The Mahabharata: The Pandavas' Road to Kurukshetra

The Pandavas and the Kauravas grow up together in Hastinapura, the Kuru capital on the Ganga, trained in arms by the teacher Drona. Their rivalry starts in childhood: the strong Bhima bullies his cousins, and the eldest Kaurava, Duryodhana, never forgives it. Modern Hastinapur, near Meerut, is identified with the epic city. Excavations led by B. B. Lal in the 1950s found Iron Age Painted Grey Ware there and signs of a great flood, which Lal linked to the epic's story of a flood that swept away part of the capital.

Location precision: Traditional identification of the epic capital with modern Hastinapur.

Visitor guidance: Hastinapur is also sacred in Jain tradition; on the Budhi Ganga nearby, Draupadi Ghat and Karna Ghat keep the epic's names.

Duryodhana sends the Pandavas and their mother Kunti to a festival at Varanavata and houses them in a palace built of lac and other flammable materials, meaning to burn them alive. Their uncle Vidura warns them in a coded language and sends a miner, who digs a tunnel from the house to the bank of the Ganga. Bhima sets the house alight himself, and the brothers slip away while everyone believes them dead. Barnawa, in Baghpat district, is identified with Varanavata; a mound there is known as the Lakshagriha, and local tradition says its tunnel opens on the Hindon river.

Location precision: Traditional identification; the pin marks the village of Barnawa.

Living in disguise as poor Brahmins, the brothers hear that King Drupada of Panchala is holding a contest for his daughter Draupadi's hand. Suitors must string a huge bow and hit the eye of a golden fish while looking only at its reflection in water. Kings fail; Arjuna succeeds, and Draupadi becomes the wife of all five brothers. Kampil, in Farrukhabad district, is identified with Kampilya, capital of southern Panchala. A sacrificial altar there is honoured as the fire from which Draupadi was born.

Location precision: Traditional identification; the pin marks the town of Kampil.

Visitor guidance: Kampil is also a Jain pilgrimage town, revered as the birthplace of the 13th Tirthankara, Vimalnath.

Given a share of the kingdom, the Pandavas build a magnificent capital, Indraprastha, with a hall full of illusions where Duryodhana mistakes a pool for a floor and is laughed at. His humiliation leads to the dice game at Hastinapura, where Yudhishthira gambles away his kingdom, his brothers, himself and Draupadi, who is dragged into the assembly. The Pandavas must go into exile. Delhi's Purana Qila, a 16th-century fort, was long called the Pandavas' Fort; excavations under it found Painted Grey Ware from about 1000 BC.

Location precision: Indraprastha is traditionally placed at the Purana Qila; the identification is debated.

Visitor guidance: The Purana Qila hosts a sound-and-light show after sunset on the history of Delhi's cities, starting with Indraprastha.

The terms of exile are twelve years in the forest and a thirteenth year in hiding: if they are recognised, it all starts again. The brothers and Draupadi spend that last year as servants at the court of King Virata of Matsya, Yudhishthira as a dice master and Arjuna as a dance teacher. Bhima secretly kills the king's brother-in-law Kichaka for harassing Draupadi. Viratnagar, formerly Bairat, in Rajasthan carries the king's name. Its real remains are later: a Buddhist monastery and two edicts of the emperor Ashoka from about 250 BC.

Location precision: Traditional identification of Virata's capital with Viratnagar.

Peace talks fail and the two armies meet on the plain of Kurukshetra. Before the first arrow flies, Arjuna sees his teachers and kinsmen in the enemy ranks and drops his bow. His charioteer Krishna answers his despair with the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita. Eighteen days later almost everyone is dead. Tradition places the Gita at Jyotisar, on a lake west of Kurukshetra city, beneath a banyan said to descend from the original tree; the 8th-century philosopher Adi Shankara identified the spot.

Location precision: Traditional identification; the pin marks Jyotisar in Kurukshetra.

Visitor guidance: During the Gita Jayanti festival around December, lamps are lit along Jyotisar and the great Brahma Sarovar tank in town.