History of Kurukshetra

History of Kurukshetra

A manuscript of Mahabharata depicting the war at Kurukshetra

It is written in Puranas that Kurukshetra is named after King Kuru of the Bharata Dynasty, ancestor of Pandavas and Kauravas.
The Vamana Purana tells how King Kuru came to settle on this land. He chose this land at the banks of Sarasvati River(since dried up before 1900BCE^[3]) for embedding spirituality with 8 virtues: austerity (tapas), truth (satya), forgiveness (kshama), kindness (daya), purity (suchee^{[disambiguation needed]}), charity (dana), yagya and brahmacharya. Lord Vishnu was impressed with the act of King Kuru and blessed him. God gave him two boons, one that this land forever will be known as a Holy Land after his name as Kurukshetra (the land of Kuru) and the other that anyone dying on this land will be going to heaven. The land of Kurukshetra was situated between two rivers — the Sarasvati and the Drishadvati.

Bronze Chariot with Lord Krishna and Arjuna

This land has been known as Uttravedi, Brahmavedi, Dharamkshetra and Kurukshetra at different periods. When King Kuru came on this land it was called Uttarvedi. Over the period this land has been ruled by many empires. The Bharata Dynasty came and settled on this land.
Later the Battle of Mahabharata(3102 BCE) was fought on this land, during which Lord Krishna preached Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna.
It reached the zenith of its progress during the reign of King Harsha, during which Chinese scholar Hieun Tsang visited this land at Thanesar. By the archaeological grounds it has been proved that Ashoka the Great made Kurukshetra a centre of learning for people from all over the world.