Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s3.67

c9.s3.67

. It will not be quite out of place here to say a few words about the realm of the Kurus over which Parikshit ruled. The kingdom, according to epic tradition, stretched from the Sarasvatī to the Ganges. In the *Digvijaya-parva* it is taken to extend from the border of the land of the Kulindas (near the sources of the Sutlej, the Jumna and the Ganges) to that of the Sūrasenas and the Matsyas (in the Mathurā and Bairāṭ regions respectively), and from the frontier of Rohītaka (Rohtak in the Eastern Punjab) to that of the Pañchālas (of Rohilkhand). It was divided into three parts, Kurujāṅgala, the Kurus proper and Kurukshetra.¹ Kurujāṅgala, as its name implies, was probably the wild region of the Kuru realm that stretched from the Kāmyaka forest on the banks of the Sarasvatī to Khāṇḍava near (*samīpataḥ*) the Jumna.² But in certain passages it is used in a wider sense to designate the whole country (*deśa*, *rāshtra*³). The Kurus proper were probably located in the district around Hāstinapura (on the Ganges), identified with a place near Meerut.⁴ The boundaries of Kurukshetra are given in a passage of the *Taittirīya Āraṇyaka*⁵ as being Khāṇḍava on the south, the Tūrghna on the north, and the Parīṇah⁶ on the west (lit. hinder section, *jaghanārdha*). The *Mahābhārata*⁷ gives the following description of Kurukshetra: "South of the Sarasvatī, and north of the Dṛishadvatī, he who lives in Kurukshetra really dwells in heaven. The region that lies between Taruntuka and Marantuka or Arantuka, the lakes of Rāma and Machakruka⁸—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 Aruṇā (which joins the Sarasvatī near Pehoa), Aṁśumatī, Hiraṇvatī, Āpayā (Āpagā