the vamana purana tells how king kuru came to settle here. he chose this land at the banks of sarasvati river which dried up before 1900 bce for embedding spirituality with eight virtues: austerity (tapas (sanskrit)), truth (satya), forgiveness (kshama), kindness (daya), purity (shuddha), charity (daana), yajna and brahmacharya. lord vishnu was impressed with the act of king kuru and blessed him. god gave him two boons: one that this land forever will be known as a holy land and the other that anyone dying on this land will go to heaven. the land of kurukshetra was between two rivers — the sarasvati and the drishadvati.