The boundaries of Kurukshetra correspond roughly to the central and western parts of the state of Haryana and Punjab.

[5] According to the Vamana Purana, King Kuru chose land at the banks of the Sarasvati River for embedding spirituality with eight virtues: austerity (Tapas), truth (Satya), forgiveness (Kshama), kindness (Daya), purity (Shuddha), charity (Daana), devotion (Yajna), and conduct (Brahmacharya).

Kuru Kingdom, founded by King Puru—the ancestors of Kauravas and Pandavas Vedic Indo-Aryan tribal union in northern Iron Age[6][7] (c. 1200 – c. 900 BCE), developed into the first recorded state-level society (janapada) in the Indian subcontinent.

[8] The time-frame and geographical extent of the Kuru kingdom (as determined by philological study of the Vedic literature) corresponds with the archaeological Painted Grey Ware culture.

[10] Kurukshetra was conquered by the Mauryan empire in the late 4th century BCE and subsequently became a center of Buddhism and Hinduism.

After the decline of Kushan power in the region, Kurukshetra became independent only to become conquered by the Gupta empire in the early 4th century CE.

[12] Kurukshetra reached the zenith of its progress during the reign of King Harsha (c. 590–647 CE) during which Chinese scholar Xuanzang visited Thanesar.

[12] Between the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Kurukshetra was controlled by the forces of the Maratha Empire until the British took over Delhi in 1803.

Kurukshetra city is surrounded by Patiala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar to the northwest, Ambala, Chandigarh, Shimla to the north, Yamuna Nagar, Jagadhri, Dehradun to the northeast, Pehowa, Cheeka, Mansa to the west, Ladwa, Saharanpur, Roorkee to the east, Kaithal, Jind, Hisar to the southwest, Karnal, Panipat, Sonipat, New Delhi to the south, and Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut to the southeast.

The climate of the district varies as the temperature in summer reaches as high as 47 °C (117 °F), and as low 1 °C (34 °F) in winter, with rains in July and August.