Samantapañcaka is the sacred field in the Kurukshetra region where Paraśurāma filled five lakes with the blood of the kshatriyas. It is the same field as Kurukshetra, where the Mahābhārata war was later fought. The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa also calls it Syāmantapañcaka.

The meaning of the name

One account explains the name as “the five enclosures”: pañca is five, sama is equal or all around, and anta is end. Another account explains it as “equal on five sides”, for the five lakes of blood that marked the field. The Mahābhārata, in the Ādi Parva (Parvasaṃgraha), names Samantapañcaka as the place where the great war was fought.

Paraśurāma and the five lakes

Paraśurāma is the sixth avatāra of Bhagavān Vishṇu in his work of cleansing the earth of kshatriyas. Kārtavīryārjuna and his sons killed his father Jamadagni. The tradition says Paraśurāma made twenty-one campaigns against the kshatriyas.

In the Ādi Parva

The Ādi Parva (Parvasaṃgraha, Chapter 2) says that Paraśurāma filled five great pits in this field with the blood of the kshatriyas he had killed. These five pits give the field its name.

After he had filled the pits, Paraśurāma’s ancestors (pitṛs) appeared. They told him to stop the killing: “Enough.” They asked him to fill the pits with water instead. Paraśurāma did so. The five lakes of blood became sacred water, and Samantapañcaka became a tīrtha, a place that purifies those who bathe in it.

In the Vana Parva

The Vana Parva (Chapters 114–117) tells that the sons of Kārtavīrya Arjuna killed Jamadagni while Paraśurāma was away from the āśrama. Paraśurāma came back and found his father’s body and his mother Reṇukā deep in grief. He then went round the earth twenty-one times and cleared it of the kshatriyas who followed adharma.

The blood of the slain filled five great pits in the earth at this field and made five lakes of blood. Paraśurāma used the blood-water of these lakes to perform śrāddha (the rite for departed ancestors) for the dead kshatriyas and for his own father. The pitṛs appeared and received the offerings. After that the lakes were made holy.

In the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa (Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 47) says that after his twenty-one campaigns, which fulfilled his vow to avenge his father Jamadagni, Paraśurāma came to the region of Bhṛgutuṅga, the peak of Bhṛgu. There he made five lakes (pañca hradas) with his own hands. As he killed the kshatriyas in battle, their blood flowed into these five basins. The lakes were filled entirely with kshatriya blood.

At this place Paraśurāma performed śrāddha for his slain ancestors, above all for his father Jamadagni and his mother Reṇukā. The pitṛs appeared before him at the lakes, pleased with the offering. By this śrāddha at Syāmantapañcaka he met his duty to his ancestors and made a lasting tīrtha of ancestral puṇya (merit).

After the śrāddha, Paraśurāma performed a great Aśvamedha yajña at Mahendra-parvata. When it was done, he gave the whole earth, now free of kshatriyas, to the ṛshi Kaśyapa as the supreme dakshiṇā. Kaśyapa, who now held the earth, told Paraśurāma that he should no longer live on it, since it belonged to another. Paraśurāma then lived on Mahendra-parvata, a mountain by the coast. From there he won back the coastal strip from the ocean.

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa also says that King Sagara performed the Bhārgava-vrata at or in connection with Syāmantapañcaka. This is a special vow tied to the Bhārgava (Paraśurāma) tradition.

The name Kurukshetra

The same field is called Kurukshetra, the field (kshetra) of Kuru. The Ādi Parva says Kuru was the ancestor who worked this land with tapas and gave it to dharma. Samantapañcaka and Kurukshetra are two names for one place.

King Kuru consecrates the field

In the Śalya Parva

The Śalya Parva (Chapter 53) tells how the field came to be called Kurukshetra. King Kuru, the great king of the solar line, ploughed the Samantapañcaka field with Rudra’s bull and Yama’s buffalo. As the highest act of tapas, he put pieces of his own flesh into each furrow. He meant to make the field holy, so that any being who died there would be freed from the load of pāpa (sin) and attain moksha (liberation).

Indra, who led the other devas, questioned Kuru eight times. Kuru held firmly to his purpose each time. Indra was pleased and gave him a vara (boon). The field would be known as Kurukshetra (the field of Kuru) and Dharmakshetra (the field of dharma). Any being who died there in battle would attain moksha.

In the Vāmana Purāṇa

The Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa (Chapter 23) tells that King Kuru, the son of Saṃvaraṇa and the divine Tapatī, chose Samantapañcaka as the field for his great act of making a place holy. He used Rudra’s bull and Yama’s buffalo as plough animals. He offered his own flesh and limbs as oblations in the furrows. In this way he made the field the sacred Dharmakshetra. From Bhagavān Vishṇu he received the vara (boon) that anyone who died there, performed śrāddha there, or did tapas there would attain moksha.

The war at Samantapañcaka

The Mahābhārata war between the Pāṇḍavas, with 7 Akshauhiṇīs, and the Kauravas, with 11 Akshauhiṇīs, was fought on this field.

Sources

Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Parvasaṃgraha, Chapter 2
Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 114–117
Mahābhārata, Śalya Parva, Chapter 53
Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 47
Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 23