Thanesar - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

THANESAR (_"place of the god"), an ancient town of British India, in Karnal district of the Punjab, on the river Saraswati, Ioo m. by rail N. of Delhi: pop. (1901) 5066. As the centre of the tract called Kurukshetra in the Mahabharata, it has always been a holy place, and was in the seventh century the capital of King Harshavardhana, who ruled over all northern India. The bathing-fair held here on the occasion of a solar eclipse is said to be attended by half a million pilgrims.