Kurukshetra

BY: SUN STAFF - 24.9 2024

Solar eclipse at Kurukshetra
Kangra School, Rajput, Rajasthan, c. 1775
University of Washington Library Collection

From "A Tour in the Punjab", a report by Alexander Cunningham, published in Calcutta (1882) for the Archaeological Survey of India.

The famous battle-field of Kurukshetra, where the Kauravas and Pandavas fought for eighteen days, is situated on the south side of Thanesar, 30 miles to the south of Ambala, and 40 miles to the north of Pinipat. [1] It was called Kurukshetra, "the field of Kuru," after Kuru, the progenitor of the Kauravas, who is said to have become an ascetic on the bank of the Narbida Til close to the town of Thanesar.

The chakra or district of Kurukshetra is also called Dharmakshetra, or the "holy land ;" and this name is certainly as old as the 7th century, as Hwen Thsang calls it "le champ du bonheur." [2] In his time the extent of the chakra was 200 li, or 5 yojanas, at his valuation of 40 li to the yojana.

I understand his expression of "tout autour de la capifale, il y a un espace de deux cents li que les habitants du pays out appele la torre du bonheur," to mean 200 li on all four sides, or 5 yojanas each side. This would make the whole circuit equal to 20 yojanas, which is the very same that is given in the Mahabharata under the description of Samanta-panchaka, "on every side five."

The oldest accounts of Kurukshetra are contained in the great poem of the Mahabharata. In this its boundaries are concisely stated as follows : —

"The tract between Ratnuk, Aratnuk, Rima-hrada, and Bhachakrukj is called Kurukshetra, Samantapanchaka, and the northern Bedi of Brahma."

In another passage it is further described as lying between the Saraswati and Drishadwati Rivers:

"South from Saraswati, and north from Drishadwati, they who dwell in Kurukshetra live in paradise." [3]

The Drishadwati is also mentioned in the Vamana Purina as connected with the holy region of Kurukshetra. "They were making the great sacrifice of Satranta in the wide region of Kurukshetra, on the banks of the Drishadwati, esteemed holy on account of its virtues." In the code of Manu the same limits are also assigned to Brahmavarta, which is equivalent to the Bedi of Brahmi mentioned in the first extract. Manu says —

"That region made by the gods, which is between the Saraswati and Drishadwati Rivers, is called Brahmavartta." [4]

Of these two rivers the Saraswati is well known, and still retains its old name in its spoken form of Sarsuti. The other river is, by the universal consent of all enquirers, both Brahmans and Europeans, identified with the Rikshi. In the Mahabharata also another river, the Kausiki, is mentioned as an affluent of the Drishadwati, and their confluence is noted as one of the holy places. Now the Kausiki sangam, or "Kausiki junction," still exists near the village of Balu on the Rakshi River, 17 miles to the south of Thanesar. I think therefore that there can be no reasonable doubt that the modern Rikshi is the representative of the Drishadwati.

But great changes must have taken place in the beds of these rivers even in comparatively recent times. Both are now broad sandy channels; but Drishadwati means the "rocky" or "stony;" and the Sarsuti is described by Utbi in the time of Mahmud Ghazni's invasion as having a bottom full of large stones, with precipitous banks and impetuous stream. [5] Both the Ghaghar and the Sarsuti, which have their sources in the Duns or valleys to the north of the Siwalik range, are liable to sudden floods which rush down, just as Utbi describes, with "fearful impetuosity" that sweeps everything before it.

During the reign of Islam Shih the defeated Niazis who had crossed the Ghaghar near Ambala before the battle were drowned in great numbers in attempting to ford the stream, which had suddenly become a swollen torrent. In January 1840, when marching between Sunam and Hansi, I saw the Ghaghar not less than 17 feet deep and running with a strong current. I know also that the stratum of sand in the Ambala district is not deep, and that it overlies a deposit of boulder stones. In early times it seems probable that the beds of all these streams may have been deeper perhaps, even as deep as the stratum of boulders, and that they have since become silted up with the enormous quantities of coarse sand which they bring down from the hills at every flood.

The region of Kurukshetra is said to have been watered either by seven or by nine rivers. The names of the nine are —

1. Saraswati; 2. Vaitarini; 3. Apagi, or Aughvati; 4. Mandakini Ganga; 5. Madhusrava; 6. Ansumati; 7. Kausiki; 8. Drishtavati; and 9. Hiranyavati or Drishtavati.

Of these the Saraswati and the Drishtavati or Drishadwati have already been noticed. The Apaga or Aughvati is a branch of the Chitang which separates from the main stream a few miles to the west of Ladwa, and flows past Pulwal to Pabnawa, where it is lost in the sands. Its whole length is about 25 miles. The Kausiki is a branch of the Rakshi. The others I have not been able to identify. But there are several important streams at the present day, such as the Markanda, the Nakti, and Chitang or Chatang, of which the ancient names are quite unknown.

The Sarsuti and its branches have also been so interlaced and inosculated with one another by Firoz Shah to fill his canals, that the people have completely confused their names, so that there are now no less than three different Sarsutis.

There is, I believe, some mistake about the number of nine rivers, as the Hindus invariably assign seven branches to all their rivers. Such are the Sofia Sindhu, the Sapta Gandaki, and the Sapta Kausiki, &c., to which I may add, as bearing upon the question, that there is a place of pilgrimage in Kurukshetra still called Sapta Saraswati.

Amongst the nine names I suspect also that No. 4, the Madhusrava, or "honey dropper," is a mistake, as it is the name of one of the holiest pools in the bed of the Saraswati at Prithudaka. It seems probable also that the Vaitarani may be only another term for the Drishadwati or Rakshi, as it was the name of the mother of the Rakshasas. By omitting these two names the branches of the Saraswati are reduced to the orthodox number of seven.

(To be continued...)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Mr. Talboys Wheeler, in his Mahabharata, p. 274, note, says that "The plain of Kurukshetra is generally identified with the field of Panipat." This astounding error is rivalled, if not exceeded, by his location of Panchala in Southern Rajputana ; see his map.

[2] Julien's Hwen Thsang, Vol. H, pp. 312, 213.

[3] See the originals in my Archaeological Survey of India, Vol. II, pp. 214-215.

[4] See the original passage in my Archaeological Survey of India, Vol. II, p. 2 15

[5] Elliot's Muhammadan Historians by Dowson, Vol. II, p. 40.