Kuru (Sanskrit: कुरु) was the name of a Vedic Aryan tribal union in northern Iron Age India, encompassing the modern-day states of Delhi, Haryana, Uttarakhand and western part of Uttar Pradesh, which appeared in the Middle Vedic period (c. 1200 – c. 850 BCE) and developed into the first recorded state-level society in South Asia around 1000 BCE, corresponding archaeologically to the Painted Grey Ware culture. It decisively changed the Vedic heritage of the early Vedic period, arranging the Vedic hymns into collections, and developing new rituals which gained their position in Indian civilization as the orthodox srauta rituals, which contributed to the so-called “classical synthesis” or “Hindu synthesis”.
It became the dominant political and cultural center of the middle Vedic Period during the reigns of Parikshit and Janamejaya, but it declined in importance during the Late Vedic period (c. 850-500 BCE), and had become “something of a backwater” by the Mahajanapada period in the 5th century BCE. However, traditions and legends about the Kurus continued into the post-Vedic period, providing the basis for the Mahabharata epic.