Kuru Kingdom

Origins

The Kuru tribe formed in the upper Ganges-Yamuna Doab around 1200 BCE, when the Bharata and Puru clans merged into a single polity. Under kings remembered in the Atharvaveda and the Brahmanas, notably Parikshit and his son Janamejaya, it became the dominant power of northern India, with centres at Asandivat and Hastinapura. Many historians regard it as the first state-level society in South Asia.

Rule and society

Kuru kings patronised Brahmin priests, who arranged the hymns of the Rigveda into collections and developed the Samaveda and Yajurveda. Royal consecration rites such as the Rajasuya and the horse sacrifice reinforced kingship, and society was ordered into the four varnas. The economy rested on cattle herding, barley and rice farming, and the early use of iron. Memories of the kingdom later formed the backdrop of the Mahabharata.

Decline and legacy

Tradition says a flood of the Ganges drove the court from Hastinapura to Kaushambi. By the 6th century BCE the Kurus were a minor mahajanapada, partly ruled as a sangha, overshadowed by Kosala and Magadha. Their territory was absorbed by the Nanda Empire in the 4th century BCE.