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Ahichatra
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ahichatra (alias Ahi-Kshetra) was the capital of Northern Panchala, a kingdom mentioned in Mahabharata. It is identified to be the Ramnagar town of Uttarakhand state of India. Ruins of this city could be identified from the remote sensing imagery of IRS (Indian Remote Sensing) satellites. The ruins reveals that the city had a triangular shape. The city was alive up to end of Kurukshetra war.
The territory under Ahichatra was formerly under the Panchala king Drupada. Later it was taken over by Drona, after a war, in which Drupada was defeated by Drona's desciple Arjuna. Ashwatthama, the son of Drona, was given the responsibility of ruling the territory of Northern Panchala from Ahichatra. Ashwatthama probably ruled the kingdom being subordinate to the rulers of Hastinapura.
The word Ahi means snake or Naga in Sanskrit. Nagas were a group of ancient people who worshiped serpents. The word khsetra means region in Sanskrit. This implies that Ahi-kshetra was a region of Nagas. This could mean that the region was populated originally by Nagas.