Kurukshetra

Kurukshetra is the setting of the Mahabharata war and, within it, of Krishna's discourse to Arjuna that forms the Bhagavad Gita, which makes the whole plain a pilgrimage landscape rather than a single site. Brahma Sarovar, a vast rectangular tank said to be among the largest sacred tanks in Asia, is its centre, filling with bathers at solar eclipses when the merit is held to be greatest. Jyotisar, a few kilometres away, marks the traditional spot of the Gita with an old banyan. Museums cover the epic, science and archaeology, and the Gita Jayanti festival runs for days in winter.

History

The Kuru kingdom, a Vedic tribal union of the Iron Age, about 1200-900 BCE, grew into the first recorded state-level society in the Indian subcontinent and gathered its ritual hymns into the Vedas. Kurukshetra was conquered by the Mauryan empire in the late 4th century BCE and became a centre of Buddhism and Hinduism, and it reached its height under King Harsha, about 590-647 CE, when the Chinese scholar Xuanzang visited nearby Thanesar (Wikipedia, Kurukshetra).

The main sights

• Brahma Sarovar - an enormous sacred tank with bathing ghats.
• Jyotisar - the traditional site of the Gita, under an old banyan.
• The museums - epic, archaeological and science collections in the town.
• Gita Jayanti - the winter festival filling the tank precinct.

When to go

October to March; Gita Jayanti falls in November or December and is the largest gathering. Solar eclipses draw immense crowds to the tank. Haryana summers are severe.

Things to know

The sites are spread across a plain and need transport between them. Much of what is shown is traditional identification rather than archaeology. The town is workaday outside festival periods.

Nearby

Delhi lies south; Chandigarh is north.