Shloka 24
पाण्डवसेनानायकाभिषेकः तथा बलरामागमन-उपदेशः | Appointment of Pandava Commanders and Balarama’s Counsel
सेना पञ्चशतं नागा रथास्तावन्त एव च | दश सेना च पृतना पृतना दशवाहिनी,पाँच सौ हाथियों और पाँच सौ रथोंकी एक सेना होती है। दस सेनाओंकी एक पृतना और दस पृतनाओंकी एक वाहिनी होती है
senā pañcaśataṃ nāgā rathās tāvanta eva ca | daśa senā ca pṛtanā pṛtanā daśavāhinī ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “A ‘senā’ consists of five hundred elephants and an equal number of chariots. Ten such senās make a pṛtanā, and ten pṛtanās make a vāhinī.” In the Udyoga context, this is a sober, administrative reckoning of force—showing how war is systematized and quantified even before the first blow is struck, and hinting at the ethical weight of decisions that mobilize such vast, ordered violence.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse defines standardized military units (senā, pṛtanā, vāhinī), underscoring that war is not merely heroic combat but an organized, scalable enterprise—thereby intensifying the moral responsibility of leaders who choose mobilization and conflict.
In the Udyoga Parva’s war-preparation setting, Vaiśampāyana explains how armies are counted and grouped, giving a formal measure of forces by elephants and chariots and showing the structured buildup toward the Kurukṣetra war.