Kuru (Hindu mythology)

Kuru Kingdom
Sanskrit: कुरु राज्य
c. 1400 BCE–c. 500 BCE
Kuru and other Mahajanapadas in the Post Vedic period
Capital		Āsandīvat, later Hastinapura, Kaushambi and Indraprastha
Languages		Vedic Sanskrit
Religion		Vedic Hinduism Brahmanism
Government		Monarchy
Historical era		Iron Age
•	Established	c. 1400 BCE
•	Disestablished	c. 500 BCE
Preceded by Succeeded by Rigvedic tribes Panchala Mahajanapada
Today part of		India

Kuru (Sanskrit: कुरु) was the name of a Vedic Aryan tribal union of the Bharata and Puru tribes in northern Iron Age India, encompassing the modern-day states of Delhi, Haryana, Uttarakhand and the western part of Uttar Pradesh (the region of Doab, till Prayag), which appeared in the Middle Vedic period (c. 1200 – c. 850 BCE) and developed into the first recorded state-level society in the Indian subcontinent, corresponding archaeologically to the Painted Grey Ware culture.

The Kuru kingdom decisively changed the Vedic heritage of the early Vedic period, arranging the Vedic hymns into collections, and developing new rituals which gained their position in Indian civilization as the orthodox srauta rituals, which contributed to the so-called "classical synthesis" or "Hindu synthesis".

It became the dominant political and cultural center of the middle Vedic Period during the reigns of Parikshit and Janamejaya, but it declined in importance during the Late Vedic period (c. 850-500 BCE), and had become "something of a backwater" by the Mahajanapada period 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 Kurus figure prominently in the later Rigveda. The Kurus here appear as a branch of the early Indo-Aryans, ruling the Ganga-Jamuna Doab and modern Haryana. The focus in the later Vedic period shifted out of Punjab, into the Doab, and thus to the Kuru clan. The increasing number and size of Painted Grey Ware (PGW) settlements in the Doab area shows this. These developments resulted in the substantial enlargement of certain settlements such as Hastinapur and Kaushambi towards the end of the Later Vedic period. These settlements slowly began to acquire characteristics of towns.