Kurukshetra | EPFL Graph Search

Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?

Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of GraphSearch.

Kurukshetra (kʊrʊkʃeːtɾə, ) is a city and administrative headquarter of Kurukshetra district in the Indian state of Haryana. It is also known as Dharmakshetra ("Realm of duty ") and as the "Land of the Bhagavad Gita". Kurukshetra War According to the Puranas, Kurukshetra is a region named after King Kuru, the ancestor of Kauravas and Pandavas in the Kuru kingdom, as depicted in epic Mahabharata. The Kurukshetra War of the Mahabharata is believed to have taken place here. Thaneswar whose urban area is merged with Kurukshetra is a pilgrimage site with many locations attributed to Mahabharata. In the Vedas Kurukshetra is described not as a city but as a region ("kshetra" means "region" in Sanskrit). The boundaries of Kurukshetra correspond roughly to the central and western parts of the state of Haryana and Punjab. According to the Taittiriya Aranyaka 5.1.1., the Kurukshetra region is south of Turghna (Srughna/Sugh in Sirhind, Punjab), north of Khandava (Delhi and Mewat region), east of Maru (desert), and west of Parin. According to the Vamana Purana, King Kuru chose land at the banks of the Sarasvati River for embedding spirituality with eight virtues: austerity (Tapas), truth (Satya), forgiveness (Kshama), kindness (Daya), purity (Shuddha), charity (Daana), devotion (Yajna), and conduct (Brahmacharya). Lord Vishnu was impressed with the acts of King Kuru and blessed him with two boons—first, that this land forever will be known as a Holy Land after his name as Kurukshetra (the land of Kuru); second that anyone dying on this land will go to heaven. The land of Kurukshetra was situated between two rivers—the Sarasvati and the Drishadvati. Kuru Kingdom, founded by King Puru - the ancestors of Kauravas and Pandavas Vedic Indo-Aryan tribal union in northern Iron Age (c. 1200 – c. 900 BCE), developed into the first recorded state-level society (janapada) in the Indian subcontinent. This kingdom documented their ritual hymns into collections called the Vedas, and developed new rituals which gained their position in Indian civilization as the Srauta rituals, which contributed to the "classical synthesis" or "Hindu synthesis" (roots of Hinduism).

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related concepts (20)

Thanesar

Thanesar is a historic city and an important in Kurukshetra district of the state of Haryana in northern India. It is located in Kurukshetra district, approximately 160 km northwest of Delhi. Kurukshetra's area merges with Thanesar. Thanesar (Sthanishwar) was the capital and seat of power of the Pushyabhuti dynasty, whose rulers conquered most of Aryavarta following the fall of the Gupta Empire. The Pushyabhuti emperor Prabhakarvardhana was a ruler of Thanesar in the early seventh century CE.

Kuru Kingdom

Kuru (Sanskrit: ) was a Vedic Indo-Aryan tribal union in northern Iron Age India, encompassing parts of the modern-day states of Haryana, Delhi, and some parts of western Uttar Pradesh, which appeared in the Middle Vedic period (1200-900 BCE). The Kuru Kingdom was the first recorded state-level society in the Indian subcontinent. The Kuru kingdom decisively changed the religious heritage of the early Vedic period, arranging their ritual hymns into collections called the Vedas, and developing new rituals which gained their position over Indian civilization as the Srauta rituals, which contributed to the so-called "classical synthesis" or "Hindu synthesis".

Kurukshetra War

The Kurukshetra War (कुरुक्षेत्र युद्ध ), also called the Mahabharata War, is a war described in the Hindu epic poem Mahabharata (महाभारत ). The conflict arose from a dynastic succession struggle between two groups of cousins, the Kauravas and the Pandavas, for the throne of Hastinapura. The war laid the foundation for the Bhagavad Gita. The historicity of the war remains the subject of scholarly discussion. The Battle of the Ten Kings, mentioned in the Rigveda, may have formed the core of the Kurukshetra war's story.