A country, one of the sixteen Mahájanapadas (D.ii.200; A.i.213 etc.). Frequent references to it are found in the Páli Canon. It is said that Kuru was originally the name of the chieftains (rájakumárá) of the country and that their territory was later named after them. Buddhaghosa records a tradition (DA.ii.481f; MA.i.184 etc.) which states that, when Mandhátá returned to Jambudípa from his sojourn in the four Mahádípas and in the devalokas, there were in his retinue a large number of the people of Uttarakuru. They settled down in Jambudípa, and their settlement was known as Kururattha. It had many towns and villages.
The country seems to have had very little political influence in the Buddha's time, though, in the past, Pańcála, Kuru and Kekaka were evidently three of the most powerful kingdoms (See, e.g., J.ii.214). According to the Játakas (E.g., J.v.57, 484; vi.255. Also Mtu.i.34; ii.419), the kingdom of Kuru was three hundred leagues in extent and its capital, Indapatta, seven leagues in circumference. The ruling dynasty at Indapatta belonged to the Yudhitthila-gotta (J.iii.400; iv.361). Among the kings of the past, Dhanańjaya Koravya is mentioned several times (J.ii.366; iii.400; iv.450; vi.260 etc.) and reference is also made to a king called Koravya (J.iv.361; v.457) whose son was the Bodhisatta Sutasoma. During the Buddha's time, also, the chieftain of Kuru was called Koravya, and his discussion with the Elder Ratthapála, who was himself the scion of a noble family of the Kurus, is recounted in the Ratthapála Sutta (M.ii.65ff). Perhaps at one time the Kuru kingdom extended as far as Uttarapańcála, for in the Somanassa Játaka (J.iv.444), Uttarapańcála is mentioned as a town in the Kururattha, with Renu as its king.
Koravya had a park called Migácíra where Ratthapála took up his residence when he visited his parents (MA.ii.725). The people of Kuru had a reputation for deep wisdom and good health, and this reputation is mentioned (MA.i.184f; AA.ii.820; they were also probably reputed to be virtuous; see the Kurudhamma Játaka) as the reason for the Buddha having delivered some of his most profound discourses to the Kurus, for example, the Mahánidána, and the Mahásatipatthána Suttas. Among other discourses delivered in the Kuru country are the Mágandiya Sutta, the Anańjasappáya Sutta, the Sammosa Sutta and the Ariyavasá Sutta. All these were preached at Kammássadhamma, which is described as a nigama of the Kurús, where the Buddha resided from time to time. Another town of the Kurús, which we find mentioned, is Thullakotthika, the birthplace of Ratthapála, and here the Buddha stayed during a tour (M.ii.54; ThagA.ii.30). Udena's queen, Mágandiyá, came from Kuru (DhA.i.199), and Aggidatta, chaplain to the Kosala king, lived on the boundary between Kuru and Ariga and Magadha, honoured by the inhabitants of all three kingdoms (DhA.iii.242).
The Kuru country is generally identified as the district around Thánesar, with its capital Indapatta, near the modern Delhi (CAGI.379f). See also Uttarakuru.