Kurukshetra War The Kurukshetra War is a Hindu Historical war de- scribed in the Indian epic Mahābhārata as a conflict that arose from a dynastic succession struggle between two groups of cousins of an Indo-Aryan kingdom called Kuru, the Kauravas and Pandavas, for the throne of Hastinapura. It involved a number of ancient kingdoms participating as allies of the rival groups. The location of the battle is described as having occurred in Kurukshetra in the modern state of Haryana in In- dia. The conflict is believed to form an essential com- ponent of an ancient work called Jaya and hence the epic Mahābhārata. Mahābhārata states that the war started on Kartheeka Bahula Amavasya (the end of the Kartheeka and the start The position of the Kuru and Panchala kingdoms in Iron Age of the Margasira lunar month), moon on Jyesta star, on Vedic India Tuesday early morning. A solar eclipse also happened on that day and this Muhurtha was kept by Krishna him- self. The Bhagavad Gita was told on that early morn- ing, before the war began. The war lasted only eighteen days, during which vast armies from all over the Indian (Bharatha) Subcontinent fought alongside the two rivals. Despite only referring to these eighteen days, the war nar- rative forms more than a quarter of the book, suggest- ing its relative importance within the epic, which overall spans decades of the warring families. The narrative describes individual battles of various heroes of both sides, battle-field deaths of some of the prominent heroes, military formations employed on each day by both armies, war diplomacy, meetings and dis- cussions among the heroes and commanders before com- mencement of war on each day and the weapons used. Geography of the Rigved, with river names; the extent of the Swat and Cemetery H cultures are indicated. The chapters (parvas) dealing with the war (from chapter six to ten) are considered amongst the oldest in the entire Mahābhārat. The Kurukshetra War is believed to date variously from dition holds that the war marks the transition to Kaliyuga 6000 BCE to 500 BCE,[1] based on the astronomical and and thus dates it to 3102 BCE;[4] another tradition places literary information from Mahābhārata. The history of the war in 15th century BCE. However historians regard the Kurukshetra War is also traced to the Battle of the these dates as too early, and inconsistent with the avail- Ten Kings mentioned in Rigveda.[2] able archaeological and literary evidence. Basham con- siders the beginning of the 9th century BCE as a more plausible date for the events.[3] Similarly, Michael Witzel concludes that the general setting of the epic has a his- 1 Historical context torical precedent in Iron Age (Vedic) India, where the Kuru kingdom was the center of political power during Though the Kurukshetra War is not mentioned in Vedic roughly 1200 to 800 BCE.[5] A dynastic conflict of the literature, its prominence in later literature led histori- period could have been the inspiration for the Jaya, the ans such as A. L. Basham to conclude that, “certainly a foundation on which the Mahabharata corpus was built, great war took place, and succeeding generations looked with a climactic battle eventually coming to be viewed as upon it as marking an end of an epoch”.[3] Popular tra- an epochal event. 1 2 2 BACKGROUND Puranic literature presents genealogical lists associated undergone certain changes, both by linguistic change and with the Mahabharata narrative. The evidence of the Pu- by reinterpretation. Conspicuous changes include the ranas is of two kinds. Of the first kind, there is the di- change of vishva “all” by sarva, and the spread of the rect statement that there were 1015 (or 1050) years be- kuru- verbal stem (for Rigvedic krno-). This is from the tween the birth of Parikshit (Arjun’s grandson) and the time of the early Iron Age in north-western India, corre- accession of Mahapadma Nanda, commonly dated to 382 sponding to the Black and Red Ware (BRW) culture, and BCE, which would yield an estimate of about 1400 BCE the kingdom of the Kurus, dating from ca. the 10th cen- for the Bharata battle.[6] However, this would imply im- tury BCE. The Samhita prose period marks the begin- probably long reigns on average for the kings listed in the ning of the collection and codification of a Vedic canon. genealogies.[7] Of the second kind are analyses of parallel An important linguistic change is the complete loss of the genealogies in the Puranas between the times of Adhisi- injunctive. The Brahmana part ('commentary' on mantras makrishna (Parikshit’s great-grandson) and Mahapadma and ritual) of the Black Yajurveda (MS, KS, TS) belongs Nanda. Pargiter accordingly estimated 26 generations by to this period. Archaeologically, the Painted Grey Ware averaging 10 different dynastic lists and, assuming 18 (PGW) culture from ca. 900 BCE corresponds, and the years for the average duration of a reign, arrived at an shift of the political center from the Kurus to the Pancalas estimate of 850 BCE for Adhisimakrishna, and thus ap- on the Ganges. proximately 950 BCE for the Bharata battle[7] B. B. Lal used the same approach with a more conser- vative assumption of the average reign to estimate a date 2 Background of 836 BCE, and correlated this with archaeological evi- dence from Painted Grey Ware sites, the association be- Main article: Mahābhārata ing strong between PGW artifacts and places mentioned Mahābhārata, one of the most important Hindu epics, in the epic.[8] There have been a number of theories put forward:[9] • The most widely accepted date is 10th century BCE or 950 BCE, according to archeological evidence. • B. N. Achar states a date of 3067 BCE using plane- tary positions listed in the Mahābhārata. • S. Balakrishna concluded a date of 2559 BCE using consecutive lunar eclipses. • P. V. Holey states a date of November 13, 3143 BCE using planetary positions and calendar systems. • R. N. Iyengar concluded a date of 1478 BCE using double eclipses and Saturn+Jupiter conjunctions. • P. R. Sarkar estimates a date of 1298 BCE for the war of Kurukshetra. • P. V. Vartak calculates a date of October 16, 5561 BCE using planetary positions.[10] • K. Sadananda, based on translation work, states that the Kurukshetra War started on November 22 3067 BCE.[11] India during the time of Mahābhārata. The reconstruction of the history of Vedic India is is an account of the life and deeds of several generations based on text-internal details. Linguistically, the Vedic of a ruling dynasty called the Kuru clan. Central to the texts could be classified in five chronological strata as epic is an account of a war that took place between two Rigvedic, Mantra, Samhita, Brahmana, Sutra, and Epic rival families belonging to this clan. Kurukshetra (liter- and Pāṇinian. The Mantra language period includes ally “field of the Kurus”), was the battleground on which both the mantra and prose language of the Atharvaveda this war, known as the Kurukshetra War, was fought. Ku- (Paippalada and Shaunakiya), the Rigveda Khilani, the rukshetra was also known as “Dharmakshetra” (the “field Samaveda Samhita (containing some 75 mantras not in of Dharma"), or field of righteousness. Mahābhārata tells the Rigveda), and the mantras of the Yajurveda. Many of that this site was chosen for the war because a sin commit- these texts are largely derived from the Rigveda, but have ted on this land was forgiven on account of the sanctity 3 of this land. recited to the King Janamejaya who is the great-grandson The Kuru territories were divided into two and were of Arjuna, by Vaisampayana, a disciple of Vyasa (then ruled by Dhritarashtra (with his capital at Hastinapura) called the Bharata). The recitation of Vaisampayana to and Yudhishthira of the Pandavas (with his capital at Janamejaya was then recited again by a professional sto- Indraprastha). The immediate dispute between the ryteller named Ugrasrava Sauti, many years later, to an as- Kauravas (sons of Dhritarashtra) and the Pandavas arose semblage of sages performing the 12-year-long sacrifice from a game of dice, which Duryodhana won by deceit, for King Saunaka Kulapati in the Naimisha forest(then forcing their Pandava cousins to transfer their entire ter- called the Mahabharata). ritories to the Kauravas (to Hastinapura) and to “go into exile” for thirteen years. The dispute escalated into a full scale war when Prince Duryodhana, the eldest of the Kau- 3 Combatants ravas, driven by jealousy, refused to restore the Pandavas their territories after the exile as earlier decided, as Dury- The Kurus formed a kingdom in the Vedic period of odhana objected that they were discovered while in exile, India. They formed the first political center after the and that no return of their kingdom was agreed upon. Rigvedic period, after their emergence from the Pun- Prior to the war, the disinherited Pandavas in the kingdom jab, and it was there that the codification and redaction of Matsya, advised by Krishna, tried to find a diplomatic of the Vedic texts began. Archaeologically, they most and peaceful solution to the conflict. Balarama, Krishna’s likely correspond to the Black and Red Ware Culture of older brother, advised the Pandavas to send an emissary the 12th to 9th centuries BC, at the beginning of the Iron to get the support of the elders of the family like Bhishma, Age in western India. Panchala was the second “urban” Dhritarashtra, Drona, Kripa etc. with the message “Let us center of Vedic civilization, as its focus moved east from avoid armed conflict as much as possible.