Kurukshetra's 48 Kos Circuit Has 182 Documented Tirthas Across Five Haryana Districts, With Brahma Sarovar and Jyotisar at Its Centre and an Annual Gita Mahotsav Run by the Development Board

The Kurukshetra Development Board’s list of documented pilgrimage sites in the 48 kos area stood at 182 in May 2026: 73 in Kaithal district, 46 in Kurukshetra, 40 in Karnal, 22 in Jind and one in Panipat. The board calls the whole area Greater Kurukshetra and places it between the Sarasvati and Drishadvati rivers. A kos is the traditional unit of distance, and a tirtha is a sacred bathing place or shrine, usually on a river or tank.

At the centre of that area sit two sites the board manages itself, Brahma Sarovar and Jyotisar. Every other site on the list is run by its own tirtha committee and village council, according to the board’s honorary secretary as reported in May 2026.

Where the Mahabharata puts the boundary

The Vana Parva, the third book of the Mahabharata, has the sage Pulastya describe the pilgrim’s route. In Kisari Mohan Ganguli’s English translation, section 83 says: “That which lieth between Tarantuka and Arantuka and the lakes of Rama and Machakruka is Kurukshetra.” The same passage gives the name Samantapanchaka and calls the land the northern sacrificial altar of Brahma, the creator. It adds that those who live south of the Sarasvati and north of the Drishadvati are said to dwell in heaven.

The Gita opens on the same ground. Verse 1.1 begins “dharma-kshetre kuru-kshetre”, which the Holy Bhagavad Gita site renders as Kurukshetra, the field of dharma. The tradition’s own word for the place is dharmakshetra, and the pilgrimage map follows from it. For the text itself, see the guide to the Bhagavad Gita’s structure and what the Mahabharata is.

The board’s website marks the four corners of the 48 kos with guardian yakshas, a class of protective spirits. Ratnuk is at Bid Pipli in Kurukshetra district (north-east), Arantuk at Behar Jakh in Kaithal (north-west), Kapil at Pokhari Kheri in Jind (south-west) and Machakruka at Sinkh in Panipat (south-east). The site says the Mahabharata describes the whole area as Samantapanchaka, “twenty yojana” across.

182 documented, about 360 believed

The board was constituted by the Haryana government on 1 August 1968, with Gulzari Lal Nanda as its first chairman. Since 27 June 1990 the Governor of Haryana has chaired it. Its stated work is landscaping, restoring historic buildings and tanks, civic amenities for pilgrims, and keeping up the tirthas.

The sources give three different tirtha figures: an older documented count, the current one and a larger estimate. Archaeologist Rajendra Singh Rana, who coordinates research for the board, told The Tribune in January 2024 that the scriptures point to nearly 360 under the 48 kos. The Tribune in December 2023 gave the estimated total as 367. The documented list has grown in steps: 164 after 30 sites were added in 2021, then 182 after 18 more in December 2023, of which 12 were in Kaithal. The board’s introduction page still says 134, an older count.

A site gets onto the list on documentary proof, mention in the shastras (the sacred texts), historical or archaeological value, or folklore, as the board’s honorary secretary described the criteria. The board’s survey team and Shri Krishna Museum staff do the identification, and many tirthas have disappeared over time, which slows the work.

The additions have physical evidence behind them in places. At Veer Barbarik Shyam Temple in Kaithal the Tribune reported damaged sculptures of the 9th and 10th centuries and a late medieval ghat (steps to the water). At Trisandhya Tirtha in Kurukshetra the Archaeological Survey of India excavated an early medieval bathing ghat of the 8th or 9th century, and a 10th or 11th century Uma-Maheshwar sculpture was recovered in 2009.

Brahma Sarovar, 3,600 feet long

Incredible India, the Ministry of Tourism’s portal, gives Brahma Sarovar as 3,600 feet long, 1,500 feet wide and 45 feet deep, among the biggest man-made tanks in Asia. An island in the middle, reached by a concrete bridge, carries a tower that Incredible India describes as commemorating Yudhishthira’s victory, and a large black stone chariot of Krishna and Arjuna stands in the grounds.

Local tradition credits King Kuru, the ancestor of the Kauravas and Pandavas, with first digging or renovating the tank, and says the land takes its name from him. Devotees hold that Brahma performed his first sacrifice here. The Padma, Vamana and Matsya Puranas, as cited by The Tribune, say a dip on a new moon or during a solar eclipse earns the merit of a thousand horse sacrifices.

The written record reaches back a long way. Incredible India cites Al-Biruni’s 11th century Kitab-ul-Hind and says Abul Fazl of Akbar’s court called the tank a miniature sea. The Tribune reports that Akbar visited during the solar eclipse of 1567 and that the Akbarnama mentions pilgrims bathing there. For the emperor, see Akbar and the machinery of the Mughal state.

Modern restoration began in 1970. The Tribune reported in 2018 that the tank had been neglected for years until the board took up renovation in earnest in 1970, and that the Union drinking water ministry had named it among 30 Swachh Iconic Places. Incredible India lists opening hours of 6 am to 8 pm, with worship at sunrise and sunset. Gita Jayanti, in late November and early December, brings the deep daan, the floating of lamps, and the evening aarti.

Jyotisar and the banyan

Haryana Tourism calls Jyotisar the most venerated tirtha of Kurukshetra and the birthplace of the Gita. It says the Mahabharata battle is believed to have begun from here, where Arjuna received the Gita’s teaching from Krishna on the eve of the fighting. The page records the site’s later history: Adi Shankaracharya is said to have identified the place in the 9th century, a King of Kashmir built a Shiva temple in 1850, a King of Darbhanga raised a stone platform around the banyan tree in 1924, and in 1967 the Shankaracharya of the Kanchi Kama Koti Peetha installed a chariot depicting the Gita’s teaching. A carved piece from a 9th or 10th century temple sits on the main platform.

Devotees regard the holy banyan as evidence of the Gita’s origin, according to Haryana Tourism, and Incredible India calls it a 5,000-year-old tree. Haryana Tourism runs a daily evening light and sound show at the site in Hindi and English.

In February 2024 the Prime Minister inaugurated the Anubhav Kendra at Jyotisar, an experiential museum on the Mahabharata and the Gita. ETV Bharat reported a cost of about Rs 240 crore, 17 acres and more than 100,000 square feet of indoor space, using augmented reality, 3D laser and projection mapping. The state government had announced Rs 205 crore for it in July 2023.

Sannihit Sarovar and Thanesar

Sannihit Sarovar lies about 3 km from Kurukshetra on the Pehowa Road, says Haryana Tourism. The page says the full range of tirthas is believed to gather in the tank on Amavasya, the new moon day, and that families can learn about their ancestors from the hereditary priests, or pandas, who have long kept pilgrim records.

In Thanesar town, the Archaeological Survey of India’s excavations at Harsha ka Tila, led by B. M. Pandey, found habitation from about the 1st century CE to the 19th century in six cultural periods, with a few Painted Grey Ware potsherds in the lowest level, which suggest an earlier settlement. The mound stands next to the tomb of Sheikh Chilli and is protected by the Government of India.

Walking the 8 kos

In March 2025 the board announced it would revive the Ashtakosi Yatra, an 8 kos pilgrimage that had lapsed, modelled on the Braj 84 kos parikrama. The Tribune gave the route as about 24 km inside Kurukshetra city, starting at 4:30 am from Nabhikamal Tirtha and stopping at Sthaneshwar Mahadev Temple, Kuber Tirtha, Dadhichi Kund, Ban Ganga and Bhishma Kund. A bus-supported 48 kos yatra across the five districts was announced as the next stage. In May 2026 the board was still running the 8 kos route and asking tirtha committees to hold year-round events, saying it expects footfall to rise gradually. It also said most visitors go only to Brahma Sarovar, Sannihit Sarovar, Saraswati Tirtha at Pehowa and Jyotisar.

The Gita Mahotsav

The board’s account is that the festival began as Gita Jayanti, celebrated by the Haryana government with the board from 1989. In 2016 the state decided to hold it as the International Gita Mahotsav, and the board says more than two million people visited Kurukshetra that year. The Tribune counted the 2025 edition as the tenth.

The 2025 edition ran from 15 November to 5 December, with main events from 24 November to 1 December on the banks of Brahma Sarovar and at Purushottam Pura Bagh. The Tribune reported that the Ministry of External Affairs was bringing 25 Gita scholars from 16 countries to the 10th International Gita Conference at Kurukshetra University, and organising celebrations in 51 countries. Madhya Pradesh was the partner state.

Reaching it

Practical details below were checked on 28 October 2026. Haryana Tourism names Chandigarh as the nearest airport and Kurukshetra Junction as the railway station. Incredible India gives Chandigarh as about 100 km and Delhi as 160 km away and recommends October to March, when temperatures run from roughly 5 to 25 degrees Celsius. The official festival site currently carries a banner of “5 to 25 December 2026” and has not published a programme for it.