New archaeological findings and River Saraswati

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New archaeological findings and River Saraswati

Dr Dinesh Agarwal

 

Saraswati River Discovered

 

It is well known that in the Rig Veda, the honour of the greatest

and the holiest of rivers was not bestowed upon the Ganga, but upon

Saraswati, now a dry river, but once a mighty flowing river all the

way from the Himalayas to the ocean across the Rajasthan desert. The

Ganga is mentioned only once, while the Saraswati is mentioned at

least 60 times. Extensive research by the late Dr Wakankar has shown

that the Saraswati changed her course several times, going

completely dry around 1900 b.c. The latest satellite data combined

with field archaeological studies have shown that the Rig Vedic

Saraswati had stopped being a perennial river long before 3000 b.c.

 

As Paul-Henri Francfort of CNRS, Paris recently observed, "...we now

know, thanks to the field work of the Indo-French expedition that

when the proto-historic people settled in this area, no large river

had flowed there for a long time."

 

The proto-historic people he refers to are the early Harappans of

3000 b.c. But satellite photos show that a great prehistoric river

that was over 7 km. wide did indeed flow through the area at one

time. This was the Saraswati described in the Rig Veda. Numerous

archaeological sites have also been located along the course of this

great prehistoric river thereby confirming the Vedic accounts. The

great Saraswati that flowed "from the mountain to the sea" is now

seen to belong to a date long anterior to 3000 b.c. This means that

the Rig Veda describes the geography of north India long before 3000

b.c. All this shows that the Rig Veda must have been in existence no

later than 3500 b.c. (Aryan Invasion of India: The Myth and the

Truth by N.S. Rajaram)

 

The Ganga is mentioned only once, while the Saraswati is mentioned

at least 60 times.

 

River Saraswati in Rig Veda

 

The river called Saraswati is the most important of the rivers

mentioned in the Rig Veda. The image of this `great goddess stream'

dominates the text. It is not only the most sacred river, but also

the goddess of wisdom. She is said to be the mother of the Vedas.

 

A few Rig Vedic hymns which mention Saraswati river are presented

below:

 

"Ambitame naditame devitame Saraswati (II.41.16)

 

(The best mother, the best river, the best goddess, Saraswati)

 

"Maho arnah Saraswati pra cetayati ketuna dhiyo visva vi-rajati

(I.3.12)

 

(Saraswati, like a great ocean, appears with her ray; she rules all

inspirations)

 

"Ni tva dadhe vara a prthivya Ilays-pade sudinatve ahnam: drsa-

dvatyam manuse Apayayam Saraswatyam revad agne didhi (III.23.4)

 

(We set you down, oh sacred fire, at the most holy place on earth,

in the land of Ila, in the clear brightness of the days. On the

Drishadvati, the Apaya and the Saraswati rivers, shine out

brilliantly for men)

 

"Citra id raja rajaka id anyake sarasvatim anu; parjanya iva

tatanadhi vrstya sahasram ayuta dadat (VIII.21.18)

 

(Splendour is the king, all others are princes, who dwell along the

Saraswati river. Like the rain-god abounding with rain, he grants a

thousand times ten thousand cattle)

 

"Saraswati like a bronze city: ayasi puh; surpassing all other

rivers and waters: visva apo mahina sindhur anyah; pure in her

course from the mountains to the sea: sucir yati girbhya a samudrat

(VII.95.1-2)"

 

All this indicates that the composers of the Vedic literature were

quite familiar with the Saraswati river, and were inspired by its

beauty and its vastness that they composed several hymns in her

praise and glorification. This also indicates that the Vedas are

much older than the Mahabharata period which mentions Saraswati as a

dying river.

 

While the direct connection between the late Indus script (1600

b.c.) and the Brahmi script could not be definitely established

earlier, more and more inscriptions have been found all over the

country in the last few years, dating 1000 b.c., 700 b.c., and so

on.

 

Decipherment of Indus Script

 

Dr S.R. Rao, who has deciphered the Indus script, is former head of

Archaeological Survey of India, a renowned marine archaeologist, has

been studying archaeology since 1948, and has discovered and

excavated numerous Indus sites. He has authored several monumental

works on Harappan civilisation and Indus script. To summarise his

method of decipherment of Indus script, he assigned to each basic

letter of Indus the same sound-value as the West Asian letter, which

closely resembled it. After assigning these values to the Indus

letters, he proceeded to try to read the inscriptions on the Indus

seals. The language that emerged turned out to be an `Aryan' one,

belonging to the Sanskrit family. The people who resided at Harappa,

Mohenjo-Daro, and other sites were culturally Aryan and this is

confirmed by the decipherment of the Harappan script and its

identity with Sanskrit family. The Harappan culture was a part of a

continuing evolution of the Vedic culture, which had developed on

the banks of Saraswati river. And it should be rightly termed as

Vedic-Saraswati civilisation.

 

Among the many words yielded by Dr Rao's decipherment are the

numerals: aeka, tra, chatus, panta, happta/sapta, dasa, dvadasa and

sata (1,3,4,5,7,10,100) and the names of Vedic personalities like

Atri, Kasyapa, Gara, Manu, Sara, Trita, Daksa, Druhu, Kasu, and many

common Sanskrit words like, apa (water), gatha, tar (saviour),

trika, da, dyau (heaven), dashada, anna (food), pa (protector), para

(supreme), maha, mahat, moks, etc.

 

While the direct connection between the late Indus script (1600

b.c.) and the Brahmi script could not be definitely established

earlier, more and more inscriptions have been found all over the

country in the last few years, dating 1000 b.c., 700 b.c., and so

on, which have bridged the gap between the two. Now it is evident

that the Brahmi script evolved directly from the Indus script.

 

(Sources: Decipherment of the Indus Script, Dawn and Development of

Indus Civilisation and Lothal and the Indus Civilisation.)

 

The people who resided at Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro, and other sites

were culturally Aryan and this is confirmed by the decipherment of

the Harappan script and its identity with Sanskrit family.

 

New Archaeological Findings

 

Since the first discovery of buried townships of Harappa and Mohenjo-

Daro on the Ravi and Sindhu rivers in 1922, respectively, numerous

other settlements, now numbering over 2,500 stretch from Baluchistan

to the Ganga and beyond and down to Tapti. Various archaeologists

have unearthed a valley, covering nearly a million-and-a-half sq.km.

And, the fact which was not known 80 years ago, and which

archaeologists now know, is that about 75 per cent of these

settlements are concentrated not along the Sindhu or even the Ganga,

but along the now dried up Saraswati river. This calamity—the drying

up of the Saraswati—and not any invasion was what led to the

disruption and abandonment of settlements along Saraswati river by

the people who lived a Vedic life. The drying up of the Saraswati

river was a catastrophe of vast magnitude, which led to a massive

outflow of people, especially the elite, who probably went to Iran,

Mesopotamia and other neighbouring regions for livelihood. Around

the same time (2000-1900 b.c.), there were constant floods or/and

prolonged droughts along the Sindhu river and its tributaries which

forced the inhabitants of the Indus Valley to move to other safer

and greener locations, and hence a slow but continuous migration of

these highly civilised and prosperous Vedic people took place. Some

of them moved to south-east, and some to north-west, and even

towards European regions. For the next 1,000 years and more,

dynasties and rulers with Indian names appear and disappear all over

West Asia confirming the migration of people from East to West.

 

(To be continued)

 

 

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