Mahabharat: Numbers: Part-1

Preface

Numbers are omnipresent, more so, in the human life. While number crunching, statistics isn’t everyone’s (including myself) cup of tea, some numbers need to be understood, even memorized, for aplenty human activities. In this post, I have reproduced some numbers quoted in the epic.

The epic itself

1. Vyas completed the epic in 3 years. We should also thank Ganesh(Hindi: गणेश) here.
2. The original epic consisted of 1,00,000 ‘shlok‘as (Hindi: श्लोक).
3. After transferring the knowledge of the epic to his disciples, Vyas created another compilation of 60,00,000 ‘shlok’as but the knowledge of that compilation was limited to the following ‘lok‘as(Hindi: लोक):
   1. 30,00,000 in ‘Devlok‘(Hindi: देवलोक).
   2. 15,00,000 in ‘Pitrulok'(Hindi: पितृलोक).
   3. 14,00,000 in ‘Gandharvalok'(Hindi: गंधर्वलोक).
4. I could not comprehend the other mentioned compilations by Vyas. The list is as follows:
   1. 24, 000 ‘shlok’as known as ‘Bharat'(Hindi: भारत) which focused only on the Bharat‘s lineage(Hindi: भरत).
   2. 150 ‘sholk’as consisted the table of contents(my guess: this was a list of the various ‘parva‘as(Hindi: पर्व).

Duration

1. Hiranyakashipu(Hindi: हिरण्यकशिपु)’s reign lasted for 5 crore 61 lakh 60 thousand years.
2. A span of 4 years elapsed between Ganga handing over Devavrat to Shantanu and Shantanu falling for Satyavati.
3. Shantanu’s son, Chitrangad(Hindi: चित्रांगद), fought a duel/battle with a Gandharva(Hindi: गन्धर्व) of the same name, for 3 years. It took place on the banks of river Saraswati. In the end, the Gandharva slew Shantanu’s son.
4. Ambika and Ambalika were 16 years old, when they married Vichitravirya(Hindi: विचित्रवीर्य),
5. Post-marriage, Vichitravirya indulged in intense sexual activity for 7 years straight, ignoring the guidelines laid by ‘Dharma‘(Hindi: धर्म). This took a toll on his health, he contracted ‘Rajayakshma'(Hindi: राजयक्ष्म) which ultimately claimed his life.
6. Vyas laid a precondition for ‘Niyog‘(Hindi: नियोग) – Ambika and Ambalika would have to observe strict adherence to the routine prescribed by Vyas, for a year. The objective was to teach them to be in control of their sensual desires, which was essential for a strong progeny via ‘Niyog’.
7. After Madri arrived in Hastinapur, Pandu spent 30 days in the company of his wives, then, set out on an expedition to conquer the world.
8. Gandhari’s gestation period was 2 years.
9. Pandavas stayed for 1 year in Varnavat, before the ‘lakshagriha‘ event.
10. On the eve of their marriage with Draupadi, the Pandavas revealed their true identity. Post-marriage, they stayed in Panchal(Sanskrit: पञ्चाल) for an year.
11. After Arjun (accidentally?)violated the privacy of Yudhisthir and Draupadi, he went for a ‘Vanvaas‘(Hindi: वनवास) for 12 years and 1 month.
12. Jarasandh and Bhimsen’s duel(wrestling) lasted for 14 days.
13. Krishna and Balaram acquired the following skills:
    1. Vedas(Hindi: वेद): 64 days.
    2. Handling, identifying and riding elephants, horses: 12 days.
    3. ‘Dhanurved‘(Hindi: धनुर्वेद): 50 days.

Army Units

1. 1 chariot, 1 elephant, 5 infantry soldiers, and 3 horses formed a ‘Patti'(Hindi: पत्ति).
2. 3 ‘Patti’s formed a ‘Senamukh'(Hindi: सेनामुख) .
3. 3 ‘Senamukh’s formed a ‘Gulma'(Hindi: गुल्म).
4. 3 ‘Gulma’s formed a ‘Gan'(Hindi: गण).
5. 3 ‘Gan’as formed a ‘Vaahini'(Hindi: वाहिनी).
6. 3 ‘Vaahini’s formed a ‘Prutana'(Hindi: पृतना).
7. 3 ‘Prutana’s formed a ‘Chamu'(Hindi: चमू).
8. 3 ‘Chamu’s formed an ‘Anikini'(Hindi: अनीकिनी).
9. 10 ‘Anikini’s formed an ‘Akshauhini‘(Hindi: अक्षौहिणी).
10. ‘Akshauhini’ elaborated:
    1. Charioteers: 21,870
    2. Elephants: 21,870
    3. Horses: 65,610
    4. Infantry: 1,09,350

Other Units

Note that all/most of the units mentioned here are ancient and I have reproduced them as-is:

1. 8 धनुष(32 हाथ).
2. 1 अर्बुद(10 crore).

Royal Armies

1. Kans(Hindi: कंसः) army:
   1. Infantry: 1 crore(10 million).
   2. Charioteers: 8,00,000
   3. Elephanteers(soldiers): 8,00,000
   4. Horses: 76,000
2. Yudhisthir’s(as the king of Indraprastha) army:
   1. Cavalry + Elephanteers: 3 quadrillion 10 thousand
   2. Charioteers: 10 crore(1 अर्बुद)

Kurukshetra War

1. 18 ‘Akshauhini’ units perished, including both the sides.
2. Bhishma slew 10, 000 charioteers of the Pandav army, per day.

Other wars/battles

1. Krishna slew 8,00,000 ‘Daanav’as(Hindi: दानव) before launching an attack on Narakasur‘s(Hindi: नरकासुर) lair.

Abodes

1. Specifications(length X breadth X height, in ‘Yojan‘ (Hindi: योजन) of ‘Sabha‘(Hindi: सभा)s of the various ‘Dev‘as(Hindi: देव):
   1. ‘Indra Sabha'(Hindi: इंद्र सभा) 150 X 100 X 5.
   2. ‘Kuber Sabha'(Hindi: कुबेर सभा) 100 X 70.
   3. ‘Yam Sabha'(Hindi: यम सभा) 100 X 100
   4. ‘Varun Sabha'(Hindi: वरुण सभा) 100 X 100
2. ‘Mayasabha‘ (Hindi: मयसभा) was 10,000 X 10, 000 ‘haath'(Hindi: हाथ). ‘Haath’ as a unit literally translates to ‘length equivalent to a human hand’.
3. Dwarka(Hindi: द्वारका) was 12 X 8 ‘yojan’.

‘Innumerable'(unquantified)

1. Upon hearing the tales of the elite training received by Kauravas and Pandavas, ‘thousands’ of kings and princes flocked to Dronacharya’s ‘gurukul‘(Hindi: गुरुकुल).
2. There were ‘countless’ infantrymen in Yudhisthir’s(as the king of Indraprastha) army. This was quoted by Duryodhan, after attending the Rajasuya ceremony.
3. ‘Brahma Sabha'(Hindi: ब्रह्म सभा) cannot be quantified, as per Maharshi Narad.

Miscellaneous

1. The abode of Nagas(Hindi: नागलोक) consisted reservoirs/lakes containing a juice which, if drunk entirely, gave strength equivalent to 1000 elephants. Bhimsen drank 8 such lakes, effectively giving him strength equivalent to 8000 elephants.
2. Jarasandh (Hindi: जरासंध) invaded Mathura 17 times and was defeated each time.
3. Drupad presented Rishi(Hindi: ऋषि) Yaaj(Hindi: याज) 80, 000 cows and requested to perform a ‘yagya‘(Hindi: यज्ञ) for gaining a divine son to defeat Dronacharya.
4. Draupadi’s ‘swayamvar‘(Hindi: स्वयंवर) was a ceremony that lasted at least for 16 days(the competition took place on the 16th day).
5. Khandav van wildfire lasted for 15 days.
6. An ideal(as per Maharshi(Hindi: महर्षि) Narad) ‘Janapad‘(Hindi: जनपद) had a jury of 5 villagers, per village.
7. Narakasur abducted 16,100 girls. Upon their rescue, they pleaded Krishna to marry them, which the former complied.

Disclaimer

1. I am interested in factual history, rather than novels or fictional depictions of historical entities and with this hat on, I have started to read Mahabharat.
2. My primary goal is to slice-and-dice the epic on several parameters – it’s characters, geographical listings, specific events e.g. boons and curses, facts lesser-known to the masses(that includes me), and so on.
3. I have tried to reproduce the facts as mentioned in the original epic, in other words, AS-IS. I have also tried my best to avoid expressing my own guesswork & opinions but wherever I couldn’t avoid, I have marked the text in grey.
4. Related to point 3. – I have refrained from commenting/skipping/justifying/opposing facts that seem unrealistic, unscientific, improbable, etc.
5. Errors in translation, interpretation of metaphors, geographical entities might have crept in. Constructive corrections are welcome.
6. The posts should be read and interpreted with the above points in mind, otherwise, I have no intentions and capabilities to evaluate or criticize a timeless legend like Mahabharat and it’s characters.
7. As an epic, I doubt there would be any Indian who is unaware of Mahabharat and I belong to that humongous population. My intention was/is to gain, at least a brief, understanding of the political and social events during that era. I wish to learn about the simultaneous and sequential events that occurred in the then known geographical areas.
8. I am completely aware of the rule of reading History – one should not judge the past based on the present standards, paradigms and situations.
9. I dislike the English language’s norm of appending ‘a’ to Indian epic names(Rama, Ravana, Ganesha, Shiva, etc.), hence, as far as possible, I have deliberately avoided the English language interpretation of ‘schwa‘. This is not always possible though e.g: ‘Kaurav’ and ‘Pandav’ are terms that designate lineage, not a number. So, plural reference, it is necessary to use ‘Kauravas’ and ‘Pandavas’. Another deviation from English language rules is spelling words as per their phonetic sound in Hindi e.g: ‘यज्ञ’ has been written as ‘yagya’ and not ‘yajna’.
10. The readers can be of diverse backgrounds, especially, in terms of their knowledge about Mahabharat. My posts are written based on my ( limited)knowledge of facts, which may differ from the readers. Constructive feedback is welcome. For discussions, please drop a personal message.