Kurukshetra War
| Kurukshetra War | |||||||||
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 c. 1700 watercolour from Mewar depicts the Pandava and Kaurava armies arrayed against each other. |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Territory-less Pandavas of the Kurus with the support of the mighty Panchala tribe and others. | Kauravas (Kuru tribe) with capital at Hastinapura and their allies | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Overlord Yudhishthira Commanders-in-chief Dhrishtadyumna (day 1-18) † Strategists Krishna |
Overlord Duryodhana † Commanders-in-chief Bhishma (day 1-10) † Drona (day 11-15) † Karna (day 16-17) † Shalya (day 18) † Ashwatthama (night raid) Strategists Shakuni † |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| 7 Akshauhinis 153,090 chariots and chariot-riders 153,090 elephants and elephant-riders 459,270 horses and horse-riders 765,450 infantry (total 1,530,900 soldiers) |
11 Akshauhinis 240,570 chariots and chariot-riders 240,570 elephants and elephant-riders 721,710 horses and horse-riders 1,202,850 infantry (total 2,405,700 soldiers) |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
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Almost total (1,530,900 soldiers)
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Almost total (2,405,700 soldiers)
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Almost total (1,530,900 soldiers)
only 8 known survivors:
Almost total (2,405,700 soldiers)
only 4 known survivors:
The Kurukshetra War, also called the Mahabharata War, is a war described in the Indian epic Mahabharata. The conflict arose from a dynastic succession struggle between two groups of cousins, the Kauravas and Pandavas, for the throne of Hastinapura in an Indian kingdom called Kuru. It involved a number of ancient kingdoms participating as allies of the rival groups.
The location of the battle is described as having occurred in Kurukshetra in the modern state of Haryana. Despite only referring to these eighteen days, the war narrative forms more than a quarter of the book, suggesting its relative importance within the epic, which overall spans decades of the warring families. The narrative describes individual battles and deaths of various heroes of both sides, military formations, war diplomacy, meetings and discussions among the characters, and the weapons used. The chapters (parvas) dealing with the war (from chapter six to ten) are considered amongst the oldest in the entire Mahabharata.
The historicity of the war remains subject to scholarly discussions. Attempts have been made to assign a historical date to the Kurukshetra War. Popular tradition holds that the war marks the transition to Kaliyuga and thus dates it to 3102 BCE.
Mahabharata, one of the most important Hindu epics, is an account of the life and deeds of several generations of a ruling dynasty called the Kuru clan. Central to the epic is an account of a war that took place between two rival families belonging to this clan. Kurukshetra (literally "field of the Kurus"), was the battleground on which this war, known as the Kurukshetra War, was fought. Kurukshetra was also known as "Dharmakshetra" (the "field of Dharma"), or field of righteousness. Mahabharata tells that this site was chosen for the war because a sin committed on this land was forgiven on account of the sanctity of this land.
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