People / group

Purus

Also known as Puru tribe

The Purus were one of the leading tribes of the Rigveda, living in the Punjab in the early Vedic period and rivals of the Bharatas, whom they opposed in the Battle of the Ten Kings. They later merged with the Bharatas to form the Kurus. The name Porus, given by Greek writers to the Punjabi king who fought Alexander the Great, may derive from theirs.

Purus
Image: Avantiputra7 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 2 state histories

Kuru KingdomPaurava kingdom

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Purus. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/purus
MLA
“Purus.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/purus. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Purus.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/purus.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Purus’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/purus (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻