Kurukshetra


Kurukshetra is a city in the Indian state of Haryana. It is also known as Dharmakshetra and as the "Land of the Bhagavad Gita".
According to the Puranas, Kurukshetra is a region named after King Kuru, the ancestor of Kauravas and Pandavas, as depicted in epic Mahabharata. The importance of the place is attributed to the fact that the Kurukshetra War of the Mahabharata is said to have taken place here. Thaneswar whose urban area is merged with Kurukshetra is a pilgrimage site with many locations attributed to Mahabharata.
In most ancient Hindu texts, Kurukshetra is not described as a city but a region. The boundaries of Kurukshetra correspond roughly to the central and western parts of the state of Haryana and southern Punjab. According to the Taittiriya Aranyaka 5.1.1., the Kurukshetra region is south of Turghna, north of Khandava, east of Maru, and west of Parin. The city houses the National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, a premier public engineering school.

Legends

According to the Puranas, ancient Hindu texts, the region is named after King Kuru of the Bharata dynasty, who is also the ancestor of Pandavas and Kauravas. These texts also tell that the battle of Mahabharata was fought on this land.
According to the Vamana Purana describes, King Kuru chose land at the banks of the now extinct Sarasvati River for embedding spirituality with eight virtues: austerity, truth, forgiveness, kindness, purity, charity, devotion, and conduct. 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 ; 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.

History

Kurukshetra reached the zenith of its progress during the reign of King Harsha, during which Chinese scholar Xuanzang visited Thanesar.
Kurukshetra was conquered by the Mauryan empire in the late 4th century BCE and subsequently became a center of Buddhism and Hinduism. The history of Kurkushetra is little-known in between the collapse of the Mauryans and the rise of the Kushans who conquered the region. After the decline of Kushan power in the region, Kurkushetra became independent only to become conquered by the Gupta empire in the early 4th century CE. Under Gupta rule, Kurukshetra experienced a cultural and religious revival and became a center for Hinduism. After the fall of the Gupta, the Pushyabhuti dynasty ruled over Kurukshetra.
Civil war broke out when Harsha died without a successor in 647. A Kashmiri army briefly conquered Kurukshetra in 733 but were unable to establish dominion in the area. In 736, the Tomara dynasty was founded and they took over the region. Around the early 9th century, Kurukshetra lost its independence to Bengal. Mahmud of Ghazni sacked Kurukshetra in 1014 and Muslim raiders sacked it in 1034. Kurukshetra was incorporated into the Delhi Sultanate in 1206. Other than a short moment of independence from the result of a rebellion within the Sultanate in 1240, Kurukshetra was under the control of Delhi until 1388.
Kurukshetra became independent once again after the steep decline of the Delhi Sultanate and the raids of Tamerlane near the region. The Sayyid dynasty incorporated Kurukshetra into their territory though the city likely enjoyed some autonomy. The area was much more firmly controlled under the subsequent Lodi dynasty. Some damages to Kurukshetra and its structures occurred during this period. Kurukshetra became part of the Mughal Empire after Babur quashed a local rebellion in 1526. Under Akbar, Kurukshetra once again became a spiritual center not only for Hindus but also for Sikhs and Muslims.
Between the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Kurukshetra was controlled by the forces of the Maratha Empire until the British took over Delhi in 1803. In 1805, the British took Kurukshetra after defeating the Maratha forces in the Second Anglo-Maratha War, who were controlling the city. Since 1947, Kurukshetra has become a popular spiritual center and has seen much infrastructure, development, and restoration of old structures.

International Gita Mahotsav

has been celebrated in Kurukshetra for decades. For a long time, it was known as Kurukshetra Utsav. According to the Hindu calendar, the holiday comes on Mokshda Ekadashi in the month of Margshirsh.
In 2016, the government of Haryana decided to give the Gita Jayanti a global flavour and organised an International Gita Mahotsav at Kurukshetra from 1 to 11 December. The Gita Jayanti was celebrated on 10 December as dictated by the traditional calendar. Over 2 million people visited the event that year. Later, in 2017, Gita Jayanti was celebrated on 30 November as per the traditional calendar, and over 2.5 million people visited. The idea of celebrating International Gita Mahotsav came from Swami Gyananand. International Gita Mahotsav 2019 was organized from November 23, 2019 to December 10, 2019. The Haryana government spent over for organising the event.

Vegetarian status

In 2017, the government declared Kurukshetra a holy city and the sale, possession, and consumption of meat are banned within the limits of the Municipal Corporation due to its religious significance.

Geography

Climate

The climate of the district varies as the temperature in summer reaches as high as 47 °C, and as low 1 °C in winter, with rains in July and August.

48 Kos Parikrama of Kurukshetra

Kurukshetra is an important Hindu pilgrimage destination, and there are several pilgrimage sites surrounding the city. The Hindi phrase 48 kos parikrama refers to a roughly 90-km traditional circle around the holy city, and a complete parikrama refers to a pilgrimage to all these sites on foot.

Places of interest

Hindu religious sites

wrote an epic poem titled Kurukshetra, a narrative poem based on the Santi Parva of the Mahabharata. He wrote the poem when memories of the Second World War were fresh in his mind.

Notable persons