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Kurukshetra War कुरुक्षेत्र युद्ध
c. 1700 watercolour from Mewar depicts the Pandava and Kaurava armies arrayed against each other.
Location
Kurukshetra
Result
Pyrrhic victory for Pandavas and allies, overthrow of the Kauravas
Fall of Hastinapura
Abdication of the throne of Hastinapura by Dhritarashtra and ascension of Yudhisthira.
Vassalage of Indraprastha to Hastinapura under Yuyutsu.
Succession crises in Anga, Chedi, Gandhara, Kalinga, Kosala, Madra, Magadha, Matsya, Panchala and Sindhu.
Regional hegemony shift from the Kurus to the Panchalas
Territorial changes
Reunification of the Kuru cities of Hastinapura and Indraprastha under the Pandavas.
Restoration of Panchala lands held by Drona to the Panchala Kingdom.
7 Akshauhinis 153,090-100,300,000[1] chariots and chariot-riders 10,000 - 153,090 elephants and elephant-riders 459,270 - 1,000,000 horses and horse-riders 765,450 - 1,000,000,000 infantry [2] (total 1,530,900 soldiers-1,003,830,900)
11 Akshauhinis 240,570 chariots and chariot-riders 240,570 elephants and elephant-riders 721,710 horses and horse-riders - 100,000,000 horses (mentioned possibly as a hyperbole)[3] 1,202,850 infantry 6,000,000 protecting elephants and chariots[4] 140,000,000 Pishachas 280,000,000 Rakshasa 420,000,000 Yaksha 100,000,000 Narayani Sena[5][6] (total 8,450,700 - 1,048,405,700 soldiers)
Casualties and losses
Almost total (1,530,892 soldiers) only 8 known survivors - the Pandavas, Krishna, Satyaki, and Yuyutsu.
Almost total (2,405,697 soldiers) only 3 known survivors - Ashwatthama, Kripa, and Kritavarma
Yudhishthira gives a different number which is 1,660,020,000 dead and 24,165 missing.[7]
The Kurukshetra War (Sanskrit: कुरुक्षेत्र युद्ध), also called the Mahabharata War, is a war described in the Hindu epic poem Mahabharata (Sanskrit: महाभारत), arising from a dynastic struggle between two groups of cousins, the Kauravas and the Pandavas, for the throne of Hastinapura. The war is used as the context for the dialogues of the Bhagavad Gita, which was interpolated into the Ramayana.
^"The Mahabharata, Book 6: Bhishma Parva: Bhagavat-Gita Parva: Section L". www.sacred-texts.com. Archived from the original on 25 March 2023. Retrieved 25 March 2023. And Nakula and Sahadeva placed themselves on the left wing. And on the joints of the wings were placed ten thousand cars and on the head a hundred thousand, and on the back a hundred millions and twenty thousand and on the neck a hundred and seventy thousand.
^The Mahābhārata. Internet Archive. New Delhi : Penguin. 2009. p. 291. ISBN 978-0-14-044681-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^"The Mahabharata, Book 5: Udyoga Parva: Uluka Dutagamana Parva: Section CXCIX". www.sacred-texts.com. Archived from the original on 25 March 2023. Retrieved 25 March 2023. And he was followed by Sauchitti, who steadily adhered to truth and was invincible in battle, and Srenimat, and Vasudeva and Vibhu, the son of the ruler of Kasi, with twenty thousand cars, and hundred million steeds of high mettle, each bearing scores of bells on its limbs, and twenty thousand smiting elephants with tusks as long as plough-shares, all of good breed and divided temples and all resembling moving masses of clouds.
^"The Mahabharata, Book 6: Bhishma Parva: Bhagavat-Gita Parvad: Section XVIII". www.sacred-texts.com. Archived from the original on 25 March 2023. Retrieved 25 March 2023. And with a division that consisted of ten thousand active elephants, the king of Magadha followed that large car division. They that protected the wheels of the cars and they that protected the elephants, numbered full six millions.
^"The Mahabharata, Book 5: Udyoga Parva: Section VII". www.sacred-texts.com. Archived from the original on 27 March 2023. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
^"The Mahabharata, Book 3: Vana Parva: Draupadi-harana Parva: Section CCLXXIX". www.sacred-texts.com. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 26 March 2023. One hundred and forty millions of Pisachas, twice as many man-eating Rakshasa of terrible deed, and thrice as many Yaksha do my bidding!
^The Mahābhārata. Internet Archive. New Delhi : Penguin. 2009. p. 593. ISBN 978-0-14-044681-4. Dhristarashtra asks Yudhishthira the number of battle casualties: he reports that 1,660,020,000 men are dead and 24,165 missing.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
The KurukshetraWar (Sanskrit: कुरुक्षेत्र युद्ध), also called the Mahabharata War, is a war described in the Hindu epic poem Mahabharata (Sanskrit: महाभारत)...
Kurukshetra (Hindi pronunciation: [kʊrʊkʃeːtɾə], pronunciation) is a city and administrative headquarters of Kurukshetra district in the Indian state of...
uncles Krishna and Balarama. He was killed unfairly on the 13th day of KurukshetraWar. Adhiratha was the foster-father of Karna. According to the Bhagavata...
who fought on the side of the Kauravas against the Pandavas in the KurukshetraWar and was cursed by Krishna with immortality for his attempt to kill...
epic poem Mahabharata, Krishna becomes Arjuna's charioteer for the KurukshetraWar, but on the condition that he personally will not raise any weapon...
result, the Pandavas waged a civil war against their extended family, and this conflict was known as the KurukshetraWar. With the help of the god Krishna...
episode. He was the supreme commander of the Kaurava forces during the KurukshetraWar of the epic. He was the only character who witnessed the entirety of...
Duryodhana waged the KurukshetraWar against his cousins and was helped by the warriors Bhishma, Drona and Karna. On the eighteenth day of the war, he was killed...
Kurukshetra district is one of the 22 districts of Haryana state in northern India. The town of Kurukshetra, a sacred place for the Hindus, is the administrative...
KurukshetraWar, Dhrishtadyumna joins the Pandavas, and becomes the supreme commander-in-chief of the Pandava forces. On the fifteenth day of the war...
Bharadwaja. Drona had been the preceptor of most kings involved in the KurukshetraWar on both sides. Drona strongly condemned Duryodhana exiling the Pandavas...
Pandavas and the consolidation of the power of the Kauravas. During the KurukshetraWar between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, Shakuni was killed by the youngest...
mentioned in the Rigveda may have "formed the 'nucleus' of story" of the KurukshetraWar in the Mahabharata. Book 3 of the Rig Veda states that the Bharata...
heaven. Dushasana played an important role in KurukshetraWar and fought many warriors. On the first day of war, Dushasana was the first one to shot the first...
is the father of Draupadi, the epic's lead female character. In the KurukshetraWar as the head of 1 akshauhini army, Drupada fought from the side of his...
exile was followed by the KurukshetraWar, where Draupadi lost her father, brothers, and her five children. After the war, she resumed her role as the...
side at the onset of the war, and was the only son of Dhritarashtra who had managed to survive the KurukshetraWar. After the war ended, the victorious Pandavas...
a skilled warrior who fought in the KurukshetraWar between the Pandavas and their cousins Kauravas. After the war, Yudhishthira appointed Sahadeva as...
favors the cause of the Pandavas over the Kauravas in the KurukshetraWar. Prior to the war, Satyaki accompanied Krishna to the Kuru capital, with Krishna...
ties with the Kurus and sided with the Pandavas at the onset of the Kurukshetrawar. Unlike Bhishma, Dronacharya, Kripacharya, and Karna, Vidura did not...
greatly associated with sheep, insects. During the Kurukshetrawar, he killed Shakuni. Before war, Bhishma ill-treated Karna by calling him Artha-rathi...
Yudhishthira was the leader of the successful Pandava faction in the KurukshetraWar and defeated many venerable warriors such as Shalya. He then ruled...
Karna and his wife, Padmavati. Along with his father, he fought in the Kurukshetrawar from the side of the Kauravas and faced many prominent warriors like...
Yudhishthira. Nakula's wife was from Chedi. Prominent Chedis during the KurukshetraWar included Damaghosha, Shishupala, Dhrishtaketu, Suketu, Sarabha , Nakula's...
He appears as a minor character in the Mahabharata, fighting in the Kurukshetrawar for the Kauravas. Kritvarma was the commander of the Narayani sena...
Abhimanyu played a significant role on the Pandava side during the KurukshetraWar. The Kaurava soldiers banded together on the thirteenth day of the...
Duryodhana of the Kauravas and Bhima of the Pandavas the art of war with a mace. When war broke between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, Balarama carried...
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