Mahabharata a legendary epic. It doesn’t just teach us the essence of life, it also has deadly warfare formations hidden in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How big was the war?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Going by the numbers described in the epic, Mahabharata is one of the bloodiest wars that has ever happened during the history of mankind. 18 Akshauhinis fought altogether and just 12 people survived the war. ie around 4 Million people are believed to be killed in the Mahabharata war. Considering that the total population of the world 5000 years back as per HYDE’s estimate is ~45Millioin, the war is supposed to have consumed ~10% of Human population in 18 days, which is unbelievable humongous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a comparison around 14 million people were killed in World War 1 (over 4 years) and around 60 Million People were killed in World War 2 (over 6 years) which accounted to 1% and 3% of the total world population of that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Going by the numbers described in the epic, in 18 Akshouhinis, a total of 3,936,600 people, 393660 Elephants, 1180980 horses, and 393660 Chariots (each having 4-8 horses) took part in the war. This math is somehow hard to digest as the existence of 400,000 domesticated Elephants and >3 Million domesticated horses in the Indian Subcontinent 5000 years back is a highly debatable story. There is definitely a high likelihood of the numbers being exaggerated in the epic, but on the other hand, with the way the military structures and construction of an army is detailed in the epic, it’s also hard to doubt the numbers described in the epic.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t