History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c18.38.3

v2.c18.38.3

speaks of the *vedi* of the gods as being in Kuru-kṣetra.³³ Even in the Ṛgveda itself the country through which the rivers Dṛṣadvatī, Āpayā and Sarasvatī flowed is spoken of as the best spot (vide III. 23. 4). The Tai. Br. says that the Kurupañcālas go east in the winter and westwards in the last month of summer. In the times of the Upaniṣads also the Kurupañcāla country appears to have occupied a pre-eminent place. The Bṛ. Up. (III. 1. 1.) says that when Janaka, king of Videha, performed a sacrifice the brāhmaṇas of Kurupañcāla flocked there in large numbers. Vide also Bṛ. Up. III. 9. 19. The Bṛ. Up. VI. 2. 1 and Chāndogya V. 3. 1 say that Śvetaketu went to the assembly of the Pañcālas. Kauṣītaki Br. Up. (IV. 1.) names the countries of Uśīnara, Matsya, Kurupañcāla and Kāśīvideha as centres of intellectual activity and in II. 13 refers to two mountains one in the North and the other in the South (meaning probably Himavat and Vindhya). According to the Nirukta (II. 2), the country of Kamboja was outside the limits of the country of Āryas, though the language spoken there seems to have been the same. The Mahābhāṣya lends support to this and adds that Surāṣṭra was not an Ārya country (vol. 1, p. 9). In the times of the Dharmasūtras great divergence of opinion prevailed on the question of the location of Āryāvarta. The Vasiṣṭha-dharma³⁴-sūtra says;