What was considered a large army in Ancient/Medieval times?

All these numbers being thrown around in the other posts sound absurd at best, and plain unbelievable in most cases.

When the Peacefuls invaded Orissa during the reign of Gajapati Bhanudeva II with an army of an estimated 300K troops, it was kind of a world-shattering event for us Oriyas and the closest our Realm came to extinction during the Chodaganga dynasty. It also marked the furthest the Peacefuls ever got into Orissa pre-Mughals, with this VAST horde laying siege on Cuttack itself.

What happened?

This vast army- the largest the Peacefuls had managed to raise in 200 years of Oriya-Peaceful relations- with troops from all over the North and the Steppes, crumbled and was annihilated by Oriya forces that probably totalled 40K at most.

Thing is, Medieval Transportation sucked. Medieval Organisation sucked. Medieval Logistics sucked.

You could, like Napoleon and the typical Peaceful, raise vast numbers of men and keep them around by raising and pillaging the locals. A peaceful horde, imported from the Steppe, consisted of a bunch of amateurs in cotton shirts with only a bow and a knife, and could be raised and maintained at a whim given enough incitement to slaughter and enslave Kaffirs. You probably could have ten of them for the cost of a single Oriya infantryman, mailed and equipped.

But they still had to eat. They still had to be maintained on the march. Too big & the baggage train will kill the army. Too big, and disease will eat the army. Too big, and confusion will take them during battles.

The numbers should also make sense.

Now exxagerations aside, we can get a good estimate of the mid 14th Century Oriya economy. A hundred vati under cultivation could maintain a single Oriya soldier. Tolerating for Oriya Civilization with Peaceful barbarism, we can extrapolate that something like the Gupta Empire, in theory, could've maintained around 600K- 800K men in arms.

Peacefuls, with their shittier bureacracy and non-existent Administration, probably didn't manage that.

Anyway you can see that the VAST numbers often thrown about by our Intellectuals don't really make sense. The educated classes often blame our ancestors for exxagerations; but where does their skepticism go when some lizard-eater says Prithviraja managed to dig out 200K men from gods-know-where?

Anyway, more “serious” texts like the lexicography of Amara, Kshatriyavarga, give pretty moderate figures: An Ankini is around 10K infantry or 6K horse. An Akshuani 10 times that.

Readers can clearly observe how the standard Oriya forces- 47K odd considering the theoretical standard (though I'm sure Cuttack could raise militia and such in a pinch) easily fall into the typical three-fold division, in Rajahmundry, Radha, and Mahakantara with a fourth at Cuttack itself with the Gajapati.

Thus, a typical Oriya professional “army” in the mid 14th Century numbered roughly 10K - 15K, roughly an Ankini in size considering some of the troops would've been on leave or only on paper.

This force would've consumed upwards of 20 tons of rice each day, every day alongwith even more supplies of animal provender. It'd require atleast 600 vehicles for a ten day march between depots; almost 30 kilometres of roads to be cleared and fixed by engineers for EVERY day of March. 60K Madha was the cost of merely one day stretch's march- this when the entire Imperial budget amounted to approx. 1.5 crore Madha. In the 15th Century, Oriya troops could march from Cuttack to Berhampur in a week; almost 35 kilometres travel every day but a feat that would've literally bankrupted Orissa if tried for more than two months or so.

Thus, I'm really skeptical that the “usual” Oriya army ever exceeded this number.

Of course, during campaigns and crises, the different armies probably combined - such as the invasion during Gajapati Bhanudeva II's reign- but it's doubtful that it was the norm. For one, I doubt there's enough Summer pasture in North Orissa for more than 15K- 20K horses, and we aren't even considering Elephants.

Note that these numbers 10K- 12K - 15K - 20K also repeatedly figure in the Rajput Wars.

Anyway…

Here you can probably begin to see a possible reason why the Peacefuls collapsed…

A Turaka, a Rohila, a Turana, an Alina, or any other horse-fucking Mleccha is just a man. Especially so, when he's off his half-starved pony. Then he's just a scared boy running from a charging Oriya Cavalryman atop his grain-fed warhorse and, shortly thereafter, a bloody smear on the ground as Oriya Zamindars clash with the real Peaceful heavyweights- their Slave Cavalry with armament and horses equal to any Hindu.

In theory, Orissa would've NEVER been a match for the Peaceful Sultanates.

Neither the Keshari nor Chodaganga nor Routray could've lasted a month against the Gupta. But it's evident that the vast hordes the Peacefuls would send against us were Paper Tigers- with half-starved ghazis & chaff cavalry screening their well maintained Professionals, possibly because they didn't have the bureacracy and logistics to raise an 8 Akshuani force like the Guptas might've done 500 years ago.

BTW the Pandavas themselves had 7 Akshuanis at Kurukshetra; no wonder the Gupta Emperors thought that they were gods upon Earth.

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Comments:

Hamvira Mohapatro

You are probably talking about Firoz Shah Tughlaq”s invasion which was inconclusive because they managed to reach Katak & Puri and murder -rape the population .Gajapati Bhanudeva-3 had to retreat and then fight back.Most sources say the Gajapati had to sign a treaty.

Incase u r talking about Ghiyasuudin Tuqhlaq”s raid, they were completely defeated by Sriram Senapati (Bhanudev-2″s commander ) somewhere at Chattisgarh .

Cat

I thought Ghiyasuddin managed to lay siege on Cuttack. Thats what weakened us for Firoz Shah's campaign.

The FS thing was a squib. He simply raided- and exxagerated his deeds; Puri was never taken- and moved too fast to be brought to battle. Infact I'm sure it was the other way around- HE was surrounded by Oriya troops and forced to sign a treaty for his freedom. Why should Bhanudeva III give up his logistical advantage and not just let the peaceful starve?

Recall that after this “successful” raid, his Empire starts having “rebellions” everywhere but Orissa is fine for another 250 years. Also- why would any Peaceful defeat us and not commit genocide?

Hamvira Mohapatro

You have to understand the scenario- -Bhanudeva-3 had allied with Bengal”s Ilyas Shah to defeat Firoz Shah (in 1353).After Ilyas Shah”s death ,a peaceful officer defected to Ganga side only to defect to Firoz Shah on call of Jihad.Some Odia traitors defected too.Prior to Firoz Shah”s invasion(1360),half of Odia army was engaged with Vijayanagar (in 1356) and were lucky enough to survive it.

There”s a dispute if Firoz Shah reached Puri or not, I can't give any opinions on that

He DID commit a genocide .Sirat-i-Firoz Shahi claims about massacre of 1 lakh in some island and interestingly the account boasts of types of female slaves and meticulously categorises them

Cat

The only “island” that qualifies is poor Cuttack.

But Puri was never taken. His description of Puri is plain nonsense. His claims of destroying Srimandira are verifiably fake. My usage of “genocide” is in the sense that whenever Peacefuls were in a position of strength, they invariably went for the kill over the entire Hindu State. Tallikota ended Vijayanagar for all purposes. One single defeat doomed Devagiri.

This isn't the case here. They seemingly flee the minute the situation turns bad and then they sign a treaty, following which Orissa lasts 250 more years but the Tughlaqs are in trouble.