The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c22.34

v1.c22.34

The germ of the Mahābhārata is the description of the overthrow of the Kurus, a Bharata clan, at the hands of the Pāṇḍus. A thinly veiled genealogy represents the Pāṇḍus as cousins of the Kurus. In reality, they were a new family or clan, who built up a kingdom and then obtained supreme power by allying themselves with the Pañchālas and attacking the Kurus, who are represented as living about sixty miles north of the Pāṇḍus' settlement, which was the present Indarpat (Indraprastha), near Delhi.