हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Kurukshetra and Jyotisar

The Dharmakshetra where the Mahabharata war was fought and Shri Krishna spoke the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna at Jyotisar. Harsha’s capital Thanesar stood here.

Built: Dharmakshetra of the Mahabharata; Sthanvishvara (Thanesar) capital of the Pushyabhutis, 6th–7th centuryWhere: Haryana (Kurukshetra)Deity: Shri Krishna as Gita-giver; Sthaneshwar Mahadev29.96° N, 76.84° E
  1. 606
  2. 1014
Photo: Gagan.leonidas · CC BY-SA 3.0

01Dharmakshetre Kurukshetre

The Gita’s first words name this ground. The Mahabharata says King Kuru ploughed it with a golden plough and won from Indra the boon that whoever died here would reach heaven; that is why the eighteen-day war was fought on it. At Jyotisar, under a banyan said to descend from the very tree, Krishna showed Arjuna the Vishvarupa. Bhishma lay on his bed of arrows at Narkatari, where Arjuna shot an arrow into the earth to bring up water for him. The 48-kos parikrama of Kurukshetra takes in more than a hundred tirthas, among them Brahma Sarovar and Sannihit Sarovar, where lakhs bathe at a solar eclipse.

02Thanesar and the raid of 1014

Sthanvishvara, now Thanesar, was the capital of Prabhakaravardhana and his son Harsha, whose court poet Banabhatta describes the city in the Harshacharita. Its Sthaneshwar Mahadev temple is the town’s oldest shrine. In 1014 Mahmud of Ghazni raided Thanesar. Al-Biruni records that the bronze image of Chakraswamin, Vishnu with the discus, was carried off to Ghazni and thrown into the hippodrome there. The International Gita Mahotsav is now held at Brahma Sarovar every year in Margashirsha around Gita Jayanti.

The life of this place

  1. 606Harsha becomes king at Sthanvishvara.
  2. 1014Mahmud of Ghazni sacks Thanesar and carries off the Chakraswamin image (Al-Biruni).
Visiting

Jyotisar is 5 km from Kurukshetra town; Brahma Sarovar has an evening aarti. The Shri Krishna Museum and the Kurukshetra Panorama are near the sarovar.

Bharat Ek Khoj 5: MahabharataPrasar Bharati Archives · Plays from YouTube

People

Shri KrishnaRuler
End of the Dvapara Yuga; Kali Yuga began at his departure, 3102 BCE (traditional reckoning)

Shri Krishna

Lord of Dvaraka, teacher of the Gita

Maharshi VyasaRishi
End of the Dvapara Yuga (traditional reckoning)

Maharshi Vyasa

Divider of the Veda, author of the Mahabharata

Nearby

Thanesar (Sthanvishvara)Rebuilt
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Thanesar (Sthanvishvara)

The city of Sthanu, Bhagwan Shiva, on the edge of the Kurukshetra plain, where Prabhakaravardhana and his son Harsha ruled before Harsha moved to Kannauj. Mahmud of Ghazni sacked it in 1014.

Shri Devikoop Bhadrakali Temple, KurukshetraStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Shri Devikoop Bhadrakali Temple, Kurukshetra

The Kurukshetra Shakti Peetha of the Pithanirnaya list, where the right ankle of Sati is said to have fallen into a well. Before the war the Pandavas came here to pray for victory, and devotees still offer small horses of clay and metal.

Sthaneshwar Mahadev Temple, ThanesarRebuilt
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Sthaneshwar Mahadev Temple, Thanesar

The Shiva temple of Sthanu, the Lord who stands firm, from whom Sthanvishvara, the capital of Harsha, took its name. The tradition of Kurukshetra says the Pandavas worshipped here before the war.

Kunjpura FortRuined
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Kunjpura Fort

The Afghan fort on the Yamuna that Sadashivrao Bhau stormed on 17 October 1760, three months before Panipat. The garrison and its commanders, including the man who had beheaded Dattaji Shinde, were killed.