Kuru
Topic: Janapadas, Mahajanapadas and the Second Urbanisation · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 2 "Kings, Farmers and Towns"; Class 12, Ch 3 "Kinship, Caste and Class - Early Societies"
Meaning
Kuru was one of the mahajanapadas that early Buddhist and Jaina texts list often. It lay in the upper Ganga-Yamuna doab, the land between these two rivers, around present-day Delhi and western Uttar Pradesh. The Kuru ruling family is at the centre of the Mahabharata, which tells of the quarrel between their two branches, the Kauravas and the Pandavas. Its capital is traditionally named as Hastinapura.
Example
In the 1950s the archaeologist B.B. Lal excavated a site called Hastinapura in Meerut district, Uttar Pradesh. He linked the village with the capital of the Kurus described in the Mahabharata. Historians caution that this link does not prove the epic's story actually happened.
Don't confuse with
- Panchala: Panchala was the neighbouring mahajanapada to the east. The two are often named as a pair, but they were separate states.
Related concepts
- Mahajanapada
- Gandhara
- Kosala
- Prasenajit
- Vatsa
- Udayana of Vatsa
- Kaushambi
- Avanti
- Pradyota of Avanti
- Ashmaka