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Kuru was a Vedic Indo-Aryan tribal union in northern Iron Age India of the Bharata and Puru tribes. The Kuru kingdom appeared in the Middle Vedic period (), encompassing parts of the modern-day states of Haryana, Delhi, and some North parts of Western Uttar Pradesh. The Kuru Kingdom was the first recorded state-level society in the Indian subcontinent.
The Kuru kingdom became a dominant political and cultural force in the middle Vedic Period during the reigns of Parikshit and Janamejaya, but declined in importance during the late Vedic period () and had become "something of a backwater" by the Mahajanapadas in the 5th century BCE. However, traditions and legends about the Kurus continued into the post-Vedic period, providing the basis for the Mahabharata epic.
The Kuru kingdom corresponds with the archaeological Painted Grey Ware culture. The Kuru kingdom decisively changed the religious heritage of the early Vedic period, arranging their ritual hymns into collections called the Vedas, and transforming the historical Vedic religion into Brahmanism, which eventually contributed to the Hindu synthesis.
The Kuru state was itself divided into the Kuru-jaṅgala ("Kuru forest"), the Kuru territory proper, and the Kuru-kṣetra ("Kuru Kshetra"):
The rivers flowing within the Kuru state included the Aruṇā, Aṃśumatī, Hiraṇvatī, Āpayā, Kausiki, Sarasvatī, and Dṛṣadvatī or Rakṣī.
The time frame and geographical extent of the Kuru kingdom (as determined by philology of the Vedic literature) suggest its correspondence with the archaeological Painted Grey Ware culture. The shift out of Punjab corresponds to the increasing number and size of Painted Grey Ware (PGW) settlements in the Haryana and Doab areas.
Although most PGW sites were small farming villages, several PGW sites emerged as relatively large settlements that can be characterised as towns; the largest of these were fortified by ditches or moats and embankments made of piled earth with wooden palisades, albeit smaller and simpler than the elaborate fortifications which emerged in large cities after 600 BCE.James Heitzman, The City in South Asia (Routledge, 2008), pp.12–13 Another PGW site has been discovered in Katha village of Bagpat district, which, according to local oral traditions, is believed to have once been the fort of a King called Raja Ror.
The Atharvaveda (XX.127) praises Parikshit, the "King of the Kurus", as the great king of a thriving, prosperous realm. Other late Vedic texts, such as the Shatapatha Brahmana, commemorate Parikshit's son Janamejaya as a great conqueror who performed the ashvamedha (horse-sacrifice).Raychaudhuri, H. C. (1972). Political History of Ancient India: From the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty, Calcutta:University of Calcutta, pp.11–46 These two Kuru kings played a decisive role in the consolidation of the Kuru state and the development of the srauta rituals, and they also appear as important figures in later legends and traditions (e.g., in the Mahabharata).
In the post-Vedic period (by the 6th century BCE), the Kuru dynasty evolved into Kuru and Vatsa, ruling over Upper Doab/Delhi/Haryana and lower Doab, respectively. The Vatsa branch of the Kuru dynasty was further divided into branches at Kaushambi and at Mathura.
According to Buddhist sources, by the late and post-Vedic periods, Kuru had become a minor state ruled by a chieftain called Koravya and belonging to the () gotra (gotra). After the main Kuru ruling dynasty had moved to Kosambi, the Kuru country itself became divided into multiple small states, with the ones at Indraprastha (Indraprastha) and one at Iṣukāra being the most prominent ones. By the time of the Gautama Buddha, these small states had been replaced by a Kuru (republic).
Archaeological surveys of the Kurukshetra district have revealed a more complex (albeit not yet fully urbanised) three-tiered hierarchy for the period of the period from 1000 to 600 BCE, suggesting a complex chiefdom or emerging early state, contrasting with the two-tiered settlement pattern (with some "modest central places", suggesting the existence of simple ) in the rest of the Ganges Valley.Bellah, Robert N. Religion in Human Evolution (Harvard University Press, 2011), p. 492; citing Erdosy, George. "The prelude to urbanization: ethnicity and the rise of Late Vedic chiefdoms," in The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States, ed. F. R. Allchin (Cambridge University Press, 1995), p. 75-98
In the fourfold varna-system the Brahmin priesthood and Kshatriya aristocracy, who dominated the Aryan commoners (now called ) and the dasa labourers (now called ), were designated as separate classes.
The Kuru kingdom transformed the Vedic religion into Brahmanism, which eventually spread over the subcontinent, synthesising with local traditions, and together forming Hinduism.
A historical Kuru King named Dhritarashtra Vaichitravirya is mentioned in the Kathaka Samhita of the Yajurveda ( 1200–900 BCE) as a descendant of the Rigveda-era king Sudas. His cattle were reportedly destroyed as a result of conflict with the vratya ascetics; however, this Vedic mention does not provide corroboration for the accuracy of the Mahabharata's account of his reign.
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