how many were killed in MB war..

WOW on ure collection its sad to see the number of ppl that died

Originally posted by: godisone

Charu,

Wow, thanks for the information. I'm printing it right now so that I will have it with me at all times. It's valuable information! Appreciate your hard work.

Originally posted by: luv_khwaish

Pandava Armies 7 Akshouhinis = 551,33,83,260
Kaurava Armies 11 Akshouhinis = 866,38,87,960
Total 18 Akshouhinis = 1417,72,71,240 (almost 1400 crore people)

Originally posted by: shyam.rathi

Thanks for the info Charu.. however, I've some serious doubts about this.. first of all, the number mentioned (14 billion) is of the soldiers only who were present at the Kurukshetra battleground. So, this number excludes all the civilians of India at that time...

Now, even if we consider that the soldiers were 40% of India's population at that time, there should have been at least 35 billion people in India.. compare it with the present population of the entire world which is approx 7 billion only.. So there is no reason to believe that the population of India was around 35 billion at the time of MB war..

Second, how much space do you need to put 14 billion people on a battleground? Even if only 20% of the total army was present on any given day, there would have been around 3 billion soldiers fighting simultanously.. IS IT POSSIBLE considering the small size of Kurukshetra battleground? the present population of entire India is around 1 billion only and these numbers are putting 3 billion people on a area equal to some thousands of cricket statium? 😆

Obviously, the given numbers are flawed. the population of India at that time could not be around 35 billion and 3 billion people can't fight a war on a small battleground. this is a pure exaggeration. the writer of this article should address these questions..

here are the actual numbers of the armies of Kauravas and Pandavas:

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.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurukshetra_war

Now compare this number (40 lakh) to the number given in the article from first post (14 billion).. Considering this flaw, I find no reasons to believe the other numbers and dates in the given article. The claim made in the article that the entire world was governed as per the Vedic administration is also open to debate.

Charu, my questions are to the writer, not to you in person. Please don't take it otherwise. 😊

Originally posted by: godisone

While you may be right, I don't think wikipedia should be taken as a reliable source, as anyone can post anything on it. It's recently been shown in news that lots of people change information on wikipedia for fun, just to confuse people and make them believe their rubbish facts. In many schools and colleges today, wikipedia has been banned as a source for research projects; just wanted to let you know...

I also always learned that the Kurukshetra battlefield was huge. Huge isn't even an appropriate word for it. It was enormous, stretching to thousands and thousands of miles. It wasn't small at all. And also, we never know how much people lived back then, so we can't make judgments based on the population of today. It is definitely possible that the numbers Charu listed are real. It doesn't seem like an exaggeration to me. I went to the source Charu wrote, and that article seems pretty reliable (or as reliable as one from the internet), at least more reliable than wikipedia. I'm sorry, but I've had bad experiences with wikipedia, and don't take it as a source at all anymore. Not to offend you or anything.😊

But then again, I feel that the only reliable source for Mahabharata is Veda Vyasa's book. Maybe someone can refer to that book and confirm either Charu's or Shyam Rathi's info?

Satyaki joined Dharmaja with one Akshouhini army.
"Here wehave to know what Akshouhini means. An Akshouhini is an Army Troop consisting 21,870 chariots, equal number of elephants, 65,610 horses, and 1,09,350 army strength."

(The above Information was taken from the Mahabharat published by T.T.D.).

These numbers confirm with those given in Wikipedia.

2. If you still need more references, please visit this link: http://archives.chennaionline.com/festivalsnreligion/articles/epicstory44.asp
It explains the meaning of Akshouhini very clearly. Multiply that number with 11+7 = 18 and you get a figure of 3.94 million.. So, again this confirms with the number given in Wikipedia.

3. The numbers given in first article of this post are not digestable at all... Let's have some mathematics: 14 billion soldiers are fighting on the battleground.. if each soldier require at least 4 sq. meter (2m * 2m) area to stand and fight (thats a huge underestimate, but we will stick with this number), the total area of battleground requried will be 56 billion sq. meter i.e. 56,000 Sq Km.. The area of entire city of Kurukshetra is just 1682.53 Sq.Kms.. even the area of entire UP state is 243,000 Sq Km only.. So, this means that one fourth of the total land of that state was covered by the warring soldiers.. it is out of question..

4. The figure of 35-50 billion as population of India at the time of MB war is only a figure of someone's imagination.. The population of entire world crossed the mark of 1 billion in 1810AD only.. If you believe that this is the right number, please provide one or two additional references..

Based on these reasons, I don't find any credibility in the numbers given in the article in first post..

Regarding your criticism of Wikipedia, here are some facts for you to consider:

-> The academic world's view of Wikipedia has improved during the last few years, as can be inferred from the increase in the number of citations in international scientific journals. As of September 12, 2007 a search in the ScienceDirect database (a large online collection of published scientific research produced by Elsevier) for academic and scientific articles citing Wikipedia yields that more than 490 articles have cited Wikipedia as a reference (as of 2008).. please check this link.

-> Check this link of BBC News (link) which stats that "The free online resource Wikipedia is about as accurate on science as the Encyclopedia Britannica, a study shows."

-> Check this article from Nature Science Magazine: (link). It compares the reliability with that of Encyclopedia Britannica..

Finally, please don't take anything personally.. 😛 I will appriciate if you or Charu can provide some additional references about the '14 billion' number...