Sainya Niryana Parva — Divisions of Duryodhana's army

Vaishampayana said The night having passed away, king Duryodhana then made the usual divisions of his army which consisted of ten and one Akshauhinis, O Bharata.

He divided his men, elephants, chariots and horses into superior, inferior inferior and indifferent; and then that ruler of men distributed them in his army.

Furnished with all the requirements of a large army, namely with materials for repairs of chariots, with quivers to be carried on chariots, with large sticks fixed to spear blades for throwing with the hand, with quivers suitable to be carried on horses and elephants, with Shaktis, (a sort of long handled weapon) with arrow-holders suitable for the infantry and with heavy sticks,

With flags and banners, with huge arrows, and bows and bowstrings and diverse suites of ropes, with nooses and lashes;

With plain pointed sticks, oil, molasses and sand (to be thrown heated at the enemy) pots full of poisonous snakes, with pounded lac and other inflammable articles;

With barbed weapons, with skins furnished with bells and all sorts of weapons and instruments for throwing hot molasses water and sand, with maces making a peculiar sound, with syringes for throwing hot liquids;

With staffs having thorns or barbs fixed to them, weapons for thrcwing poison, and sloughs, as also devices for hurling javelins;

With battle axes, forked lances, sharp spikes, iron gloves with barbs and chariots covered by tiger skins are skins of leopards;

With forbid pieces of wood, with excellent horses, with diverse weapons of offense and defense, with felling axes and spades and with oil-clothes, and clarified butter.

Glittering with robes embroidered with gold and decked with diverse gems and consisting of beautiful warriors, the army of Duryodhana blazed forth like fire.

Heroes clad in coats of mail and masters in the use of weapons and of good parentage, competent judges of the breed of horses, were appointed to be charioteers.

The chariots had on them all sorts of drugs and weapons, were drawn by horses having bells and pearls on their necks and had also flags and standards attached. They had also on their turrets ornaments and shields, swords, Pattishas and cther weapons.

All the chariots were drawn by four horses each, all of whom again were the best of their species; each of them was furnished with a hundred bows and all sorts of defensive weapons.

Each of them had one driver for the horses in front and one again for each of the horses at the sides and those men were the foremost among car-warriors and also familiar with horse driving.

Each was protected as a city should be and was therefore hard to be captured by the enemies; thousands of those decked with gold were posted in all directions.

As the chariots had bells and wreaths of pearls and other ornaments so had the elephants and on the back of each were mounted seven men making the animals look like hills decks with jewels.

These seven were made up of two men holding hooks for driving the elephants, two again who were excellent bowmen, two who could fight well with swords, O king, and one was armed with a lance and a trident.

That army of the great-souled Kurus, O king, was full of infuriated animals and was furnished with all necessary weapons and treasuries.

It was also made up of tens of thousands of horse soldiers clad in mail, with ornaments on and holding up flags.

All the horses numbering many hundreds and thousands were kept under proper control and were free from the habit of scratching the ground with the fore feet.

sena There were also in that army, hundreds of thousands of infantry decked with gold, clad in diverse sorts of arms and diverse temper.

For every chariot there were ten elephants, for every elephants ten horses, for every horse ten men for the proper protection.

There was also another reserve army in which for every chariot there were five elephants, for every elephant one hundred horses, and for every horse seven men.

A consisted of five hundred elephants, and the same number of elephants (with infantry and cavalry); ten Senas made a Pritana and ten Pritanas a Vahini.

Sena, Vahini, Pritana, Dhvajini and Bhuhini, Akshauhini, Chamu, and Varuthini mean however the same thing in common usage.

In this way was the army of the intelligent Kaurava arrayed by him; there were seven and eleven Akshauhini of troops altogether.

The army of the Pandavas consisted of seven Akshauhini, while that of the Kauravas consisted of ten and one Akshauhini.

Of men five times fifty constituted a Patti and three Pattis make a Senamukha which is also called a Gulma. Three Gulmas make a Gana, and there were tens thousands of Ganas in the army of Duryodhana, each competent to fight and each a smiter.

The king Duryodhana, of long arms selecting men who were wise and also heroes, made them leaders of his army.

Having those best among men the leaders of his Akshauhinis brought before them with suitable honour he spoke to them separately.

Kripa, Drona, Shalya, Saindhava, Jayadratha, Sudakshina, and Kamboja, and Kritavarman,

The son of Drona, Bhurishravas, Shakuni, the son of Subala and Balhika endued with great strength.

All of these, O Bharata, he used to bring before him daily for consultation and looked to them himself and offered them due honour.

These men being thus treated with respect, and those foot soldiers who constituted the army of the king Duryodhana became desirous of doing what was beneficial to that king.