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RHTDM
KALKI is offline
Join Date: Mar 2003
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Background - Intro
 Mahabharata, one of the most important Hindu epics, is an account of the life and deeds of several generations of a ruling dynasty called the Kuru clan. Central to the epic is an account of a great war that took place between two sibling families belonging to this clan. Kurukshetra, literally land of the Kurus, was the battleground on which this war, known as the Kurukshetra war, was fought.
Kurukshetra was also known as Dharamkshetra (the land of Dharma) after the righteous ruler of this region. Mahabharata tells that this site was chosen for the war because even a sin committed on this land was forgiven on account of good deeds of the king ruling this land.
The two sides to the war were the Pandavas and the Kauravas. The dispute between the Kauravas and the Pandavas arose out of a game of dice, which the Kauravas won by deceit, forcing their Pandava cousins to go into exile for thirteen years. The dispute degraded into a full scale war when Duryodhana, the eldest of the Kauravas, driven by jealousy, refused to restore the Pandavas to their throne even after the exile.
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