Kurukshetra

Kurukshetra (कुरुक्षेत्र, “the field of the Kurus”) is the plain in present-day Haryana where, according to the Mahabharata, the great war between the Kauravas and the Pandavas was fought, and where Krishna spoke the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna. The very first verse of the Gita calls it dharma-kshetra, the field of dharma.

Why Kurukshetra is sacred

Long before the war, Kurukshetra was a holy ground. Tradition says that the king Kuru tilled this land and made it a field of sacrifice and virtue, and the epic calls it a place where any good deed gives lasting fruit. It lies between the rivers Saraswati and Drishadvati, in a region that the Vedic texts already held sacred. The tradition of pilgrimage here is among the oldest in India.

The war and the Gita

The eighteen-day war of the Mahabharata was fought on this field. On its first morning, as the armies stood facing each other, Arjuna asked Krishna to draw the chariot between them and then laid down his bow (Chapter 1). Krishna’s teaching that follows is the Gita. The war ended with the fall of Duryodhana and the victory of the Pandavas, but at heavy cost.

Places to see at Kurukshetra

• Brahma Sarovar: a large sacred tank in the town, said by tradition to be where Brahma performed a sacrifice. Pilgrims bathe here, especially on days of a solar eclipse and on Gita Jayanti.
• Jyotisar: the place where Krishna is traditionally said to have spoken the Gita, marked by an ancient banyan tree and a chariot memorial.
• Sannihit Sarovar: another sacred tank, associated with the ancestral offerings made at the time of an eclipse.
• Bhishma Kund at Narkatari: the place where, by tradition, Bhishma lay on his bed of arrows.

Kurukshetra today

Kurukshetra is a city and district in Haryana, and each year around Gita Jayanti it hosts the International Gita Mahotsav, a festival of recitations, lamp offerings and cultural programmes. Its identification as the war field comes from tradition and the epic, and archaeologists have found remains of very early settlement in the region.

The field of dharma where the Mahabharata war was fought and Krishna spoke the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna.