Political History Of Ancient India

SR No.: 032292
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hemchandra Raychaudhari
Publisher: University of Calcutta
Publication Year: 1950
Total Pages: 714
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 51

22 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA
jāngala, the Kurus proper and Kurukshetra. Kurujārgala, as its name implies, was probably the wild region of the Kuru realm that stretched from the Kāmyaka forest on the banks of the Sarasvati to Khāndava near (samīpatah) the Jumna.? But in certain passages it is used in a wider sense to designate the whole country (deśa, rūshtra'). The Kurus proper were probably located in the district around Hāstinapura (on the Ganges), identified with a place near Meerut. The boundaries of Kurukshetra are given in a passage of the Taittiriya Aranyakas as being Khāndava on the south, the Tūrghna on the north, and the Parīnahe on the west (lit. hinder section, jaghanārdha).
The Mahābhārata? gives the following description of Kurukshetra : "South of the Sarasvati and north of the Dșishadvati, he who lives in Kurukshetra really dwells in heaven. The region that lies between Taruntuka and Marantuka or Arantuka, the lakes of Rāma and Machakruka—this is Kurukshetra which is also called Sāmantapañchaka and the northern sacrificial altar (uttara vedi) of the grandsire (i.e., Brahmā).” Roughly speaking, the Kuru kingdom corresponded to modern Thanesar, Delhi and the greater part of the Upper Gangetic Doāb. Within the kingdom flowed the rivers Aruņā (which .joins the Sarasvati near Pehoa), Amśumati, Hiranvatī, Āpayā (Apagā
1 Mh., I. 109.1; 149. 5-15 ; II. 26-32 ; III. 83. 204 ; Ptolemy. VII. i. 42.
Tatah Sarasvatikule sameshu marudhanvasu
Kāmyakam nāma dadrisur vanain munijanapriyam. "Then they saw before them the forest of Kāmyaka on the banks of the Sarasvati on a level and wild plain, a favoured resort to anchorites." Mbh., III. 5. 3. For the location of the Khāndava forest see I. 222. 14 ; 223. 1.
3 Cf. Mbh 1. 109. 24; viii. 1. 17. xii. 37. 23.
4 Smith, Oxford History (1919), p. 31. cf. Rām. II. 68. 13; Mbh. 1. 128. 29ff ; 133. 11 ; Pargiter DKA, 5; Patañjali, II. 1. 2. anuGangam Hāstinapuram.
5 Vedic Index 1, pp. 169-70. 6 Cf. the Parenos of Arrian (Indika, iv), a tributary of the Indus. 7 111, 83. 4; 9:15; 25 40 ; 52; 200; 204-08.
8 Machakruka, Taruntuka and Marantuka are Yaksha dvārapālas guarding the boundaries of Kurukshetra.