Character Sketch + info of Mahabharat - Page 3

Army divisions and weaponry

Each army consisted of several divisions; the Kauravas had 11 while the Pandavas controlled 7. A division (akshauhini) includes 21,870 chariots and chariot-riders, 21,870 elephants and riders, 65,610 horses and riders, and 109,350 foot-soldiers (in a ratio of 1:1:3:5). The combined number of warriors and soldiers in both armies was approximately 3.94 million.^[3] Each Akshohini was under a commander or a general, apart from the Commander in chief or the generalissimo who was the head of the entire army. It should be noted also that in each of these large number groups (65,610, etc.), the digits add up to 18, making this a very significant number in the text. This number 18 is not only the number of days that the great war lasted, but it's also the total number of divisions fighting (7 Pandava divisions and 11 Kaurava divisions) and the number of total chapters in the Bhagavat Gita.

During the Kurukshetra War, several weapons were used. The weapons, and their most notable users, included the Bow and arrows, the weapon of choice for Arjuna, Bhishma, Drona, Karna and Abhimanyu, the Mace, chosen by Bhima and Duryodhana apart from the Spear and the Dagger / Sword.

If the text is taken as historically accurate, this war was the bloodiest war in history as most of the warriors and soldiers perished during the brief period of only eighteen days. Arjuna, in a fit of extreme anger over the death of his son Abhimanyu, alone killed one akshauhini of Kaurava soldiers in a single day. The war left an extremely large number of widows and orphans and led to an economic depression and beginning of Kali Yuga.

The epic employs the story within a story structure, otherwise known as frametales, popular in many Indian religious and secular works. It is recited to the King Janamejaya by Vaisampayana, a disciple of Vyasa.

The epic is traditionally ascribed to Vyasa, who is also one of the major dynastic characters within the epic. The first section of the Mahabharata states that it was Ganesha who, at the behest of Vyasa, wrote down the text to Vyasa's dictation. Ganesha is said to have agreed to write it only on condition that Vyasa never pause in his recitation. Vyasa agreed, providing that Ganesha took the time to understand what was said before writing it down. This also serves as a popular variation on the stories of how Ganesha's right tusk was broken (a traditional part of Ganesha imagery). This version attributes it to the fact that, in the rush of writing, his pen failed, and he snapped off his tusk as a replacement in order that the transcription not be interrupted.