Dear PM:Search for our Lost Cities

[Guest guest]

A search for our lost cities 

By Jagmohan- Former Cabinet Minister for Culture and Tourism    

  Dear Dr Manmohan Singh-ji, 

  This pertains to a special project, which I had conceived when I 

was working as Culture and Tourism Minister. The project, I thought, 

would have enlarged the dimensions of tourism, provided new insight 

into the origin of our civilisation, and attracted a number of 

scholars and archaeologists to study the unexplored layers of our 

past. Unfortunately, it has since been given up. 

  Through this letter, I am approaching you with the request to 

intervene and ensure that the project is viewed in the right 

perspective and revived. I give below a brief backdrop of the 

project and the course that it intended to follow. 

  From the point of view of culture, the project was named as "A 

search For Lost Cities, A Lost Civilisation and A Lost River", and 

from the tourism point of view it was titled, "Travels Around Lost 

Cities, A Lost Civilisation and a Lost River". The river was 

Sarasvati and the civilisation was the one known as 

Harappan/Indus-Sarasvati. 

  There were five major objectives that the project sought to 

achieve:  

  1) To undertake extensive excavations of the Harappan settlements 

in the basin of the now dried-up Sarasvati, and build archaeological 

museums at the sites.  

  2) Set up small tourist-centres nearby.  

  3) Establish documentation-cum-multidisciplinary research units 

with attached pavilions, showing 5,000 years of Indian civilisation 

through large panel-photographs, 3-D models etc.  

  4) Make the newly created complex attractive for residents of the 

neighbouring towns and villages.  

  5) Open at each of the centres, a small window to the visitors. 

  The significance lay in the attempt to provide clear answers to 

some crucial questions, which I will answer one by one: 

  Was there an Aryan invasion? 

  It has been propagated by Western scholars and their Indian 

disciples that between 1,500 to 1,000 BC, there was an invasion of 

India by light-skinned nomadic tribes, the Aryans, which gave birth 

to the Vedic civilisation of India. But this hypothesis has no legs 

to stand upon. The study of Colin Renfrew, a noted archaeologist at 

Cambridge University, not only debunks the theory propounded by 

Mortimer Wheeler but also points at the similarities between the 

Aryan Vedic civilisation and the Harappan one.  

  Nor can the theory of invasion/migration provide answers to 

pertinent questions like: How come the 'Aryans', who showed strong 

attachment to lands, did not carry with them the memories of their 

previous homeland and nurse no nostalgia about their past? Is it not 

clear that the Rig-Vedic expressions like 'sabha', 'samiti', 

'samrat', 'ranjan', 'rajaka', which indicate the existence of 

organised assemblies and rulers of different ranks, are relevant not 

to the nomadic invaders, but to the advanced urban society of the 

Vedic Aryans who were indigenous inhabitants of Harappan 

settlements? Was not the evolution of chariot more likely in the 

flat lands of North India rather than in the uneven terrain of the 

Central Asia? 

  The last nail in the coffin of the invasion/migration theory has 

been hammered in by the recent genetic studies, conducted by 

scientists in Calcutta with foreign scientists.  

  They analysed the Y-Chromosomes of 936 men and 77 castes, and 

referred to the work of the international research teams that found 

that the earliest modern human arrived in India from Africa, 

trudging along the Indian Ocean coast about 60,000 years ago. They 

concluded: "Our findings suggest that most modern Indians have 

genetic affinities to the earlier settlers and subsequent migrants 

and not to central Asians or 'Aryans', as they are called". 

  Nature of Civilisation 

  When, in 1922, the Harappan civilisation was discovered, only two 

major settlements ­ Mohenjo-daro and Harappa ­ had been excavated and 

that too partially. On this basis, views were formulated about the 

origin of these advanced urban civilisations. It was given out that 

its roots lay in Mesopotamia. Subsequent excavations of more 

Harappan sites have shown that these views and assertions were made 

without adequate evidence. 

  John Reader, a noted scholar of anthropology and geography, has 

pointed out that emergence of cities and civilisations in six widely 

separated places around the world ­ Mesopotamia, India, Egypt, China, 

Central America and Peru ­ was spontaneous and none resulted from 

contact with one another. 

  Excavations carried out by a French team, headed by Jean-Francois 

Jarrige, during the last 15 years, at Mehrgarh, Pakistan, have 

pin-pointed the beginnings of civilisation in India and shown that 

Indus-Sarasvati civilisation had no moorings in Mesopotamia or any 

civilisation outside India. 

  It has been rightly observed: "The people in Mehrgarh tradition 

are the people of India today". There are similarities between the 

social and religious practices of the Harappan people and the people 

of present-day India. For example, the spiralled bangles of the type 

found around the figurine of the Harappan dancing girl can still be 

seen on the arms of women in Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, etc. 

  Again, as was the case with Harappan women, 'sindoor' is applied 

by married women of Hindu families. Some other common features of 

the two periods are: the practice of worshipping trees, putting of 

Svastika symbol at the entrance of the houses etc. 

  Did Sarasvati exist? 

  There is ample evidence that supports the view that river 

Sarasvati once existed. 

  Literary: The Rig Veda mentions the Sarasvati about 50 times, 

describing it as "the best mother, the best river, the best 

goddess". The famous Nadi-stuti hymn mentions a set of rivers, 

including Ganga, Yamuna, Sarasvati and Sutudori (Sutlej) and places  

  Sarasvati between Yamuna and Sutlej. Its origin is indicated in 

the hymn that says: "Purest among all rivers and vibrant, the 

Sarasvati moves on from the mountains to the ocean, manifesting 

immense riches of the world…" She is also called the seventh "Indus 

Mother". Ancient literature also talks of when Sarasvati began to 

decline. The Mahabharata, the Aitareya and the Satapatha Brahamana 

refer to its disappearance in the desert. 

  Archaeological: In 1872, C.F. Oldham and R.D. Oldham undertook a 

detailed survey of the area where the Sarasvati and its tributaries 

were said to be flowing in earlier times. They concluded that it was 

once fed by the Sutlej and the Yamuna, and that it disappeared after 

the westward movement of the former and eastward movement of the 

latter. 

  Geological: A group of scientists led by V.M.K. Puri and B.C. 

Verma, made a detailed study of the areas from which Sarasvati could 

have originated. They observed: "This river was in existence during 

the upper Pleistocene period as it was fed by glaciers that had 

descended to much lower limits in Garhwal Himalaya than the present 

day level due to the influence of Pleistocene Ice Age." 

  Hydrological: After the Pokhran nuclear explosion on May 11, 1998, 

the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre conducted tests to assess the 

impact of the explosions on the quality of water in the area around. 

These tests, interalia, revealed that the water in the area was 

potable, about 8,000 to 14,000 years old, came from the Himalayan 

glaciers and was being slowly recharged through acquifers from 

somewhere in the north. Separately, the Central Ground Water 

Commission dug a number of wells on and along the dry bed. Out of 24 

wells dug, 23 yielded potable water. 

  If all that I have said is viewed in entirety, this is the picture 

that will emerge: the period 6,500-3,100 BC saw the growth of 

pre-Harappan/Indus-Sarasvati civilisation, corresponding broadly to 

the times when the Rig Veda was composed; that during the period 

3,100 to 1,900 BC, the Harappan/Indus-Sarasvati civilisation 

prevailed and these were the times when the hymns of four Vedas were 

composed; and that 1,900 to 1,000 BC was the time of the late 

Harappan/Indus-Sarasvati civilisation which saw the decline and 

ultimate disappearance of the surface water of the Sarasvati, 

forcing the people to move eastward towards the Gangetic plain. 

  While the puzzles of archaeology and ancient Indian history cannot 

be resolved with certainty, particularly with regard to Harappa 

where the script has not so far been deciphered, it could be stated 

with a fair degree of accuracy that the Harappan/Indus-Sarasvati 

civilisation was born and brought up on the soil of India and its 

people and Vedic people were one and the same. 

  A lot of additional work needs to be done to unravel a number of 

features of one of the most significant civilisations of the ancient 

world. Hundreds of sites in the basin of now the submerged Sarasvati 

need to be excavated. It was this need that the special project 

intended to meet. 

  This would also be of huge benefit to the tourism sector. I 

request you to recommence the special project. I am confident that 

the project, if implemented in the spirit it was conceived, would 

show new facets of India's past, new initiatives of her present and 

new visions for her future. 

  Yours sincerely, 

  Jagmohan 

  Terms of Service.