Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.s1.57

c4.s1.57

We see how well-equipped the *Jātaka*-army was. No reliance can be placed however on loose statemets as to its numerical strength. And moreover the statements are in themselves not clear. Sometimes the number of the warriors (*yodhā*) is only 500,⁶ at others 1000⁷ while 60,000 is a stock phrase.⁸ 14,000 is the number given for each of the three forces of elephants, chariots and horses in one place,⁹ whereas in another¹⁰ it is 60,000. The numbers may not be precise, but they seem reasonable at least, when we know, even from the notices of foreign travellers, that 'armies of vast proportions were not unknown in India.' The army of Chandragupta Maurya, according to the records of Pliny and Plutarch, consisted of as many as 9,000 elephants, 30,000 horses and 60,000 footmen, besides chariots,¹ while according to Strabo² his camp had 400,000 soldiers.