Akshauhini (akṣauhiṇī)

An akshauhini is the epic's standard army unit, specified as 21,870 chariots, 21,870 elephants, 65,610 horse and 109,350 foot, in the ratio of one chariot to one elephant to three horse to five foot. Eighteen akshauhinis fought at Kurukshetra, eleven for Duryodhana and seven for Yudhishthira, and the Mahabharata records that only a handful of men on each side survived them. The number eighteen recurs deliberately across the epic, in its books, its war days and the chapters of the Bhagavad Gita.