Kurukshetra

The land between the Saraswati and Drishadvati rivers was called Dharmakshetra in the Gita's opening line, and it is still a field, flat wheat and rice country in the middle of Haryana with a cluster of sites that pilgrims cover in a day. Brahma Sarovar is the centre, a tank a kilometre long and nearly half as wide, with ghats on all sides and a Shiva temple on an island; on the morning of a solar eclipse over a million people bathe here, and on other days it is a place of egrets and marigold sellers. Jyotisar, on the Pehowa road, is where the Gita is said to have been spoken; an old banyan is fenced off, a marble chariot sits beside it, and there is an evening sound-and-light show on the battle.

Sannihit Sarovar, said to be where the Saraswati's tributaries met, is the tank for ancestor rites. In Thanesar, the older town next door, the Bhadrakali temple is one of the 51 Shaktipeeths and the Sthaneshwar Mahadev temple is where the Pandavas are said to have prayed before the war; Sheikh Chilli's tomb, a white marble Mughal mausoleum in the Persian style, sits over the mound of Harsha's seventh-century capital. The Kurukshetra Panorama and Science Centre paints the war in 360 degrees, and the Dharohar museum at the university has a fine Haryana folk-life collection.

December brings the International Gita Mahotsav, with a craft fair around the sarovar.