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Tribes in Ancient India c7: Chapter III. The Kurus

Tribes in Ancient India c7

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Chapter III. The Kurus

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The Kurus form one of the most ancient and prominent of the Indo-Aryan Kṣatriya tribes. In one of the verses of a Rigvedic hymn (X, 33, 4) occurs the word, Kuruśravaṇa, which is interpreted by some scholars either as ‘the glory of the Kurus’, or as ‘the hearer of the praises of the Kurus’; but is more generally taken to be the name of a particular king, a ruler of the Kuru tribe. In the hymn which follows this one, the charities of the prince Kuruśravaṇa are praised, and there can be no doubt that ‘Kuruśravaṇa’ is here the name of a particular sovereign, especially as some of his ancestors are also mentioned (see Ṛgveda, X, 33, 1 and 4-9; Wilson, Ṛgveda, Vol. VI, pp. 89-90). The seer mourns the death of his generous donor, and, in the last four verses, it seems that he consoles Upamaśravas, the son of Kuruśravaṇa, and mentions Mitrātithi, grandfather of Upamaśravas. But the Bṛhaddevatā (supported by Kātyāyana’s Sarvānukramaṇī) states that it was for the death of his grandfather Mitrātithi that Upamaśravas is being consoled in these verses.

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In the same hymn, Kuruśravaṇa is also called Trāsadasyava or ‘descendant of Trasadasyu’. Trasadasyu is well known in the Ṛgveda (IV, 38, 1; VII, 19, 3, etc.) as a king of the Pūrus. Trasadasyu’s people, the Pūrus, were settled on the Sarasvatī (see Vedic Index, I, 327), a locality which accords well with the later union of Pūrus and Kurus. According to the Vedic Index, ‘it is likely that the Tṛtsu-Bharatas who appear in the Ṛgveda as enemies of the Pūrus, later coalesced with them to form the Kuru people’,¹ for there is evidence that the Bharatas, like the Pūrus, occupied the territory in which the Kurus were later found. Two of them are spoken of in a hymn of the Ṛgveda (III, 23) as having kindled fire on the Dṛṣadvatī, the Āpayā and the Sarasvatī—that is to say, in the sacred places of the later Kurukṣetra.²

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¹ Vedic Index, I, 167.

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² For further evidence of the merging of the Bharatas in the Kurus, see Vedic Index, I, 167-8.

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Professor Keith also urges this view of the incorporation of the Bharatas with the Kurus in his chapter contributed to the Cambridge History of India (p. 118, Cam. Hist.), while Prof. Rapson concurs with him, observing that the Bharatas who were settled in the country of the Sarasvatī in Rigvedic times were later merged in the Kurus; and that their whole territory, the new together with the old, became famous in history under the name ‘Kuruṣetra’—‘the field of the Kurus’. This was the scene of the great war of the descendants of Bharata, and the centre from which Indo-Aryan culture spread, first throughout Hindusthan, and eventually throughout the whole sub-continent.¹

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¹ Cambridge History of India, I, 47.

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Another king, whose glories as a generous donor are sung in a hymn of the Ṛgveda (VIII, 23), namely Pākasthāman, is given the designation Kaurayāṇa,—most probably a patronymic; while in the Atharvaveda (XX, 127, 8) a man called Kauravya is described as having enjoyed prosperity under the rule of King Parīkṣit. Evidently, therefore, the name Kuru was already applied in the early Vedic age to a prominent tribe of Indo-Aryan Kṣatriyas.

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It is, however, in the Brāhmaṇa literature that the Kurus acquire the greatest prominence among the Kṣatriya tribes of ancient India. In the Brāhmaṇa literature, the Kurus are often connected with the Pañcālas and from the way in which the Kuru-Pañcālas are mentioned, there is no room for doubt that it was in the country inhabited by them that some of the most famous Brāhmaṇa works were composed. Thus the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa in its chapter on the Mahābhiṣeka of Indra states: ‘Then in this firm middle established quarter the Sādhyas and the Āptyas, the gods, anointed him (i.e. Indra) . . . for kingship. Therefore in this firm middle established quarter, whatever kings there are of the Kuru-Pañcālas with the Vaśas and Uśīnaras, . they are anointed for kingship’ (Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, VIII, 14, Tr. Keith, Ṛgveda Brāhmaṇas, p. 331). From the way in which mention is made of the country of the Kuru-Pañcālas, it is evident that the author of the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa was a native of that region. The authors of the Vedic Index ² are of the opinion that the great Brāhmaṇas were composed in the Kuru-Pañcāla country, though Weber ³ would suggest a different locality for the Tāṇḍya Mahābrāhmaṇa of the Sāmaveda, and the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa of the White Yajurveda.

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² I, 165.

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³ History of Indian Literature, pp. 68 and 132.

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Eliot points out that at the time when the Brāhmaṇas and earlier Upaniṣads were composed (circa 800–600 B.C.), the principal political units were the kingdoms of the Pañcālas and Kurus in the region of Delhi.⁴ The Kurus are comparatively seldom mentioned alone, their name usually being coupled with the Pañcālas; and the Kuru-Pañcālas are often expressly referred to as a united nation. Speech is said to have its particular home in the Kuru-Pañcāla land; and the mode of sacrifice of the Kuru-Pañcālas is proclaimed to be the best. The Kuru-Pañcāla Brahmins are famous in the Upaniṣads: for example, in the last kāṇḍa of the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa we find mention of the Brahmins of the Kuru-Pañcāla country being invited and given huge largesses by Janaka, king of Videha (cf. Bṛhadāraṇyaka Up., III, I, 1, foll.).

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⁴ Hinduism and Buddhism, Vol. I, p. 20.

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The Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (XII, 9, 3, 3) speaks of a Kauravya King Balhika Prātipīya (Kauravya and Kaurava being interchangeable variants); while Yāska’s Nirukta¹ also asserts that Devāpi Ārṣiṣeṇa and Śantanu were Kauravyas. The Kuru kings are mentioned by the name Koravya in the Pāli Buddhist literature, as we shall show below.

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¹ II, 10.

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The Chāndogya Upaniṣad, which is the remnant of an ancient Brāhmaṇa work belonging to the Sāmaveda, contains an account of the destruction of crops in the Kuru country by locusts or by a hailstorm, and it further recounts the story of how a famished Ṛṣi (Uṣasti Cākrāyaṇa) of the Kuru land was forced to partake of food that was unclean, and how in spite of this temporary impurity under the stress of famine, the Ṛṣi was successful in winning for himself the highest functions at the subsequent sacrifice performed by the king at Ibhyagrāma (Chāndogya Upaniṣad, I, 10, 1-7; Sacred Books of the East, Vol. I, pp. 18-19).

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We have seen that the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa speaks of the country of the Kuru-Pañcālas as belonging to the ‘dhruvā madhyamā dik’, i.e., to what is known in later literature as the Madhyadeśa or middle country. Prof. Rapson points out that the territories occupied by the Kurus extended to the East far beyond the limits of Kurukṣetra. The Kurus must have occupied the northern portion of the Doab, or the region between the Jumna and the Ganges, having as their neighbours on the east the North Pañcālas, and on the south, the South Pañcālas, who held the rest of the Doab as far as the land of the Vatsas, the corner where the two rivers meet at Prayāga (Allahabad).²

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² Rapson, Ancient India, p. 165.

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The great law-giver Manu speaks of the country of the Kurus and other allied peoples (Matsyas, Pañcālas and Śūrasenakas) as forming the sacred land of the Brahmarṣis (Brahmanical sages), ranking immediately after Brahmāvarta (Manu, II, 17-19). He indirectly praises the prowess of these peoples by saying that they should be placed in the van of any battle-array (Manu, VII, 193).

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In the first verse of the Bhagavadgītā, the only book in India which is reverenced by people of all kinds of religious belief, the land of Kurus is called Dharmakṣetra, or the holy land. In other parts of the *Mahābhārata*, too, Kurukṣetra is mentioned as a land which was especially holy. Thus the *Vanaparvan* (Chap. 129, pp. 394-5) tells us that Kurukṣetra was the holy spot of the righteous Kurus. It was here that Nahuṣa's son, Yayāti, performed many religious ceremonies, that divine and royal sages performed the Sārasvata Yajña, and that Prajāpati performed his Yajña. In the Brāhmaṇa texts also, Kurukṣetra is regarded as a particularly sacred country, for within its boundaries flowed the sacred streams Dṛṣadvatī and Sarasvatī, as well as the Āpayā.¹

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¹ *Vedic Index*, I, p. 169.

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The ‘field of the Kurus’, or the region of Delhi, was the scene of the war between the Kurus and Pāṇḍus, in which all the nations of India were ranged on one side or the other, according to the Epic in its present form. It has been the great battle-field of India ever since, as it forms a narrow strip of habitable country lying between the Himalayas and the Indian Desert through which every invading army from the Punjab must force its way. Because of this strategical importance, Delhi became the capital of India under the Mughal emperors who came into India by land from the N.W. (Rapson, *Ancient India*, p. 173).

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Besides the Kurus of the Madhyadeśa, we find references to another Kuru people, viz. the Uttara-Kurus. The *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* mentions the country of the Uttara-Kurus in its chapter on the *mahābhiṣeka* of Indra (*Ait. Br.*, VIII, 14; Tr. Keith’s *Ṛgveda Brāhmaṇas*, pp. 330-1). The authors of the *Vedic Index* are of the opinion that the Uttara-Kurus were a historical people at the time when this passage of the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* was written. They observe: ‘The Uttara-Kurus, who play a mythical part in the Epic and later literature, are still a historical people in the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*, where they are located beyond the Himalaya (*pareṇa Himavantam*). In another passage, however, the country of the Uttara-Kurus is stated by Vāsiṣṭha Sātyahavya to be a land of the gods (*deva-kṣetra*), but Jānamtapi Atyarāti was anxious to conquer it, so that it is still not wholly mythical. It is reasonable to accept Zimmer’s view that the northern Kurus were settled in Kaśmīr, especially as Kurukṣetra is the region where tribes advancing from Kaśmīr might naturally be found.²

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² *Ibid.*, I, p. 84.

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In Buddhist literature, Uttara-Kuru is very often mentioned as a mythic region, but there are some passages which go to show that there was a faint memory of a country that once had a historical existence [see, e.g. the reference to ‘Kurudīpa’, *Dīpavaṃsa*, p. 16; and the statement in the *Sāsanavaṃsa* (p. 12) that the place of the inhabitants of Uttaradvīpa is called the kingdom of Kurus (*Kuru-raṭṭhaṃ*).

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The Southern Kurus are mentioned in the *Papañcasūdanī* (P.T.S. edition, p. 225), while the *Aṅguttara Nikāya* tells us that Kuru was one of the sixteen *mahājanapadas* or prominent countries of Jambudīpa (= India), having abundant food and wealth, and the ‘seven kinds of gems’.¹ In Buddhist literature, as in the Brāhmaṇa literature, the Kurus are comparatively seldom mentioned alone, their name being usually coupled with that of the Pañcālas. We read in the *Papañcasūdanī* that there was no *vihāra* for the Buddha’s habitation in the Kuru kingdom, but that there was a beautiful forest outside the town of Kammāsadhamma where he used to dwell. We are told further that the inhabitants of the Kuru kingdom enjoyed good health, and their mind was always ready to receive instruction in profound religious truths, because the climate was bracing at all seasons, and the food was good. The Buddha delivered some profound and learned discourses to the Kurus, e.g. the Mahānidāna and Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Suttantas of the *Dīgha Nikāya*. (For fanciful stories of the Kurus’ meditation on Satipaṭṭhāna, see further *Papañcasūdanī*, P.T.S., pp. 227–9.)

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¹ *Aṅguttara Nikāya*, Vol. I, p. 213; Vol. IV, pp. 252, 256 and 260; *Dīgha Nikāya*, II, pp. 200, 201 and 203.

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The Buddhist literature is full of stories in which the land of Kuru and its princes and people play a leading part. For instance, the Thera Raṭṭhapāla, who contributed some verses to the Theragāthā, was born in the town of Thullakoṭṭhika in the country of the Kurus, and we are told that he converted the King ‘Koravya’ to Buddhism.² The Dhammapada Commentary relates the story of Aggidatta, the chaplain of the king of Kosala (Mahākosala, predecessor of Pasenadi). After his retirement, Aggidatta dwelt on the borders of the Kuru country and Aṅga-Magadha, together with his 10,000 disciples; and the inhabitants of these countries used to supply the whole company with food and drink. Eventually Aggidatta and all his followers were converted by the Buddha.³

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² *Psalms of the Brethren*, pp. 302–7; *Majjhima Nikāya*, II, pp. 65 et seq.

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³ See *Dhammapada Comm.*, Vol. III, pp. 241-2; 246-7.

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In the Therīgāthā commentary (p. 87) we read that a therī named Nanduttarā was reborn in a Brahmin family in the city of Kammāsadamma (or Kammāsadhamma) in the kingdom of the Kurus. She first became a Jain, but was later converted by Mahākaccāyana, accepted ordination from him, and attained arahantship. In the *Paramatthadīpanī* (pp. 201–4) we have an account of the miseries suffered after death by a certain Serinī, a heretical woman of the Kuru capital.

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Returning to the history of the tribe itself, we find that the authors of the *Vedic Index* consider that the Kurus represent a comparatively late wave of Aryan immigration into India. ‘The geographical position of the Kuru-Pañcālas’, they say, ‘renders it probable that they were later immigrants into India than the Kosala-Videhas or the Kāsīs who must have been pushed into their more eastward territories by a new wave of Aryan settlers from the west’.¹

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¹ *Vedic Index*, I, pp. 168-9.

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In the *Papañcasūdanī*, there is a fanciful story of the origin of the Kurus. Mahāmandhātā, king of Jambudīpa, was a cakravartin, and therefore subject to no restrictions of place. He conquered Pubbavideha, Aparagoyāna and Uttara-Kuru, besides the Devalokas. When he was returning from Uttara-Kuru, a large number of the inhabitants of that country followed Mahāmandhātā to Jambudīpa, and the place where they settled became known as Kururaṭṭham.²

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² *Papañcasūdanī*, pp. 225-6.

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The ancient capital of the Kurus was Hastināpura which was situated on the Ganges in what is now the Meerut district of the United Provinces. Indraprastha, the modern Indrapat near Delhi, was the second capital. According to the Epic story, the blind king Dhṛtarāṣṭra continued to rule at the old capital Hastināpura on the Ganges, while he assigned to his nephews, the five Pāṇḍus, a district on the Jumna where they founded Indraprastha.³ While the ancient capital of the Kurus sank into insignificance, the new city erected by the Pāṇḍavas has not only come down to our time, but has acquired a fresh lease of life as the seat of the central government of the British Indian Empire. Another city of the Kuru country, according to the Prākrit legend given in the commentary on the *Uttarādhyayana Sūtra*, was Ishukāra (Prākrit Usuyāra or Isuyāra), ‘a wealthy and famous town, beautiful like heaven’.⁴ We have already referred to the town of Kammāsadhamma, which must have been well known in the Buddha’s time. It is also called Kammāsadamma,—derived by popular etymology from Kammāsa (a prince) and damma (from dam, to tame), because Kammāsa was brought under control by the Bodhisattva when he was born as a son of King Jayaddisa of Pañcāla (*Papañcasūdanī*, pp. 226-7). The story of Kammāsa is narrated in full in the Jayaddisa Jātaka, in which we find that the Bodhisattva was born as the son of King Jayaddisa of Pañcāla. One of the King’s other sons was carried away by a Yakkhinī (ogress) who brought him up, and taught him cannibalistic habits. After many attempts to capture him had failed, he was at last brought under control by the Bodhisattva. He was called Kammāsa (‘spotted, blemished’) because of a boil which appeared on his leg.¹ It is apparent that this story is simply a variation of the Purānic story of Kalmāṣapāda.

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³ Rapson, *Ancient India*, p. 173.

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⁴ *Jaina Sūtras*, II, p. 62n.

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¹ Jātaka (Fausböll), V, pp. 21 et seq.

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The Epic and Purānic tradition regarding the origin of the Kurus is as follows: Pūru,² the son of Yayāti by Vṛṣaparva’s daughter Śarmiṣṭhā, and grandson of Nahuṣa, was fifth in descent from Pururavā, son of Ilā, daughter of Manu, the father of mankind (Mānava-vamśa); and the dynasty which sprang from this Pūru was celebrated as the Paurava dynasty. Tenth in descent from Pūru was Saṃvaraṇa. When his kingdom was conquered by the king of the Pañcālas, Saṃvaraṇa fled in fear, together with his wives, children and ministers, and took shelter in a forest on the banks of the Sindhu (Indus). He eventually regained his kingdom, with the help of his priest, the sage Vasiṣṭha; and a son named Kuru was born to him, by Tapaī, daughter of Sūrya. The people were charmed by the manifold good qualities of Kuru, and anointed him king. After the name of this king, the plain became famous as Kurukṣetra or the field of Kuru.³

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² Mahābhārata, Droṇaparvan, Chap. 61, p. 1035.

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³ Ādiparvan, Vaṅgavāsī Ed., Chap. 75, pp. 86–8; Chap. 85, p. 96; Chap. 94, p. 104.

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In the Epic period, the Kurus became the most powerful Kṣatriya tribe in northern India, after the downfall of the Magadha empire of Rājagṛha when Bhīmasena, who belonged to the younger branch of the Kauravas, killed the Samrāṭ (Emperor) Jarāsandha. Bhīmasena’s grandson, Pratīpa, had three sons, Devāpi, Vāhlika and Śāntanu. The eldest son, Devāpi, was a leper, and for this reason King Pratīpa was prevented by his subjects and by the advice of wise men from placing him on the throne. Devāpi became an ascetic, while Vāhlika went to rule over his maternal uncle’s land, and, after Pratīpa’s death, granted permission to his brother Śāntanu to reign over the Kuru country.⁴

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⁴ Udyogaparvan, Chap. 149, p. 771.

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After Śāntanu came his sons Citrāṅgada and Vicitravīrya, both of whom died childless. However, in a semi-miraculous manner, two sons (Dhṛtarāṣṭra and Pāṇḍu) were born posthumously to Vicitravīrya’s wives. Dhṛtarāṣṭra married Gāndhārī, daughter of Suvala, king of the Gandhāras, and had by her one hundred sons, known as the Kurus or Kauravas, of whom the eldest was Duryodhana who could work miracles by the power of mantras.⁵

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⁵ Ibid., Chap. 61, p. 707 (Vaṅgavāsī Ed.); and Śāntiparvan, Chap. 4, p. 1378, for further details about Duryodhana. For detailed (largely legendary) genealogies of the descendants of Kuru, see Viṣṇupurāṇa, IV, Chap. 20; and Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chap. 22.

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As Dhṛtarāṣṭra was blind from birth, Pāṇḍu, though younger, was placed on the throne left vacant by the death of Vicitravīrya. Matters grew complex when sons were born to both the brothers, and the difficulty was not lessened when Dhṛtarāṣṭra took over the government on the premature death of Pāṇḍu, had his five nephews brought up with his own sons, and finally appointed his eldest nephew, Yudhiṣṭhira, to be heir-apparent. Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s own sons, consumed with jealousy, set various plots on foot against their cousins, and eventually the old king decided on a compromise, giving Hastināpura to his sons, and to his nephews a district where they built the city of Indraprastha. Here the Pāṇḍavas, in the words of Prof. Macdonell, ‘ruled wisely and prospered greatly. Duryodhana’s jealousy being aroused, he resolved to ruin his cousins, with the aid of his uncle Śakuni, a skilful gamester’.¹ Yudhiṣṭhira was thereupon challenged to a game of dice with Śakuni, a challenge which he could not refuse, as this was a matter of honour among Indian Kṣatriyas in those days. Owing to dishonest tricks on Śakuni’s part, Yudhiṣṭhira was defeated, and lost everything, his kingdom, wealth, army, brothers, and finally Draupadī, the joint wife of the five Pāṇḍavas. In the end it was arranged that the Pāṇḍavas should go into banishment for twelve years, and to remain *incognito* for a thirteenth, after which they might return and regain their kingdom. They passed their period of banishment in the forest, and remained *incognito* for the thirteenth year at the court of King Virāṭa of the Matsyas.

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¹ Sanskrit Literature, p. 292.

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The Matsya king and his people honoured Yudhiṣṭhira and his brothers, and were grateful to them for preventing the predatory excursions of the Trigarttas and Kurus against their cattle. The bond with the Matsyas was further cemented by the marriage of Virāṭa’s daughter with Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna. The Pāṇḍavas were further related through Draupadī with the powerful king of Pañcāla; and they had a firm friend in Kṛṣṇa, the hero of the Yādavas. It was felt, accordingly, that a successful attempt might be made to recover the dominions out of which they had been cheated. The King of Pañcāla suggested that they should resort to war, and kings of other neighbouring countries were invited to help the Pāṇḍavas. But before the war began the brothers made a last unsuccessful attempt to negotiate peace, sending Kṛṣṇa Vāsudeva as their emissary to the Kuru court.²

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² Mbh., Udyogaparvan, Vaṅgavāsī Ed., Chap. 127.

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After the failure of negotiations, allies were invited from far and near; even the kings of the south contributed their quota, for by that time the Kṣatriyas had spread over the whole of India, and, according to the Epic account, all of them were ranged on one side or the other. Dhṛṣṭadyumna was made generalissimo of the Pāṇḍava forces, Arjuna being the greatest hero on their side, with Kṛṣṇa Vāsudeva as his chief, so to speak. Being prevented by a vow from taking up arms in the battle, Kṛṣṇa took upon himself the duty of driving his friend's chariot.

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The Indian army in those days, as in later times, consisted of four divisions, viz. foot-soldiers, elephants, chariots, and horses. Arriving at Kurukṣetra, the Pāṇḍavas encamped with their troops on the western part of the field, facing the numerically much stronger force of Duryodhana and his allies (Mbh., Udyogaparvan, Chap. 198; Chap. 151, Chap. 154). Of the 18 akṣauhiṇīs or regiments that assembled on the battle-field, 11 were on Duryodhana's side, and 7 on that of his cousins. In individual heroes also Duryodhana's army was apparently much stronger. But the Kurus, in spite of their preponderant strength, felt misgivings on the eve of the battle, while the Pāṇḍavas were buoyed up with the righteousness of their cause. The commander of Duryodhana's army was the old warrior Bhīṣma, and the allies of the Kurus included the peoples of Kośala, Videha, Aṅga, Vaṅga, Gandhāra, Sindhu, and many other States. Duryodhana caused his camps to be made to look like a second Hastināpura, and into these camps he made soldiers with their horses enter in groups of a hundred each, arranging names and emblems for all of them so that they might be recognised in the battle.

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When the two powers were thus ready to fight, the Kurus and the Pāṇḍavas were bound to follow the traditional rules of a fair fight among the Kṣatriyas of India. Only men equally situated or matched could fairly fight one another. Combatants armed with the same kind of weapons should be ranged against one another. Those that left the battle-field should never be killed, a fleeing enemy was not to be pursued, and one devoid of arms should never be struck. A chariot-warrior should fight only with another chariot-warrior, and, similarly, with horse and foot-soldiers, and those riding on elephants. One engaged in a personal combat with another, one seeking refuge, one retreating, one whose weapon was broken, and one clad in armour should never be struck; neither should non-combatants on the field of battle, such as charioteers, attendants engaged in carrying weapons, players on drums and blowers of conches, be smitten.¹

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¹ Mbh., Bhīṣmaparvan, Chap. I.

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This was the tacit understanding between the two armies, and the rules were generally not violated except under very special circumstances.

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The Kuru army with Bhīṣma at its head advanced first, then the Pāṇḍava army led by Bhīmasena. The soldiers of both sides rushed upon one another with loud yells and a simultaneous blowing of conches. The fight raged furiously for ten days, at the end of which Bhīṣma fell, and both forces were withdrawn for a lull.

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On Bhīṣma’s death, Droṇa was made commander of the Kaurava troops, and the fight raged for a further eight days, until finally Abhimanyu, Droṇa, Karṇa, and Śalya were all slain, and a great disorder prevailed, especially in the Kuru army, now consisting only of a few scattered soldiers. Sahadeva, one of the Pāṇḍu princes, killed the gamester Śakuni, and Duryodhana himself was killed by Bhīmasena after making a last desperate rush at the enemy. With Duryodhana’s death, the victory in the Kurukṣetra war fell to the Pāṇḍavas; but only a handful of their followers came out of the fray alive.

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With the death of the hundred sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, the Kuru line through him became extinct, and the Pāṇḍavas now became lords of the Kuru kingdom, Yudhiṣṭhira being acclaimed king. The Pāṇḍus were reconciled to the aged Dhṛtarāṣṭra who retired to the forest after remaining at Hastināpura for fifteen years, and he and his queens finally perished in a forest conflagration. Yudhiṣṭhira himself did not reign long. When he heard of Kṛṣṇa’s accidental death, and of the destruction of the Vṛṣṇis, he determined to leave the world, and he and his brothers retired to the forest, leaving the young prince Parīkṣit,¹ grandson of Arjuna, to rule over Hastināpura.

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¹ So called because he was begotten at the time of the decrease (parikṣiṇa) of the Kuru race.

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Parīkṣit was learned in the science of the duties of kings, and is credited with having possessed all noble qualities. He is described as a highly intelligent ruler, and a great hero, who wielded a powerful bow, and never missed his aim. One day he was lost in the forest, having been led astray by a deer whom he had struck but failed to kill. While roaming about, he met a sage and asked him whether he had seen a deer running that way. The sage was observing a vow of silence, and did not reply. Angered at this, the king took up a dead snake with the end of his bow, placed it around the sage’s neck, and went away. The son of the sage, hearing of this, cursed the king, saying that within a week he would be reduced to ashes by the bite of Takṣaka, king of the snakes. Hearing of the curse, the sage was sorry, and warned the king; but in spite of elaborate precautions, the curse was fulfilled, and Parīkṣit died of snake-bite.

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Parīkṣit’s son, Janamejaya, now ascended the throne, and resolved to avenge his father’s death by holding a snake sacrifice. Ṛṣis by the force of their mantras caused the snakes in their thousands to fall into the sacrificial fire. However, Takṣaka’s nephew, Āstīka, son of a snake princess and the ṛṣi Jaratkāru, won the king’s favour, caused him to suspend the sacrifice, and saved the snakes from total destruction.

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Here the kernel of the Epic account ends. It will be readily seen that it is a mixture of history and legend; but the historicity of the battle itself, and of the Kuru kings who ruled shortly afterwards, need not be doubted.

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Turning once more to the Buddhist literature, we find numerous stories of kings of the Kuru land. For instance the Bodhisattva is described in the Dhammapada commentary as having once been born to the chief queen of the Kuru king (Dhanañjaya, according to the Kurudhamma Jātaka, Fausböll, Vol. II, pp. 366 foll.), in the capital city, Indapatta (Indraprastha). He went to Taxila to complete his education, and was then appointed a viceroy by his father. When he came to the throne, he, together with his family and his chief officials, used to obey the ‘Kuru-dhamma’. This Kuru-dhamma consisted in the observance of the five ‘sīlas’ or rules of moral conduct, and it possessed the mystic virtue of bringing prosperity to the country. At this time the king of Kaliṅga was troubled by a dearth of rain in his kingdom. The Bodhisattva, king of the Kurus, had a royal elephant named Añjanavasabha, which was brought to the kingdom of Kaliṅga in the belief that its mere presence would bring rain. This device not having the expected result, it was concluded that rain did not fall in Kaliṅga because the Kuru-dhamma was not observed there; and Brahmins were sent to the kingdom of Kuru to make themselves acquainted with the Kuru-dhamma, and write it out for the king of Kaliṅga. Thereupon, King Kāliṅga observed the Kurudhamma faithfully, and forthwith the longed-for rain poured down in showers in his kingdom, and his crops were saved.¹ The Kurudhamma Jātaka, cited above, also narrates this story, and there are further references to King ‘Dhanañjaya Koravya’ in other Jātakas (Cowell, Vol. IV, pp. 227–231; Vol. V, pp. 31–7; and ibid., p. 246). In the latter passage we are told that the kingdom of Kuru extended over three hundred leagues. The king’s chief minister is called Sucīrata in one story.² and Vidhūra in another.¹ In each case the king is said to have been very righteous and charitable. In yet another Jātaka version of the story, we are told, as usual, that there reigned in the city of Indapattana, in the kingdom of the Kurus, a king named Dhanañjaya, of the race of Yudhiṭṭhila (Yudhiṣṭhira). The Bodhisattva was born in the house of his family priest (not in the king’s own family in this case). After learning all the arts at Taxila, he returned to Indapattana and after his father’s death he became family priest and adviser to the king. He was called Vidhūrapaṇḍita.²

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¹ Dhammapada Commentary, IV, pp. 88-9.

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² Jātaka (Fausböll), V, p. 57.

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¹ Jātaka (Fausböll), IV, p. 361.

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² Ibid., VI, pp. 255 foll.

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The story of King Dhanañjaya-korabba and his wise minister appears to have been very popular in Jātaka times, for its events find repeated mention in the tales. The Jātaka contains an account of further incidents concerning Dhanañjaya and Vidhūra, notably the defeat of Dhanañjaya at dice, and the meditation of Vidhūrapaṇḍita in a friendly rivalry between the king and Sakka (Indra).³

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³ Ibid., VI, pp. 255 foll.

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Though the Buddha principally confined his ministering activity to N.E. India, the Buddhist Pali texts show that he travelled widely over regions in Northern India; and the Kuru country too appears to have been favoured by his discourses (see, e.g. Aṅguttara Nikāya, Vol. V, pp. 29-32; Saṃyutta Nikāya, Vol. II, pp. 92-3; Ibid., pp. 107-9; Majjhima Nikāya, Vol. I, pp. 55 et seq.; Ibid., pp. 501 et seq.; Vol. II, pp. 261 et seq.; Dhammapada Commentary, Vol. I, pp. 199-203 and cf. Ibid., Vol. III, pp. 193 et seq.; Dīgha Nikāya, Vol. II, pp. 55 et seq.; Ibid., pp. 290 et seq.) It is in nearly every case that the town of Kammāsadhamma is mentioned as the scene of the Buddha’s discourses.

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Some time before the fourth century B.C., the monarchical constitution of the Kurus gave place to a republic, for we are told by Kauṭilya⁴ that the Kurus were ‘rāja-śabda-upajīvinaḥ’, or ‘enjoying the status of rājās’,—i.e. all citizens had equal rank and rights.

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⁴ See Shāma Shāstri’s translation of the Arthaśāstra, p. 455. Shāma Shāstri renders ‘rāja-śabda-upajīvinaḥ’ by ‘lived by the title of a rājā’, but this is too vague to convey the meaning. For a fuller discussion on the subject, see Chapter on the Licchavis.

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The Kurus appear to have played some part in Indian politics as late as the ninth century A.D., for when Dharmapāla installed Cakrāyudha on the throne of Kanauj, he did so with the consent of the neighbouring powers, amongst whom the Kurus are specifically mentioned.⁵

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⁵ Smith, Early History of India, 4th Ed., p. 413.

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