Why is Kurukshetra known as Dharma-kshetra – why was it chosen as the venue for the Mahabarata war?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Why is Kurukshetra known as Dharmakshetra why was the war fought at Kurukshetra Answer there are different aspects to this question first is that the Kshatriyas knew that war means violence brutality and although they were power hungry the Kauravas but even they were civilized enough to not want to brutalize ordinary people thus they agreed that the war should not affect civilians that the war should be fought among separate from the civilians in a battlefield and that battlefield place decided was Kurukshetra Kurukshetra at that time was more of a place of more not at least the Kurukshetra area where the war was fought was largely uninhabited place and it was away from the kingdoms or more near both the kingdoms for them to fight and regarding why that particular place was chosen the understanding is that as Krishna says this is Dharmakshetra Dharmakshetra means that this is the holy place historically there was the Kuru kingdom the Pandavas Kauravas they are all called they are all descendants of Kuru and Kuru was a very famous king and he in the past had performed immense austerities at the place known as Kurukshetra and having performed those austerities there he appeased Lord Vishnu and Lord Vishnu appeared for him and asked him what benedictions he would like and he replied that he would like that so the first benediction he asked was that Kurukshetra become reputed as a Dharmakshetra it become famous as a holy place and secondly that anybody who die at that place would attain liberation and Lord Vishnu granted those benedictions to him and thus the place Kurukshetra became Dharmakshetra and additionally several great sages had visited that place over the years over the generations since Kuru because of its reputation as a holy place and their presence had also sanctified that place further also the great warrior incarnation of the Lord Parashuram he after he had freed the world from Kshatriyas from demoniac Kshatriyas had actually as a part of his atonement for that violence performed some austerities near Kurukshetra at a place called Samant Panchak as an atonement he went to various pilgrimage places but also he performed some austerities there that also added to the sanctity of that place so because of all these reasons the place was known as Kurukshetra and also as Dharmakshetra and while the warriors agreed to choose that place because it would minimize civilian casualties it was a place broad enough for the wars to take place between various war means and it was also because of the virtue of the place if those who would die and death is inevitable in a war those who would die would be elevated even possibly liberated at the same time Dhritarashtra was apprehensive that because the place was virtuous and his sons were lacking in virtue whereas Pandavas were replete with virtue therefore he felt that the place would have an inauspicious influence on his sons so Dharmakshetra would positively influence the Dharmic and would negatively influence the Adharmic such was his fear