Abhimanyupur is a village in

Kurukshetra district Kurukshetra district is one of the 22 districts of Haryana state in northern India. The town of Kurukshetra, a sacred place for the Hindus, is the administrative headquarters of this district. The district occupies an area of 1530.00 km² ...

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. This village is 8

kilometre The kilometre ( SI symbol: km; or ), spelt kilometer in American English, is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand metres (kilo- being the SI prefix for ). It is now the measurement unit used for ex ...

s from the city of

Kurukshetra Kurukshetra (, ) is a city and administrative headquarter of Kurukshetra district in the Indian state of Haryana. It is also known as Dharmakshetra ("Realm of duty ") and as the "Land of the Bhagavad Gita". Legends According to the Pura ...

. This village is famous for being the site where

Abhimanyu Abhimanyu is a legendary warrior from the ancient Hindu history ''Mahabharata''. He was born to the third Pandava prince Arjuna and the Yadu princess Subhadra, who was Krishna's younger sister. The ''Sambhava Parva'' of the Adi Parva sta ...

, the son of

Arjuna Arjuna (Sanskrit: अर्जुन, ), also known as Partha and Dhananjaya, is a character in several ancient Hindu texts, and specifically one of the major characters of the Indian epic Mahabharata. In the epic, he is the third among Panda ...

, died in the

Mahabharata War The Kurukshetra War ( sa, कुरुक्षेत्र युद्ध ), also called the Mahabharata War, is a war described in the ''Mahabharata ( sa, महाभारत )''. The conflict arose from a dynastic succession struggle be ...

. This is the site where the

Kaurava ''Kaurava'' is a Sanskrit term which refers to descendants of Kuru, a legendary king of India who is the ancestor of many of the characters of the epic ''Mahabharata''. Usually, the term is used for the 100 sons of King Dhritarashtra and his wif ...

s arranged the deadly "

chakravyuha The Padmavyūha ( sa, पद्मव्यूह) or Chakravyūha ( sa, चक्रव्यूह) is a military formation used to surround enemies, depicted in the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata''. It resembles a labyrinth of multiple defensive ...

" formation and trapped and killed

. This village is part of the

48 kos parikrama of Kurukshetra The 48 kos parikrama is a parikrama (a circumbabulatory pilgrimage) of various ''Mahabharata''-related and other Vedic-era tirthas (Hindu sacred sites) around the holy city of Kurukshetra in the state of Haryana, India. Associated with Kri ...

. This village has many sacred places associated with

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

Background

Eymology

The village used to be called Amin, which was most likely a version of the word "Abhimanyu". In October 2019,

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

Manohar Lal Khattar Manohar Lal Khattar (born 05 May 1954) is an Indian politician serving as the 10th and current chief minister of Haryana. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a former RSS pracharak. He represents Karnal constituency in Haryan ...

visited the Amin village as part of his plans to develop an organized tourism circuit of the

. During his visit,

renamed Amin to Abhimanyupur after Mahabharta era Abhimanyu.

History

In October 2019, Haryana Chief minister, Manohar Lal Khattar, included Abhimanyupur included in the Indian government's Krishna Tourism Circuit development project under which the site and village will be developed for tourism and amenities for the villagers. He instructed the Kurukshetra Development Board to develop an Abhimanyu Park, widen the road to Abhimanyupur, and build basic amenities like toilets and water facilities in Abhimanyupur and surrounding areas.

Mahabharat era sites

Archaeological mound

Chakravyuha and Abhimanyu ka tila

Abhimanyu ka tilaLord Krishna’s 50-foot statue to come up in Kurukshetra
Hindustan Times, 12 June 2021. or Abhimanyupur Fort is a 10-meter high 650x250m unexcavated archaeological mound at Amin (Abhimanyupur) in Kurukshetra in Haryana. It is popularly also known as Abhimanyukhera. It is believed to be the site of famous

Chakravyuha The Padmavyūha ( sa, पद्मव्यूह) or Chakravyūha ( sa, चक्रव्यूह) is a military formation used to surround enemies, depicted in the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata''. It resembles a labyrinth of multiple defensive ...

, arranged by the

Kauravas ''Kaurava'' is a Sanskrit term which refers to descendants of Kuru, a legendary king of India who is the ancestor of many of the characters of the epic ''Mahabharata''. Usually, the term is used for the 100 sons of King Dhritarashtra and his wi ...

to fight

Mahabharata war The Kurukshetra War ( sa, कुरुक्षेत्र युद्ध ), also called the Mahabharata War, is a war described in the ''Mahabharata ( sa, महाभारत )''. The conflict arose from a dynastic succession struggle be ...

with

Pandavas The Pandavas (Sanskrit: पाण्डव, IAST: Pāṇḍava) refers to the five legendary brothers— Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva—who are the central characters of the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata''. They are acknowledg ...

in which

, the son of

, was trapped in this Chakravyuha and killed.Ancient mound at Amin
Haryana Tourism, accessed 22 Aug 2021.

Excavations and finds

The mound remains unexcavated. Two inscribed red sandstone pillars decorated with reliefs of

Yaksha The yakshas ( sa, यक्ष ; pi, yakkha, i=yes) are a broad class of nature-spirits, usually benevolent, but sometimes mischievous or capricious, connected with water, fertility, trees, the forest, treasure and wilderness. They appear in ...

and other motifs belonging to 2nd century BC Ewere found here, which are presently are displayed in the ''Sculpture Gallery'' at

National Museum, New Delhi The National Museum in New Delhi, also known as the National Museum of India, is one of the largest museums in India. Established in 1949, it holds a variety of articles ranging from pre-historic era to modern works of art. It functions under t ...

. In second century BCE, this area was under

Maurya Empire The Maurya Empire, or the Mauryan Empire, was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in the Indian subcontinent based in Magadha, having been founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, and existing in loose-knit fashion until 1 ...

till 185 BCE and thereafter

Indo-Greek Kingdom The Indo-Greek Kingdom, or Graeco-Indian Kingdom, also known historically as the Yavana Kingdom (Yavanarajya), was a Hellenistic-era Greek kingdom covering various parts of Afghanistan and the northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent ( ...

Abhimanyu park

Abhimanyu Park is being developed by Kurukshetra Development Board. The park, developed on 8-acre land in the village, will house Abhimanyu statute and Chakravyūha formation.

Abhimanyu statute

A 18-ft tall statue of

, with a chariot wheel carried in both hands above his head depicting his stance during the Chakravyūha battle of mahabharta war, is installed at Abhimanyupur at the place where he was killed. It is installed by the Kurukshetra Development Board at a cost of Rs 24 lakh in 2020.Kurukshetra to have 4 bronze statues
The Tribune,23 Oct 2020.

Chakravyūha formation

A '' Chakravyūha'' formation will be developed in the park (as per 2020 update).

Wetlands and temples

Aditi wetland and temple

Aditi Kund and Aditi Temple: There is a sacred "kund" (water tank) in Abhimanyupur. It is said that the goddess

Aditi Aditi (Sanskrit: अदिति, lit. 'boundless' or 'limitless' or 'innocence') is an important Vedic goddess in Hinduism. She is the personification of the sprawling infinite and vast cosmos. She is the goddess of motherhood, consciousne ...

gave birth to Surya deva (the Sun God in Hinduism) here. There is also a small temple here.

Surya wetland and temple

Abhimanyupur Surya Kund and Surya Temple: Next to the Aditi Kund and temple are a small kund and temple dedicated to

Surya Surya (; sa, सूर्य, ) is the sun as well as the solar deity in Hinduism. He is traditionally one of the major five deities in the Smarta tradition, all of whom are considered as equivalent deities in the Panchayatana puja and a m ...

. Villagers generally deposit the "asthi kalash" (mortal remains) of dead people in the Surya Kund. It is said that if any pregnant lady takes a bath in this holy kund and worships at the Aditi Temple, the male child will be brave.

Modern amenities

There is a

Government veterinary hospital to cater to the needs of the village people for quite some time. There is a school that provides education until senior secondary level. There is a stadium in the name of Mr. Sunil Chauhan. The village also has a pond that is used for

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. The village has its own Mobile App which is developed by a Software Engineer of this villag
Mr. Rikki Chouhan
and anyone can download it from Google Play Store for free
Click to open the app in Google Play Store

References

{{reflist Villages in Kurukshetra district Places in the Mahabharata 48 kos parikrama of Kurukshetra