Northern part of India is full of historical places. The persons who are interested in the Indian history must visit the Northern part of India. Delhi is the center and capital city of India. Delhi is full of historical monuments since Mahabharata times. One such ancient, historical monument is Kurukshetra, which is situated at around 65 miles from Delhi. Kurukshetra is the place where the famous war of Mahabharata between Pandavas and Kauravas took place before around 5000 years. Many tourists visit this place from all over the world to see this holyand vital place where the most intense war of this earth took place.
Kurukshetra is located between the cities of Ambala and Panipat. There are regular buses available for Kurukshetra from Delhi. However, hired car or taxi is the best option to reach to this historical town. The old Vedas state that this place was ploughed with solid gold equipment by Kuru, the son of king Savaran before around 6500 years. This ancient battlefield occupies a very large area of around 80 square kilometers. The battle field is mainly divided in seven forests. These forests are named as Kamyavan, Aditivan, Vyasvan, Fulkivan, Suryavan, Madhuvan, and Sitavan. It is said that the war of Mahabharata took place in first three forests, namely Kamyavan, Aditivan, and Vyasvan. As the strength of both Pandavas and Kauravas armies was very big, this extremely large battlefield was selected for the war. This was the place where Lord Krishna gave the famous teachings of Bhagavad-Gita to Arjun as he was not ready to fight his own relatives to get the Kingdom of Hastinapur. Today’s Delhi was the capital city of Kauravas kingdom, known as Hastinapur. Kauravas had captured the kingdom from the father of the Pandavas through fraud. Pandavas tried their best to recapture the kingdom but did not succeed even in getting a small part of this kingdom through talks. Hence, the war of Mahabharata took place here in which Pandavas came out as winners after 18 days of most intense war. There is a large lake around 3 miles away from Kurukshetra, which is also called Kurukshetra. It is believed that the Kaurava king Duryodhan hided himself here in this lake after they were defeated by the Pandavas. The most famous fight between Bhima and Duryodhana took place at the shore of this lake in which Duryodhana was killed by great Bhima, the strongest of Pandavas. The water of this lake comes from River Sarswati. The exact route and source as to how this water comes is not known to anybody. There are many ghats build here to facilitate taking bath in this holy lake. It is considered very holy to take bath in this lake as per old mythological stories. There is also a temple of Lord Shiva here, which is called the Gaurishankar temple. One other temple of Shravannath Sanyasi is also situated just next to the temple of Gaurishankar.
There is another lake located around 4 miles in East of Kurukshetra, which is called Rudrakar Lake. There is an ancient temple of Thaneshwar Mahadev at the shore of this lake. It is said that Pandavas performed holy puja after the war here at this temple to give eternal peace to their relatives who were killed in the war. There are couples of small hotels available here at Kurukshetra to stay for the night halt. The rooms are available in this hotel at the rate of around Rs.300 ($8) per day for a double occupancy. The standard North Indian food items are available here but make sure to order less spicy items. The best season to visit Kurukshetra is during the winter months of October to March as the summer days are extremely hot and the temperature shoots as high as 120 degrees F. It is said that the complete family should not stay at this place for more than one day as otherwise there will be a fight amongst the family members over very small things. This may be due to the fact that the most intense war amongst the family members took place here. The entire atmosphere of Kurukshetra reminds us all the stories of Mahabharata times and teaches us to live peacefully with our family members.
If you have read Mahabharata, you would surely like to visit this place to get the exact feelings of that famous war between Pandavas and Kauravas.
