Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c8.1954

c8.1954

7) Samantapañcakanirmāṇa. Samantapañcaka is Kurukṣetra itself where the great battle was conducted. This is a holy place and it was Paraśurāma who constructed it. He stored the blood of the Kṣatriyas he killed in the twentyone rounds of killing in five lakes in Samantapañcaka. He offered blood to the Manes in those lakes. The Manes led by Ṛcīka appeared before him and asked him to name any boon he wanted. Then Paraśurāma said, "Revered Manes, if you are pleased with me you must absolve me from the sin of this mass massacre of the Kṣatriyas and declare the five lakes where I have stored their blood as holy." The Manes declared, "Let it be so." From then onwards the place became holy under the name Samantapañcaka. At the end of the Dvāparayuga and the beginning of Kaliyuga a great battle lasting for eighteen days took place at this holy place between the Pāṇḍavas and the Kauravas. (Chapter 2, Ādi Parva).