Arjuna, also known as Partha and Dhananjaya, was an ancient Indian prince of the Kuru Kingdom discussed in the epic, Mahabharata. He was the third of five Pandava brothers, from the lineage of the Kuru. In the Mahabharata War, Arjuna was a key warrior from the Pandava side in the battle of Kurukshetra. Before the beginning of the war, his mentor Krishna gave him the supreme knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita to overcome his moral dilemmas. Arjuna was the son of Kunti, the wife of Kuru King Pandu, and the god Indra, who fathered him due to Pandu's curse. In the Mahabharata, Arjuna is depicted as a skilled archer from an early age, as a student who earns the favor of his preceptor Drona, as the primary adversary of Kauravas, and the betrothed of Draupadi, who became the common wife of the Pandavas. Arjuna is twice exiled, first for breaking a pact with his brothers, and again with his brothers after his oldest brother is tricked into gambling away the throne. During his first exile, Arjuna married Ulupi, Chitrāngadā and Subhadra. From his four wives, Arjuna had four sons, one from each wife — Shrutakarma, Iravan, Babhruvahana and Abhimanyu. During his second exile, Arjuna gained many celestial weapons. Apart from being a warrior, Arjuna also possessed skills in music and dance. At the end of the epic the Pandavas, accompanied by Draupadi, retire to the Himalayas, where everyone in time passes away to arrive in heaven.

Kuru was a Vedic Indo-Aryan tribal union in northern Iron Age India of the Bharatas and other Puru clans. The Kuru kingdom appeared in the Middle Vedic period, encompassing parts of the modern-day states of Haryana, Delhi, and some parts of western Uttar Pradesh. The Kuru kingdom was the first recorded state-level society in the Indian subcontinent.