Kurukshetra - The Kurukshetra War (Devangari: ??????????? ?????) forms an essential component of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. According to Mahabharata, a dynastic struggle between sibling clans of Kauravas and the Pandavas for the throne of Hastinapura resulted in a battle in which a number of ancient kingdoms participated as allies of the rival clans. The location of the battle was Kurukshetra in the modern state of Haryana in India. Attempts have been made to date this battle based on the various astronomical and literary information from Mahabharata. According to these theories, the Kurukshetra War took place around 3138 BCE. [citation needed] Mahabharata states that the war lasted eighteen days during which vast armies from all over ancient India fought along the sides of the two rivals. The importance given to the narration of this war is evident from the fact that while the duration of the entire story of the epic lasts centuries dealing with a number of generations of the warring families, the narration of the war forming more than a quarter of the book deals with the events of a mere eighteen days.