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KUR
110
KUS
Dronachala of the Puranas; the Lodh Moona forest was the hermitage of Garga Rishi, and the Gagas river rises in the forest (p. 617) and falls into the Dhauli. The Kûrmâchali Brahmans who reside in Kumaun have evidently derived this name from the country (Sherring's Hindu Tribes and Castes, pp. 21, 106). See Kartripura Karttikeyapura and Umavana. For the five Prayâgas, see Pañcha-Prayaga. The province of Kumaun is situated in the tract of hills lying between the western branch of the Gagra known as Kâlî-nadi and the river Râm-Gangå which divides Garwal from Kumaun (Fraser's Himala Mountains, pp. 54, 537). For the history of the kings of Kumaun, see JASB., 1844, p. 887.
Karmakshetra-Eight miles to the east of Chikakol on the sea-coast in the district of Ganjam. It was visited by Chaitanya (Shyamlal Goswami's Gaurasundara, p. 188). It is now called. Šrîkûrma.
Karmavana-Same as Kurmachala.
Kurujangala-A forest country situated in Sirhind, north-west of Hastinapura. It was called Srikanthadesa during the Buddhist period; its capital was Bilaspur. It was included in Kurukshetra. In the sixth century, its capital was Thânesvara. The seat of Government was removed by Harsha Deva (Siladitya II) to Kanauj (see Shrikantha). The entire Kurudesa was called by this name in the Mbh. (Adi P., ch. 201) and Vamana P. (ch. 32). Hastinapura, the capital of the Kurus, was situated in Kurujângala (Mbh., Adi, ch. 126). Kurukshetra-Thaneswar. The district formerly included Sonepat, Amin, Karnal, and Panipat, and was situated between the Sarasvati on the north and the Drishadvatî on the south (Mbh., Vana, ch. 83), but see Pratap Chandra Roy's edition of the Mahabharata. The war between the Kurus and the Pândavas took place not only at Thanes war but also inthe country around it. The Dvaipâyana Hrada is situated in Thaneswar. Vyasasthali (Modern Basthali) is seventeen miles to the south-west of Thaneswar. At Amin, five miles south of Thaneswar, Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna, was killed, and Asvatthâmâ was defeated by Arjuna, and his skull severed. Amin, according to Cunningham, is the contraction of Abhimanyukshetra. At Amin, Aditi gave birth to Surya; at Bhore, eight miles to the west of Thaneswar, Bhuriśravâ was killed; at Chakra-tîrtha, Krishna took up his discus to kill Bhishma; at Nagdu, eleven miles to the south-west of Thâneswar, Bhishma died; at Asthipura [Padma P., Srishti (Adi), ch. 13], on the west of Thâneswar and south of Aujas-ghât, the dead bodies of the warriors who were killed in the war, were collected and burned (Arch. 8. Rep., Vol. XIV, pp. 86-106). Sonepat and Panipat are the corruptions of Sonaprastha and Pâniprastha, which were two of the five villages demanded by Yudhishthira from Duryodhana. Kurukshetra was also called Sthânutîrtha and Sâmantapanchaka (Mbh., Šalya, ch. 54; Vana, ch. 83); the temple of the Mahadeva Sthânu was situated half a mile to the north of Thaneswar. It was visited by people as a place of pilgrimage at the time of Alberuni in the eleventh century A.D., especially at the time of eclipse (Alberuni's India, Vol. II, p. 147; Matsya P., ch. 191). Kusabhavanapura-Sultanpur on the Gumti in Oudh (Thornton's Gazetteer). It was visited by Hiuen Tsiang. Same as Kusapura. It was the capital of Kuša, son of Ramachandra. It is called Kusasthali in the Vayu P., (Uttara, ch. 26). The capital was removed from Ayodhya by Kusa when he succeeded his father Ramachandra, king of Oudh (Raghuvamia, XV, v. 97; xvi, v. 25).
