ॐ नारायणं नमस्कृत्य नरं चैव नरोत्तमम्|
देवीं सरस्वतीं चैव तथो जयं उदीरयेत्||
Om! Having bowed down to Narayana and Nara, the most exalted male being, and also to the goddess Saraswati, must the word Jaya be uttered.
The Mahabharata defines an Akshauhini (division of soldiers) as follows.
- One chariot, one elephant, five foot-soldiers, and three horses form one Patti. (10 combatants)
- Three Pattis make one Sena-mukha. (30 combatants)
- Three Sena-mukhas are called a Gulma. (90 combatants)
- Three Gulmas make a Gana. (270 combatants)
- Three Ganas form a Vahini. (810 combatants)
- Three Vahinis together are called a Pritana. (2,430 combatants)
- Three Pritanas form a Chamu. (7,290 combatants)
- Three Chamus make one Anikini. (21,870 combatants)
- And an Anikini taken ten times forms an Akshauhini. (218,700 combatants)
The number of chariots in an Akshauhini is twenty-one thousand eight hundred and seventy (21,870). The measure of elephants must be fixed at the same number (21,870). The number of foot-soldiers is one hundred and nine thousand, three hundred and fifty (109,350), the number of horses are sixty-five thousand, six hundred and ten (65,610).
The Mahabharata is divided into 18 Parvas. Some statistics about the parvas are given below.
- Adi Parva (8,884 verses, 227 sections)
- Sabha Parva (2,507 verses, 78 sections)
- Aranyaka Parva (11,664 verses, 269 sections)
- Virata Parva (2,050 verses, 67 sections)
- Udyoga Parva (6,698 verses, 186 sections)
- Bhishma Parva (5,884 verses, 117 sections)
- Drona Parva (8,909 verses, 170 sections)
- Karna Parva (4,964 verses, 69 sections)
- Salya Parva (3,220 verses, 59 sections)
- Sauptika Parva (870 verses, 18 sections)
- Stri Parva (775 verses, 27 sections)
- Santi Parva (14,732 verses, 339 sections)
- Anusasana Parva (8,000 verses, 146 sections)
- Aswamedhika Parva (3,320 verses, 103 sections)
- Asramavasika Parva (1,506 verses, 42 sections)
- Mausala Parva (320 verses, 8 sections)
- Mahaprasthanika Parva (320 verses, 3 sections)
- Svargarohana Parva (209 verses, number of sections are not mentioned)
The above details have all been given in the first chapter of the Adi-Parva of the Mahabharata.
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just a point to add on. ' Jaya ' is the name the purana ' Srimad Bhagavatam ' is referred to. It is the first sloka of Srimad Bhagavatam. Since Vyasa wrote bhagavatam and also the Mahabharatam we acn expect the presence of the same shloka in both.
ReplyDelete@S Ganesh
ReplyDeleteAhh.. I didn't know this. Actually I read in an article sometime back (don't know whether this is true or not) that what Veda Vyasa wrote was 'Jaya' (comprising of approx. 24,000 verses) which subsequently got expanded into the Mahabharata (comprising of approx. 100,000 verses).
Im not sure that may be the right implication. But u r right in a way. Jaya = Srimad Bhagavatam = 24000 shlokas. But in chronology it comes after the mahabharatha. As in, he wrote Bhagavatam after he wrote mahabharatham. The story is like even after writing Mahabharatham, he didnt get a peace of mind. so he goes in search of an answer to find out y so. No body is able to answer this qn of y still he doesnt hav a peace of mind. This is when Narada comes and tells him that he is bound to write the Bhagavatam and that is when he will get peace of mind. This may not be really a true incident, but as per chronology atleast, the Mahabharatam was written first because, Bhagavatam starts with Pareekshit's son Janamejayan's homa.
ReplyDeleteInteresting read, Mahabharata is truly a great epic
ReplyDelete