of each diameter, read around the circle, spell mā-gha-kā-vya(ḥ)-mi-daṃ — “this is Māgha’s poem” (the visarga is dropped by traditional licence). In continuous text the akshara “re” (harer ekaughaiḥ) simultaneously ends line 3 and closes the rim — which is why the rim has 18 cells.