Who supported whom in the Mahabharata War?

Who supported whom in the Mahabharata War?

We mapped every kingdom mentioned in the Mahabharata based on ancient texts and modern scholarship to answer one burning question:

Did your ancestors fight for the Pandavas or the Kauravas?

The Mahabharata wasn't just a family feud.

It was a pan-Indian conflict, drawing in tribes from Persia to Assam, Sri Lanka to the Himalayas. This war was for all purpose and intents a world war of that time.

Using the Kisari Mohan Ganguli translation and 7+ scholarly sources, we tracked down every kingdom's role in the war.

Kauravas

Pandavas

Both

Neither

Kaurava coalition:

The northwest, Gangetic core, and some eastern powers.

Think: elite Vedic clans, early Indo-Aryan migrants, conservative powers.

Key allies:

Gandhara (Shakuni)

Kalinga

Sindhu (Jayadratha)

Madra (Shalya)

Kambojas, Sakas, Yavanas

Pandava coalition:

The south, forest tribes, eastern fringe, and Krishna's federated allies.

Think: the underdogs, reformers, borderland dharma warriors.

Key allies:

Panchala (Draupadi's home)

Matsya

Chedi

Pandya, Kerala, Nishadas, Rakshasas

What's fascinating: this map reveals deep patterns. We see the south and central powers support the Pandavas while the regions where Vedic civilisation hold roots in India - the North West and the gangetic plains support the Kauravas.

Was the Mahabharata a civilizational clash?

Folks think because Mahabharata is 'mythology' it is pointless to look patterns in stories. However, we know that in India, myths were compressed history, encoded in symbolic language. They capture the collective memory of the civilisation. The Mahabharata could have been a real war that took place after the Vedic age that fractured the Indo-European culture and gave way to the India specific Hindu culture to originate integrating the Vedic and non-Vedic lands post the Pandava victory