Kurukshetra

Kurukshetra, 'the field of the Kurus', is a town and plain in Haryana, north India. The Mahabharata places its great war there: an 18-day battle between the Pandava brothers and their cousins the Kauravas over the throne of Hastinapura. Before the fighting, Krishna, serving as Arjuna's charioteer, speaks the Bhagavad Gita.

At the war's end, in the Sauptika Parva, the Kaurava warrior Ashvatthama launches the Brahmashira weapon and Arjuna answers with his own. Sages intervene because the clash would burn the world, and Ashvatthama redirects his weapon into the wombs of the Pandava women. Modern ancient-astronaut writers cite such passages as descriptions of advanced weapons; scholars read them as epic literature.

Whether a real war lies behind the story is debated. Traditional reckoning puts it at 3102 BCE, the start of the Kali Yuga; many historians who accept a historical core suggest roughly 1000–800 BCE.