To most visitors, Kurukshetra is the land where the great Mahabharata war was fought between the righteous Pandavas and their cousins, the Kauravas. Often, the first thing they ask when they arrive is, where is the battlefield?

Well, there is no battlefield left, demarcated or preserved, for them to see. Most of the site as mentioned in the Mahabharata text is populated and occupied by farmers and landowners.

Nor the soil is red in colour.

"A common myth associated with Kurukshetra is that the soil is red with all the blood that spilled. I have myself seen visitors pointing to patches that had turned crimson due to construction debris, and jump in excitement thinking it to be the remnants of the war," says Madan Mohan Chhabra, secretary of the Kurukshetra Development Board (KDB). "Even if it was red at some point in time, it is certainly not anymore."

Rajendra Singh Rana, curator of the city's Srikrishna Museum, says, "lal mitti is just a metaphor. Also, not many people know that the '48 kos' of the Kurukshetra bhumi is actually outside the main city, spread across the five districts of Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Jind, Karnal and Panipat and lying between Saraswati and Drishadvati."

But there is more to Kurukshetra than the battlefield. This historic city in Haryana is home to Jyotisar, where Lord Krishna is said to have preached Bhagawad Gita to Arjuna, and Brahma Sarovar, where Lord Brahma is believed to have performed yagna.