Kuru

Kuru was a great king of the Sūryavaṃśa (the solar line). He was the son of King Saṃvaraṇa and Tapatī. He is known as the king who ploughed the field of Samantapañcaka with the bull of Rudra and the buffalo of Yama. He offered his own flesh and limbs as oblations in the furrows. By this great act of tapas (austerity) he made the land holy as Kurukshetra, the sacred Dharmakshetra. The Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa says that any being who dies there, performs śrāddha (rites for the ancestors) there, or does tapas there reaches moksha (liberation). The field that he made holy became the place of the Mahābhārata war and one of the holiest tīrthas (sacred places) of Bhāratavarsha.

Family

Kuru was born to Saṃvaraṇa, a king of the solar line descended from Ikshvāku, and to Tapatī, the divine daughter of Sūrya himself. (Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 22)

The ploughing of Samantapañcaka

Kuru chose the field of Samantapañcaka for his great act. He got two extraordinary animals to draw the plough. One was the bull of Rudra, the sacred bull of Bhagavān Śiva. The other was the buffalo (mahisha) of Yama, the lord of dharma and death. Kuru yoked the two together and ploughed the whole field. (Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 23)

The offering of his own limbs

As he ploughed each furrow, Kuru cut off parts of his own flesh and limbs. He laid them in the earth as oblations. He made his own body the yajña (fire ritual). (Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 23)

Bhagavān Vishṇu’s vara

Bhagavān Vishṇu was moved by this great tapas. He appeared before Kuru and gave a vara (a boon). The field would be known as Dharmakshetra and Kurukshetra, the field of dharma and the field of Kuru. Any being who died at Kurukshetra, performed śrāddha there, or did tapas there would be freed from the cycle of rebirth and reach moksha. Through this vara Kurukshetra became the greatest tīrtha in all of Bhāratavarsha. (Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 23)

What the field became

The field that Kuru made holy became:

• The battlefield of Kurukshetra, where the Mahābhārata war was fought.
• A chief place of pilgrimage for śrāddha and the rites for the ancestors, especially at solar eclipses and other auspicious times.
• The place of Pṛthūdaka tīrtha, where rivers and sacred powers meet.
• The place where Kārttikeya was given his abhisheka (sacred bathing and anointing) as Senāpati (commander). This was done at Pṛthūdaka tīrtha.

The Vāmana Purāṇa links the founding of Kurukshetra directly to Kuru’s self-offering and Bhagavān Vishṇu’s vara.

The account in the Śalya Parva

The Mahābhārata also tells of Kuru and Kurukshetra, in the Śalya Parva (Chapter 53). It is an upākhyāna (a story within the main account), told during Balarāma’s pilgrimage to the tīrthas of the Sarasvatī. Here Kuru ploughs the field of Samantapañcaka with Rudra’s bull and Yama’s buffalo. The devas ask him about this strange act. Kuru answers that he is making the field holy so that any being who dies there is freed from past pāpa (sin) and reaches moksha. Indra and the devas test his resolve again and again. Eight times they question him, and each time he holds firm to his purpose. At last Indra gives the vara. The field will be called Kurukshetra after Kuru’s name, and any being who dies there will reach moksha. In the Mahābhārata account the two names, Kurukshetra and Dharmakshetra, are fixed here. (Mahābhārata, Śalya Parva, Chapter 53)

Sources

• Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 22, 23
• Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Chaitraratha Parva
• Mahābhārata, Śalya Parva, Chapter 53