The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval India c5.s9.209

c5.s9.209

Kurukshetra—Thaneswar. The district formerly included Sonepat, Amin, Karnal, and Panipat, and was situated between the Sarasvatī on the north and the Dṛishadvatī on the south (Mbh., Vana, ch. 83), but see Pratap Chandra Roy’s edition of the Mahābhārata. The war between the Kurus and the Pāṇḍavas took place not only at Thaneswar but also in the country around it. The Dvaipāyana Hrada is situated in Thaneswar. Vyāsasthali (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 Aśvatthāmā was defeated by Arjuna, and his skull severed. Amin, according to Cunningham, is the contraction of Abhimanyukshetra. At Amin, Aditi gave birth to Sūrya; at Bhore, eight miles to the west of Thaneswar, Bhuriśravā was killed; at Chakra-tīrtha, Kṛishṇa took up his discus to kill Bhīshma; at Nagdu, eleven miles to the south-west of Thāneswar, Bhīshma died; at Asthipura [Padma P., Sṛishti (Ādi), ch. 13], on the west of Thāneswar and south of Aujas-ghāt, the dead bodies of the warriors who were killed in the war, were collected and burned (Arch. S. Rep., vol. XIV, pp. 86-106). Sonepat and Panipat are the corruptions of Sonaprastha and Pāṇiprastha, which were two of the five villages demanded by Yudhishṭhira from Duryodhana. Kurukshetra was also called Sthānutīrtha and Sāmantapañchaka (Mbh., Śalya, ch. 54; Vana, ch. 83); the temple of the Mahādeva Sthānu 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).