All About INDIA

Kuru was the name of an Indo-Aryan clan which existed during the Iron Age Vedic India and later adopted the shape of a republican Mahajanpada state. The Kuru primarily flourished in parts of northern India, the areas comprising today’s Indian states of Haryana, Delhi and western Uttar Pradesh. The ancient texts found determine that the boundaries of the Kingdom of Kuru lay between two rivers, the Ganga and the Saraswati. Available ancient texts also suggest that the Kingdom of Kuru was divided into two parts, which were known as the Kuru-Jangala and the Kuru.

The foundation of the Kuru kingdom was laid after the alliance and the merger of two separate tribes, which were known as the Bharata tribe and the Puru tribe respectively. This merger led to the formation of the first political center of the Indian Vedic Era, which was later named as the Kuru Kingdom. The ancient city of Hastinapura was proclaimed as the capital of this newly formed kingdom.

The exact timeframe between which the Kuru Kingdom flourished is hard to determine with absolute certainty but most historians believe that this kingdom would have flourished between 1200 and 800 BC.  Archaeologically, theKuru clan probably corresponds to the Red and Black Ware culture of the twelfth and the ninth century BC. Historians believe that in the reign of the Kurus, iron appeared for the first time in the parts of western India and it was also during this period that the codification and redaction of the Vedic texts initiated.

One of the four Chaturvedas, the Atharvaveda, has reference to certain Parikshita as the “Leader of the Kurus”. Also, his son named Janamejaya, figures in both, the Satapatha Brahmana and the Aitareya Brahmana. The later Vedic texts frequently refer to the Kuru-Panchala, which is believed to be the Kuru clan in association with the Panchala tribes. Thereafter, in the later Iron Age, Panachala is believed to have become the new urban centre of theVedic Civilization. Also, the Painted Grey Ware, archaeologically suggest that around 900 BC, there was a shift in the central political power from the Kuru clan to the Panchalas on the Ganges.

Later, in the times of Gautama Buddha, the kingdom of Kuru was ruled by the titular chieftain, called Korayvya. During this phase, the kingdom of Kuru did not stood on the position at which it used to stand in the Vedic Era. However, it still enjoyed the ancient reputation of sound health and deep wisdom.

The Kurus are believed to have developed a republican form of government in their later years, during sixth and the fifth century BC. This belief is also supported by the Kautilya’s Arthashastra which describes the Kurus following a Rajashabdopajivin (King Consul) Constitution.

Historians believe that the people of Kuru clan had the matrimonial relations with the Bhojas, the Panchalas and the Yadavas.