Akshauhini - How big it is?

Background:
I was just relaxing after coming from the office, my mom served me with a cup of hot coffee and switched on the TV in an hurry as her serial are going to start (same story in many of our Indian houses).

Udaya TV is telecasting one mythological serial called “Seethe” it’s the story of goddess Seethe. I am watching the episode where sage Brahmarshi Vishvamitra is asking King Dasharatha to send his son Rama to protect Yajna from two asuras Subahu and Maricha. Dasharatha replied that “Rama is still not matured enough to fight against these deadly asuras, so if you wish I can protect your yajna as I am having one Akshauhini force”.

Akshauhini is the word which I always come across in many historical epics, so I was very much eager to know how big will be one Akshauhini as king Dasharatha is very proud to say he has one. When I asked my mom she told me that it’s very big in size consists of chariots, elephants, horse riders, infantry etc but she doesn’t remember the exact numbers. Next day I started my search on Google to find out the answer, I really amazed to see so many articles with clear cut numbers. Here I am giving some extract of my search, hope useful for one interested in history.

An Akshauhini is a unit of measurement used in ancient India to calculate the fighting force. It consisted of 21,870 chariots, 21,870 elephants, 65,610 horse-mounted warriors and 109,350 infantry a total of 2,18,700 items. In order to manage this huge force efficiently items further subdivided into smaller units with one person as a commander per unit.

The atomic part in Akshauhini is called Pathi consist of 1 Chariot, 1 Elephant, 3 Horses with soldiers and 5 infantry soldiers as show in below picture and it is commanded by Pathipal.



The next layers are just the multiple of this Pathi as shown in the below figure.



Glimps of Akshauhini in Mahabharata:
As we all know Kurushetra was the war fought by Pandavas against Kauravas in order to get the crown of Hastinapur. Pandavas own 7 Akshauhini where as Kauravas own 11 akshouhini a total of 18 akshauhini force was used in Kurshetra war.

As per the about information we will have a small calculation on how big will 18 akshauhini be.



References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akshauhini

Note:
Images used in this blog are taken from other sites this blog does not have any rights on these images

Kolar – Kotilingeshwara – Bangaru Tirupati – Avani - Mulbagal

Date of Journey : 10th July 2010
Total Distance : 280 KM
Route Followed : KR Pura > Kolar > Bethamangala > Koti Lingeswara > Bangaru Tirupati > Avani > Mulbagal
Travellers : Me, my wife Shilpa, Appaji and Mummy

It’s almost two months after I brought my Ford Figo I have not went for long distance driving. I found out some of the good places on the net which can be covered in one day. First I have given the preference for temples as I am taking my parents with me. Finally I ended up with Koti Lingeswara Swamy Temple in Kolar district (This was the place which my mom want to visit from a long time as she was very much impressed after seeing “Sree Manjunatha” movie)
We planned to carry our food along with us so we can avoid wasting time in searching good hotels on the way.

We left from the home at 8:00 AM and took KR Pura hanging bridge route,as road construction is going on we need to take some deviation otherwise road is in good condition.

We reached Kolaramma Temple by 9:30 AM by the time we visited the temple it’s closed, so just have a darshana by the key window. As per the shasana kept in the temple premises this temple was built by cholas using granite stones.


Entrance to Kolaramma Temple.


Beautiful sculpture at the entrance.

We took some snaps and left to Somnatheshwar Temple which is nearby Kolaramma Temple. This temple is really amazing; we are welcomed by a huge gopuram at the entrance. Same story repeats here also, we had darshana from key window as temple was closed.


Huge gopura at the entrance.


Inside view


Inside view

One local guy informed us to take Bethamangala route instead of Bangarapet route which will save us around 8KM and road is also in good condition. We left Kolar by 10:30 AM and took Bethamangala route, as the guy said road is in good condition except 1 or 2 KM. We started feeling hungry as we have not had the breakfast in the morning so we stoped our vehicle at the road side to have our packed breakfast (yummy idly and carrot halwa which my mom prepared in the morning).


Appaji having some water after breakfast.


Good road, thanks to that guy for suggesting us this route.

At Bethamangala circle left road will take to Bangaru Tirupati, and right road will take to Koti Lingeswara, so we tooked the right deviation and reached Koti Lingeswara Swamy Temple by 11:30 AM. It’s really nice to see such a large number of shiva lingas at one place. But I dont think it may be around 1 crore lingas may be they are still in the process of installing some more lingas.

As we have planned we headed our journey towards Lakshmi Venkateshwara temple at Bangaru Tirupati near Guttahalli. May be lord venkateshwara always wants be upon the hills here also temple is situated upon the hill.


Gopura and a pushkarani at the entrance.

Just below the temple they have made one Garudha, seems like carrying lord venkateshwar on his back.


Garuda at the entrance of the temple.


Overview from the hilltop.

One special thing here is that darshana should be done from a small messed kind of window (similar to kanakana kindi in Udupi). We performed some archana and climbed down the hill. Padmavathi temple is located on other hill top opposite to venkateshwara temple. As the name itself suggest “Tirupati” you can find most of the similar names like in Tirupathi at Andhra Pradesh (like kalyana katta, papavinashini, kalyani etc)

It’s already 2:00 PM so we planned to visit Avani, my mom is not able to climb up the hill so we restricted to just visit the temple below the hill. We had a darshana at Ramalingehwara temple and perform some archana over there. Purohit at the temple explained us that history of the Avani take back us to Ramayana age, this is place where godess Sita gave birth to Lava and Kusha, valmiki rushi ashrama was situated just backside the hill etc.


Outside view of Ramalingeshwara temple


Inside view of Ramalingeshwara temple

It was almost 3:00 PM we didn’t had lunch so we stopped on the road side where its full of greenery on either sides wahaa awesome place. The atmosphere was very good cloudy weather, lovely greenery and calm area also one tinny dog which gave us company to share our lunch, we couldn’t realize how fast we finished our lunch. We were not in the mood to move from that place but as it started raining we decided to start our journey to complete our last place Sri Anjaneya Swamy Temple at Mulbagal.


Place we stoped for lunch.

As we entered Mulbagal it’s started raining so heavily that we even can’t see the road ahead, so I just stopped my car on the road side. After sometime we ask one local guy for the temple route and reached the temple. Idol of Lord Anjaneya is very big somewhat similar to anjaneya temple in Mahalaxmi Layout, Bangalore. We had a quick darshana and returned back to our car we all are completely wet as raining was not stopped completely.

We left Mulbagal at 5:00 PM and followed NH4 route to reach Bangalore, return journey was very horrible as there was heavy rainfall and traffic jam near Kolar but somehow I managed it and reached home safely by 8:30 PM.

It was a great experience for me on the highway and covered 280 KM on that day. Overall we spend around Rs. 2000 this includes petrol, entry fee and others.