saraswathi river

[Guest guest]

a question that comes to mind.......

 

if the saraswathi river was such a greatly revered river in vedic times, as it is mentioned so often in the vedas, why is there no literature of the river drying up?

 

does anyone know of literature or texts that mention either the drying of the river, the death of the river or the disappearance of the river??

 

one would think that if this river was so great as it was and so vital to the indus valley civilization, then why would it's disappearance not be mentioned?

[maadhav]

<< one would think that if this river was so great as it was and so vital to the indus valley civilization, then why would it's disappearance not be mentioned? >>

 

People like you now will record every event in Hindu books.

Have you started?

 

The fact of use is that the vedas do mention the river, and it is found by satellite pictures.

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

how do u know what my intentions are? you have already judged me yet you know nothing about me. i asked a simple question that should be brought up. please do not denigrate my question because you do not have an adequate answer. its very un-hindu of you

 

i know that the river is mentioned, my question is why was the drying up of the river not mentioned? i dot think it would be mentioned in the vedas because i persoanlyl do believe the vedas were written around the harrapn time if not earlier. but why do no other books mention it? i find it strange that such a major event in indian history was not recorded although our people have a very extensive literature.

[Guest guest]

Saraswati – the ancient river lost in the desert

 

 

A. V. Sankaran

 

NEARLY ten thousand years ago when mighty rivers started flowing down the Himalayan slopes, western Rajasthan was green and fertile. Great civilizations prospered in the cool amiable climate on riverbanks of northwestern India. The abundant waters of the rivers and copious rains provided ample sustenance for their farming and other activities. Some six thousand years later, Saraswati, one of the rivers of great splendour in this region, for reasons long enigmatic, dwindled and dried up. Several other rivers shifted their courses, some of their tributaries were ‘pirated’ by neigbouring rivers or severed from their main courses. The greenery of Rajasthan was lost, replaced by an arid desert where hot winds piled up dunes of sand. The flourishing civilizations vanished one by one. By geological standards, these are small-scale events; for earth, in its long 4.5 billion years history, had witnessed many such changes, some of them even accompanied by wiping out of several living species. But those that occurred in northwest India took place within the span of early human history affecting the livelihood of flourishing civilizations and driving them out to other regions.

 

The nemesis that overtook northwestern India’s plenty and prosperity along with the disappearance of the river Saraswati, has been a subject engaging several minds over the last hundred and fifty years. However, convincing explanations about what caused all the changes were available only in the later half of the current century through data gathered by archaeologists, geologists, geophysicists, and climatologists using a variety of techniques. They have discussed and debated their views in symposia held from time to time, many of which have also appeared in several publications. Over the last thirty years, considerable volume of literature have grown on the subject and in this article some of the salient opinions expressed by various workers are presented.

 

Rivers constitute the lifeline for any country and some of the world’s great civilizations (Indus Valley, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian) have all prospered on banks of river systems. Hindus consider rivers as sacred and have personified them as deities and sung their praises in their religious literature, the Vedas (Rig, Yajur and Atharva), Manusmriti, Puranas and Mahabharata. These cite names of several rivers that existed during the Vedic period and which had their origin in the Himalayas. One such river Saraswati, has been glorified in these texts and referred by various names like Markanda, Hakra, Suprabha, Kanchanakshi, Visala, Manorama etc.1,2, and Mahabharata has exalted Saraswati River as covering the universe and having seven separate names2. Rig veda describes it as one of seven major rivers of Vedic times, the others being, Shatadru (Sutlej), Vipasa (Beas), Askini (Chenab), Parsoni or Airavati (Ravi), Vitasta (Jhelum) and Sindhu (Indus)1,3,4 (Figure 1). For full 2000 y (between 6000 and 4000 BC), Saraswati had flowed as a great river before it was obliterated in a short span of geological time through a combination of destructive natural events.

 

 

 

Judged in the broader perspective of geological evolution, disappearance or disintegration of rivers, shifting of their courses, capture of one river by another (river piracy), steady decline of waters culminating in drying up of their beds, are all normal responses to tectonism (uplift, faulting, subsidence, tilting), earthquakes, adverse climate and other natural events. Such catastrophic events overtook Saraswati river in quick succession, within a short geological span in the Quaternary period of the Cenozoic era (Figure 1) leading to its decline and disappearance. Similar changes to drainage of rivers have occurred during earlier geological periods also, much before human evolution. A few of the south Indian rivers like the east-flowing Pennar, Palar and Cauvery draining into the Bay of Bengal and west-flowing Swarna, Netravathi and Gurupur draining into the Arabian Sea are known to have changed their courses or got dismembered due to uplift of land. Today, their former courses or palaeochannels can be seen as dry beds5–8.

 

Saraswati – evolution and drainage

 

The river Saraswati, during its heydays, is described to be much bigger than Sindhu or the Indus River. During the Vedic period, this river had coursed through the region between modern Yamuna and Sutlej. Though Saraswati is lost, many of its contemporary rivers like Markanda, Chautang and Ghaggar have outlived it and survived till today. All the big rivers of this period –

Saraswati, Shatadru (Sutlej), Yamuna derived their waters from glaciers which had extensively covered the Himalayas during the Pleistocene times. The thawing of these glaciers during Holocene, the warm period that followed, generated many rivers, big and small, coursing down the Himalayan slopes. The melting of glaciers has also been referred in Rigvedic literature, in mythological terms, as an outcome of war between God Indra and the demon Vritra1,9. The enormity of waters available for agriculture and other occupations during those times had prompted the religiously bent ancient inhabitants to describe reverentially seven mighty rivers or ‘Sapta Sindhu’, as divine rivers arising from slowly moving serpent (Ahi), an apparent reference to the movement of glaciers3.

 

According to geological and glaciological studies11,13, Saraswati was supposed to have originated in Bandapunch masiff (Sarawati-Rupin glacier confluence at Naitwar in western Garhwal). Descending through Adibadri, Bhavanipur and Balchapur in the foothills to the plains, the river took roughly a southwesterly course, passing through the plains of Punjab, Haryana,

Rajasthan, Gujarat and finally it is believed to have debouched into the ancient Arabian Sea at the Great Rann of Kutch. In this long journey, Saraswati was believed to have had three tributaries, Shatadru (Sutlej) arising from Mount Kailas, Drishadvati from Siwalik Hills and the old Yamuna. Together, they flowed along a channel, presently identified as that of the Ghaggar river, also called Hakra River in Rajasthan and Nara in Sindh1,11 (Figure 2). The rivers, Saraswati and Ghaggar, are therefore supposed to be one and the same, though a few workers use the name Ghaggar to describe Saraswati’s upper course and Hakra to its lower course, while some others refer Saraswati of weak and declining stage, by the name Ghaggar12.

 

 

 

Considerable philological debate has taken place about the roots of the nomenclature ‘Saraswati’, which is referred to by the name Harkhaiti or Haravaiti (in Avesta) in regions further west of India. The contentious point debated is whether the syllable Ha in the river’s name changed to Sa, later in India or Sa to Ha outside India. The choice of the name, Saraswati or Harkhaiti, depended upon whether one considered Aryans, the ancient inhabitants along this riverine system, as indigenous people who, upon their migration, carried the name Saraswati westwards where linguistic growth changed Sa soon to Ha; or, whether they were migrants from west of India who brought with them the name Harakhaiti which changed to Saraswati once they settled here2. Apart from the nomenclature, the riverine systems of the period draining northwestern India had generated considerable discussion among the scholars about the positions (hierarchy) of the other feeder rivers, big and small, their sources and causes for their shifts which affected the supply of waters to the main rivers hastening their disintegration, e.g. Saraswati and its major tributary, Drishadvati.

 

Hindu mythology records several legends and anecdotes that are intertwined with the river’s geologically brief existence. Every aspect of the river’s life, right from its birth to its journey down the Himalayas and over the plains towards the Sindhu Sagara (ancient Arabian Sea), have found mention in one religious text or other, like Rigveda, Yajurveda, Atharvaveda,

Brahmana literature, Manusmriti, Mahabharata and the Puranas1–3. These descriptive legends have often proved helpful in cataloguing some of the natural events of the period and linking some of them with the river’s perturbations. For example, the graphic description of a war between Gods and demons detailed in one of these texts and use of fire (Agni) in the destruction of a demon hiding in the mountains which trembled under the onslaught may possibly refer to volcanic and seismic episodes of the period2. Today, more than 8000 years since the Vedas came into existence, some of the rivers mentioned therein have become defunct or have shifted from their original path. In the earlier years of study, their erstwhile courses were mainly inferred from archaeological evidences. These included sites of ancient settlements (some 1200 are known) of Harappan, Indus or Saraswati civilizations along river banks, the scripts and seals left behind, and references in Hindu mythology to river-bank Ashrams and Yagnya Kundams preserving evidences about the ritual worship practiced by the ancient inhabitants3,10–13.

 

Over a 3000 year-long period since the Vedic times (Figure 1), the drainage pattern of many rivers had changed much from that described in the earlier religious literature. The decline of Saraswati appears to have commenced between 5000–3000 BC, probably precipitated by a major tectonic event in the Siwalik Hills of Sirmur region. Geologic studies14 indicate destabilizing tectonic events had occurred around the beginning of Pleistocene, about 1.7 my ago in the entire Siwalik domain, extending from Potwar in Pakistan to Assam in India, resulting in massive landslides and avalanches. These disturbances, which continued intermittently, were all linked to uplift of the Himalayas. Presumably, one of these events must have severed the glacier connection and cut off the supply of glacier melt-waters to this river. As a result, Saraswati became non-perennial and dependent on monsoon rains. All its majesty and splendour of the Vedic period dwindled and with the loss of its tributaries, major and minor, Saraswati’s march to oblivion commenced around 3000 BC. Bereft of waters through separation of its tributaries15, which shifted or got captured by other neighbouring river systems, Saraswati remained here and there as disconnected pools and lakes and ultimately became reduced to a dry channel bed. Lunkaransar, Didwana and Sambhar, the Ranns of Jaisalmer, Pachpadra etc., are a few of these notable lakes, some of them highly saline today, the only proof to their freshwater descent being occurrences of gastropod shells in these lake beds16–19. With the decline and disappearance of Saraswati, the ancient civilizations, that it supported, also faded.

 

Inferences from geologic, remote sensing and geophysical surveys

 

Considerable tectonic activity connected with Himalayan orogeny continued during the Holocene and later times although uplifts to heights of 3000–4000 m were at their peak during 0.8–0.9 my span. The high elevation of the mountains perturbed the wind circulation patterns and induced climatic changes. Moderate terrain of earlier times became rugged and hilly affecting the channels of rivers14. That was the scenario of the Himalayan region when Saraswati emerged as a major river about 9000 y ago20 and flowed in all splendour during the vedic times till its decline to an impermanent monsoon dependent state some 4000 y later.

 

Bulk of earlier studies on Saraswati pertain more to the civilizations that flourished along its banks and many of the reasons attributed for the decline of this river were speculative. The impacts of middle to late Quaternary geologic events on the river systems in this region, however, had received only cursory attention. Awareness to the potentialities of geologic, meteorologic, climatic and other cyclic events, basically triggered by plate tectonism, earth’s orbital and tilt variations and similar global phenomena came up much later. Attempts to investigate their roles over the decline and desiccation of Saraswati began only since close of nineteenth century21–23 and gained momentum during the last three decades. Oldham23, a geologist of Geological Survey of India, was one of the first to offer as early as 1886, geological comments about Saraswati. According to him, the present dry-bed of Ghaggar River represents Saraswati’s former course and that its disappearance was precipitated when its waters were captured by Sutlej and Yamuna. This view differed from that of several others who felt that Saraswati vanished due to lack of rainfall. However, later-day meteorological research about palaeoclimates11,24–27, oxygen isotopic studies36, thermouminescenct (TL) dating28 of wind-borne and river-borne sands in the Thar desert region, radiocarbon dating of lake-bed deposits48 and archaeological evidences29,30 have all indicated that during early to middle Pleistocene period this region had enjoyed wetter climate, heavy rainfall and even recurring floods and that increase in aridity commenced by mid-Holocene (5000–3000 BC) only.

 

Intense investigations during the last thirty years have yielded fruitful data obtained through ground and satellite based techniques as well as from palaeoseismic, and palaeoclimatic records all of which had enabled a good reconstruction of the drainage evolution in northwestern India. In addition, TL-dating of dry-bed sands and isotopic studies of the groundwater below these channels provided useful links in these reconstruction efforts. The observed river-shifts and other changes could also be correlated with specific geologic, seismic or climatic event that occurred during the mid- to late-Quaternary period. Particularly helpful were the information gathered from LANDSAT imagery about location of former river courses in the plains and beneath the Thar desert upto the Rann of Kutch, about existence of palaeo-river valleys and identifying major structural trends (lineaments) in the region3,16,18,31–34. In spite of a large volume of such data, the chain of natural events during the Quaternary period has given rise to different interpretations about the former river courses.

 

Mainly, Indus and Saraswati, were the two major river systems of northwestern India during the Vedic period but the network of their tributaries, some of which are known to have deviated from their initial course or become non-existent today, have given scope for grouping these rivers into convenient classifications. Sridhar et al.18 have classified the rivers into four main groups (Figure 2) – (i) Sindhu (Indus) and its tributaries Vitasta (Jhelum) and Askini (Chenab); (ii) Shatadru (Sutlej) and its two major tributaries Vipasa (Beas) and Parasuni or Iravati (Ravi); (iii) Saraswati and its three tributaries Markanda, Ghaggar and Patialewali, in its upper reaches and a major tributary in its middle course; (iv) Drishadvati and Lavanavati. Baldev Sahai19 grouped them into Sutlej, Ghaggar and Yamuna systems while Yash Pal and co-workers32 recognized only two major systems –

the Sutlej and the Ghaggar.

 

 

 

Detailed evaluation of data obtained from remote sensing, geophysical, isotopic and other studies by various workers32,33,35–40 have been instrumental in sorting out many of the earlier speculative inferences and unsolved aspects of Saraswati river. Yash Pal et al.32 have traced the palaeochannel of this river through Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. They found that its course in these States is clearly highlighted in the LANDSAT imagery by the lush cover of vegetation thriving on the rich residual loamy soil along its earlier course. According to their findings, the river disappears abruptly in a depression in Pakistan, instead of in the sea, an observation shared by a few others also. But, digital enhancement studies35 of satellite IRS-1C data launched in 1995, combined with RADAR imagery (from European Remote Sensing satellite ERS-1/2) could identify subsurface features and thus recognize palaeochannels beneath the sands of Thar Desert. These channels are seen to extend upto Fort Abbas and Marot in Pakistan and appear in a line with present dry bed of Ghaggar (Figure 3). This river continues as Nara River in Sindh region and opens into the Rann of Kutch34. Another study33 of satellite derived data has revealed no palaeochannel link between Indus and Saraswati confirming that the two were independent rivers; also, the three palaeochannels, south of Ambala, seen to swerve westwards to join the ancient bed of Ghaggar, are inferred to be tributaries of Saraswati/ Ghaggar, and one among them, probably Drishadvati (Figure 4). The latter disappeared along with Saraswati due to shifts of its feeder streams from Siwalik and Aravalli ranges as well as due to the onset of desertification of Rajasthan15.

 

Geophysical surveys carried out by the Geological Survey of India to assess groundwater potential in Bikaner, Ganganagar and Jaisalmer districts in western Rajasthan desert areas have brought out several zones of fresh and less saline water in the form of arcuate shaped aquifers similar to several palaeochannels elsewhere in the State. That these subsurface palaeochannels belong to ancient rivers has been confirmed through studies37 on hydrogen, oxygen and carbon isotopes (d2H, d18O, 14C) on shallow and deep groundwater samples from these districts. The isotopic work has also indicated that there is no direct headwater connection or recharge to this groundwater from present day Himalayas. Though the antiquity of these waters and probable links to ancient rivers are thus established, the subsurface palaeochannel route beneath the desert sands obtained from hydrogeological investigations, however, differs from that derived through satellite based studies 16,35,38.

 

The waning period of Vedic civilization around 3700 BC was also the period that disrupted both Saraswati and Drishadvati18. Several evidences indicate that rivers of this area changed their courses often in the last 5000 y (ref. 32) and one detailed study40 about Saraswati has identified at least four progressive westward shifts in Rajasthan, due to encroaching sands. In their evaluation of the palaeochannel imagery obtained from LANDSAT, Yash Pal et al.32 observed a sudden widening of Ghaggar near Patiala which, they argue, can take place only if a major tributary had joined it. According to them, ancient Shatadru or Sutlej must have been this tributary and possibly ancient Yamuna (palaeo-Yamuna) also flowed into Ghaggar, a conclusion they claim is strengthened by archaeological findings of active life that existed at one time on their banks. During a subsequent period, Shatadru (Sutlej) swung suddenly westwards near Ropar (Figure 4) to join Indus (as also Vipas/Beas and Parasuni/Ravi, its two tributaries), deserting its earlier channel to the sea. This sudden diversion of Sutlej as well as depletion of waters from Drishadvati due to loss of its feeding streams15, appear to be major events that heralded the drying up of Saraswati. Several workers attribute this event to tectonism involving rise of Delhi-Hardwar ridge and uplift in the Aravallis11,15,16,18,32. Capture of Shatadru (Sutlej) by a tributary of Beas through headward erosion or due to diversion of Shatadru (Sutlej) through a fault are also considered as possible reasons32. Structural control over the migration of Saraswati river is also evident from studies41,42 in the Great Indian desert and adjacent parts of western Rajasthan. This area is dissected by several lineaments, some of which (e.g. Luni–Sukri lineament) were reactivated during Pleistocene–Holocene period bringing about alignment of Saraswati with Ghaggar.

 

Saraswati and the palaeodelta of the Great Rann

 

Considerable debate has taken place about Saraswati’s entry in the northern part of the Great Rann. Scholars have pointed to references in Rigveda, Manusmriti and Mahabharata about Saraswati disappearing in the sands at Vinäsana and not in the sea; but at the same time, there is also reference in some of these ancient texts about a narrow sea, possibly a creek, coming right upto Bikaner, but which disappeared during the Vedic times10,22. Rigvedic and archaeological references describe how Saraswati supported inland and marine trade and travel and that, around 3000 BC, there was continuous flow of this river upto even the Little Rann13.

 

The topography at the Great Rann is typically deltaic, developing usually at the mouth of rivers, confirming entry of a few rivers in the sea at this place. Neotectonism, reactivating faults and lineaments which are seen criss-crossing this region, as well as frequent seismicity, apart from Holocene sea-level changes all appear to have influenced development of a peculiar drainage topography in this area. The tilting and sinking of land resulting from the tectonic events have carved characteristic uplands (locally called Bets) representing areas of river mouth deposits, and lowlands which are sites of distributary channels17,28. Satellite imagery, as well as detailed mapping, have revealed network of distributaries and extensive graded deposits, products of Holocene marine regression17. It appears that Indus (Sindhu), Shatadru (Sutlej), Saraswati, Drishadvati (palaeo-Yamuna) and Lavanavati (possibly an ancestor of present day Luni river) had independent courses and opened into the Rann separately. According to Malik

et al.17, at least three rivers – proto-Shatadru (Hakra), Saraswati and Drishadvati must have drained into the Rann around 2000 BC, of which only Sindhu (Indus) has survived. The original delta complex with relict channels, including that of Nara, a continuation of Ghaggar, is today better preserved on the western side but covered by wind-borne deposits on the eastern part of the Great Rann17,43,44.

 

Yash Pal et al.32 argue that though in the satellite imagery Saraswati/Ghaggar appear to debouch into the sea or a lake near Marot or Beriwala (Pakistan) (Figure 3), this place is far interior, and unlikely to be a palaeo-seacoast, even allowing for rise of sea level during the Holocene marine transgression. In fact studies about coast line changes along the west coast have shown a much lower sea level some 12,000 y back which rose to the present level only later and had remained there for the last 7000 y. These findings, therefore, discount the possibilities of a seacoast at this place45,46 though they do not rule out the river’s entry into the sea that must have existed further south of this site in those times. It may be mentioned that Quaternary neotectonism has submerged vast areas of palaeodelta complex, possibly along with palaeochannels. In this context, it is relevant to take note of the observation that Saraswati’s ancient course in this region is in continuity with another dry river bed–Hakra or Sotra which can be traced through Bikaner to Bhahawalpur and Sind in Pakistan, and finally upto the Rann of Kutch. Such a course appears likely if we backtrack the delta distributaries inland, when it is noticed they connect up with the existing palaeochannels there. Some of these are actually extensions of relict channels seen beneath the sands of Thar Desert, as found out by geophysical and hydrogeological surveys16,17,35,38.

 

While tectonism had certainly a major role in shaping the fate of Saraswati and other rivers, this could not have been the only agent bringing about various changes that led to its downfall. Even though the role of climate on the disappearance of Saraswati system was underestimated by some of the earlier workers, undoubtedly it must have exercised considerable sway during the Holocene, a period during which major climatic swing has been noted globally26,27,36,47. It is well known that variation in earth’s orbit and tilt of earth’s axis affect the earth’s climate (Milankovitch and albedo forces). A drastic weather change related to these phenomena had peaked around 7000 BC26. Recent studies have shown that the onset of an arid climate occurred in two pulses –

at 4700–3700 and at 2000–1700 BC26, both of which had fairly wide impact not only in India in the desertification of western Rajasthan but in other countries also, like Africa in the development of Saharan and Nubian deserts. The desertification is thought to have occurred 5400 y ago (3400 BC) and its onset greatly affected the monsoon rains and consequently the river systems too. The change from wetter to arid condition destroyed steadily the vegetation, which in turn affected soil moisture, its evaporation, atmospheric circulation and precipitation, all important links in the monsoon evolution chain and, ultimately the climate over the region. However, a recent study48 of water-table fluctuations and radiocarbon estimates from the Lunkansar Lake deposit do not support the views about aridity around 3500 BC, the period when Saraswati and Indus Valley culture were thought to have collapsed. The chronology emerging from these studies show that the once perennial lakes had ceased to be so and they had dried and desiccated more than 1500 y before the dated collapse of the civilization.

 

Computer based climate simulation studies26, to reproduce the changes to solar heating of the atmosphere due to variations in earth’s tilt and orbit have shown that climate-induced weakening of monsoons over India and north Africa led to desertification in a span of just 300 years. Needless to point out, when one traces the topographic evolution of a place, the influence of a combination of many natural phenomena can be recognized in its build up. It becomes, therefore, very difficult to point out any one reason for some of the major changes to the topography or river systems. The climatic swing that led to sweeping changes in northwestern India was triggered by variations in earth’s orbit and tilt and these departures are known to recur periodically. The latter should, therefore, rise the possibilities for a favourable orientation of these parameters of earth at some future time to initiate climatic conditions for a re-greening of the

Rajasthan desert, rejuvenation of the dry river beds and, hopefully, for a rebirth of Saraswati, like Phoenix out of the ashes.

 

 

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45. Merh, S. S., Proc. Indian Natl. Sci. Acad., 1992, 58, 461–472.

 

46. Hashimi, N. H., Nigam, R., Nair, R. R. and Rajagopalan, G.,

J. Geol. Soc. Indian, 1995, 46, 157–162.

 

47. Sirocko, F., Sarnthein, M., Erlenkeuser, H., Lnge, H., Arnold, M. and Duplessy, J. C., Nature, 1993, 364, 322–324.

 

48. Enzel, Y., Ely, L. L., Mishra, S., Ramesh, R., Amit, R., Lazar, B., Rangaraju, S. N., Baker, V. R. and Sandler, A., Science, 1999, 284, 125–128.

 

 

[Guest guest]

Vedic Sarasvati River

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Hindu Vedas mention a river named Sarasvat&#299;. In Sanskrit saras means a pool or water body, and vat&#299; (from vnt-&#299;, the female form of the -vant suffix) means "she having lots of pools". Sarasvati was the biggest and most important of the seven holy rivers of the Rig Veda. In the Rig Veda the Sarasvati River is mentioned 59 times (e.g. Rig Veda 2.41.16; 6.61.8-13; 1.3.12.), and there are several references to the "seven rivers" (e. g. RV 2.12; RV 4.28; RV 8.24). In the Rig Veda (7.95.2, tr. Griffith):

 

Pure in her course from mountains to the ocean, alone of streams Sarasvati hath listened.

Thinking of wealth and the great world of creatures, she poured for Nahusa her milk and fatness.

Rig Veda 7.36.6 calls it "the Seventh, Mother of Floods" sárasvat&#299; saptáth&#299; síndhum&#257;t&#257;. RV 2.41.16 ámbitame nád&#299;tame dévitame sárasvati "best mother, best river, best goddess" expresses the importance and reverence of the Vedic religion for the Sarasvati river.

 

The river has been identified with various present-day or historical rivers, particularly the Ghaggar-Hakra river in India and Pakistan; this course continues into the Raini Nala riverbed. Other suggestions include the Helmand River in Afghanistan, which historically bore the name Harahvaiti, which is the Avestan form for "Sarasvati". However, this Afghan river flows into a small lake in the Iranian plateau, which does not match the Rig Vedic description of a "sea going" river. There is also a river in Iran which has been given this name. Sometimes it also means the heavenly 'river' - i.e. the milky way - and it is also personified as a goddess. The goddess Sarasvati was originally a personification of this river, and later developed an identity and meaning independently from the river. There is also a present-day Saraswati River in India which appears to be one of the branches of the ancient river.

 

Satellite photography has shown that there was indeed a large river in the northwest of India, that dried up between ca. 2500 to 2000 B.C. The river bed was three to ten kilometers wide. The Sarasvati once drained the Sutlej and Yamuna Rivers. The Sutlej and Yamuna Rivers have changed their courses over the time. (see for example Studies from the Post-Graduate Research Institute of Deccan College, Pune, and the Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI), Jodhpur. Confirmed by use of MSS (multi-spectoral scanner) and Landsat satellite photography. Note MLBD NEWSLETTER (Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass), Nov. 1989.)

 

Paleobotanical information documents the aridity that developed after the drying up of the river. (Gadgil and Thapar 1990 and references therein). The disappearance of the river may have been caused by earthquakes. It may have been one of the causes for the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization. The largest concentration of Indus Valley sites appears to be east of the Indus, at and near the dried-up Ghaggar-Hakra riverbed.

 

The identification of the 'original' Saraswati river has become embroiled in debates about the age of the Vedas and of the relation between Aryan culture and the Indus Valley civilization (IVC). In the enumeration of the rivers in Rigveda 10.75.05, the order is Ganga, Yamuna, Sarasvati, Shutudri (= Sutlej). Hence it is quite clear that one of the rivers given the name 'Sarasvati' flowed through Haryana and Rajasthan. The question is whether this is the primal 'Sarasvati'. The Rigveda says that this Sarasvati rises in the mountains and ends up in the sea (e.g. RV 7.95.2 quoted above); it describes a man sailing up the Sarasvati from the sea to the mountains. The Brahmanas, which are considered later texts than the Rig Veda, mention that the Sarasvati flowed through a desert; the Puranas like Bhagavata Purana mention her too and the Mahabharata says that the Sarasvati dried up in a desert, possibly the Thar Desert.

 

Recent finding suggest the Ghaggar-Hakra river did once flow in great strength, and was of major importance to the Indus Valley Civilization, but that it dried up due to the redirection of its tributaries, and loss of rainfall in much of its catchment area due to deforestation and overgrazing in what is now Pakistan, at the latest in 1900 BC, but perhaps much earlier. Clearly this is of great importance in establishing the date of the Rigveda. If the Ghaggar-Hakra river is the original Sarasvati of the Vedas, it implies that the Vedic Aryans were resident in the Punjab as early as the late 3rd millennium BC. If it was the Afghan Helmand river, it may support an Aryan migration at a later time, around the mid 2nd millennium BC. (According to National Geographic maps, the Sarasvati river flowed through the Indus valley. National Geographic Vol.197, No.6, Page114)

 

Along the course of the Ghaggar-Hakra river are many archaeological sites of the Indus Valley Civilization; but not further south than the middle of Bahawalpur district. It could be that the permanent Sarasvati ended there, and its water only reached the sea in very wet rainy seasons. It may also have been affected by much of its water being taken for irrigation.

 

In the Manu Samhita (II.17-18), the sage Manu, escaping from a flood, founded the Vedic culture between the Sarasvati and Drishadvati rivers. In the Shatapatha Brahmana there is a description of the God Agni burning out rivers, which may be a reference to the drying up of rivers. Indra was the river deity of the Sarasvati river, the disappearance of the Sarasvati river may have been one of the causes for the diminishing popularity of Indra in Vedic culture. Indra may have been "replaced" by the similar deity Shiva, who is the river deity of the Ganges.

 

[Guest guest]

Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization (c. 3000 B.C.)

[i shall be grateful to receive critical comments: Dr. S. Kalyanaraman 20/7 Warren Road, Mylapore, Madras 600004 India Tel. 011-91-44-493-6288; 493-5871; Fax. 011-9144-499-6380 Internet: mdsaaa48@giasmd01.VSNL.net.in

 

Objective

The objective of this article is to promote an understanding of and further researches into delineating the courses of the `lost' Sarasvati river from Siwalik ranges to the Rann of Kutch (sAgara) and to gain deeper insights into an ancient civilization that flourished on the Sarasvati and Indus river valleys circa 3000 BC.

 

This work substantiates the insights provided in N. Mahalingam's article in Tamil which appeared in Amuda Surabhi, Deepavali issue, 1995: carittirangaLai uruvAkkiya sarasvati nadi (sarasvati river which created histories), citing the work done by Swami sAkyAnanda of advaita ashram, Trichur affirming that north-western region nurtured by the Sarasvati river is the ancient civilization which is the heritage of South Asia.

 

The intent is to circulate this to all scholars interested in exploring further into the ancient cultures which flourished on the Sarasvati-Sindhu river valleys.

 

Organization of the article

The monograph is organized in the following sections:

 

1. Defining the expanse and locus of the Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization using archaeological and philological evidence, including the Rks.

 

2. Analyzing landsat imagery and studies in earth sciences to provide leads to determing the course of the ancient, `lost' Sarasvati river and areas for further scientific, research work.

 

4. Hypothesizing on the interlinkage of the Vedic and Harappan civilizations with some leads on the decipherment of the 'cult object' on Harappan seals and providing leads for further researches and approaches to the decipherment of other pictorial motifs and signs of the Harappan script..

 

Summary

Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization flourished circa 3000 to 1700 BC on the river valleys of Indus and Sarasvati rivers. The drying-up of the Sarasvati river led to migrations of people eastwards to the Ganga-Yamuna doab and southwards from the Rann of Kutch and Pravara (feeder into the Godavari river near Daimabad in Maharashtra) river valley, along the Arabian sea coast.

 

The search for the language of the times may have to be based on identification of the ancient lexemes, starting from a study of comparative morphemes (with similar sounds and similar meanings) of the present-day languages spoken in South Asia. A start has been made with a Comparative Multi-language dictionary of South asian languages, 1995 (in press on CD-ROM).

 

Introduction

The National Atlas of India (Hindi), Calcutta, 1957, Govt. of India publication; Bharat-BhUracanA map depicts a short trace of Sarasvati-Ghaggar in Haryana, in dotted lines apparently to denote dried-up river beds.

 

Harappa was a `city' site; but the Sarasvati and Sindhu rivers had nurtured a large number of `village' sites. The state of archaeological knowledge has grown enormously since the Harappan site discovery in the 1920's. The cumulative achievement of archaeological work allows us to redefine the Harappan civilization as Sarasvati-Sindhu Civilization.

 

``Evidence from many sources, including that of archaeological remains associated with old river courses, indicates that a major river, stemming mainly from the same sources as the present Sutlej, flowed through Northern Rajasthan, Bahawalpur and Sind-- to the southeast of the present course of the Sutlej and the Indus -- in the third to second millennium BC. This river, known as the Sarasvati in its upper course, at different times either joined the lower course of the Indus in Sind, or found its way independently into the Arabian Sea via Rann of Kutch.'' (Allchin, B., Goudie, A., and Hegde, K., 1978, The prehistory and palaeogeography of the Great Indian Desert, London, Academic Press, p. 198).

 

Prof. Ahmad Hasan Dani writes (Ed. Indus Civilization -- New Perspectives, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, 1981, pp.3- 12): `To him (John Marshall) goes the credit of coining the term The Indus Civilization. But his geographic horizon no longer holds good and the term deriving therefrom is open to question ... . The wide-spread nature of the Indus Civilization throughout Panjab and Sind had already expanded the meaning of the original term. Still later in the post-1947 period the Indus Civilization sites have been discovered in large number outside the present Indus region right up to the very borders of Yamuna in the north-east (Alamgirpur on the Hindon, a tributary of the Yamuna about 30 miles north of Delhi), along the dried-up bed of the river Ghaggar in northern part of Rajasthan, and in Gujrat right upto the mouths of Narbada and Tapti rivers'.

 

Ghaggar which reached the Hakra branch in Bahawalpur, is traditionally identified with the Sarasvati river. [cf. Sir Aurel Stein's explorations in the valley: Ancient India, no.5, 1949, pp. 12-30; A. Ghosh discovered 25 Harappan sites (Indian Archaeology--a Review, 1962-63) in the ``region beginning right from the Pakistan border (eastwards) up to midway between Hanumangarh (bhaTner or bhattinagara) and Suratgarh in the Sarasvati valley and about 25 kms. east of Bhadra in the Drishadvati valley''; Dr. Mughal discovered more than 300 sites in the Bahawalpur area)]. Banawali excavated by Bisht is 15 km. northwest of Fatehabad, near the Sarasvati river and about 120 km. east of Kalibangan. Bhagwanpura, Dist. Kurukshetra, is located on the right bank of the Sarasvati river south of Rupar and is a site excavated by Joshi.

 

Etymologically, sarasvati means `abundance of lakes (saras)'. The synonym of sarasvatI (goddess of vAk = speech or language) is brAhmI which is the name given to the early scripts used in aSOka's epigraphs of circa 300 B.C. .

 

The sUkta 6.61 of the Rigveda is a dedication to sarasvatI river; sUkta 75 is the nadi sUkta dedicated to sindhu river. The trio: drshadvatI, Apaya and sarasvatI are extolled in Rk 3.23.4. Other Rks dedicated to the river are: 1.3.10, 1.3.11, 1.3.12, 2.30.8, 7.95.1, 8.21.17 and 18. References are made to yajnas performed by king citra on the banks of the river.[Apaya may be a branch of the Chitang river; this may also have yielded the sememe: ab, Ap = waters].

 

Glimpses of life in the vedic period (Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization)

The best source for the description of life in the vedic period is the veda itself, Rgveda, in particular.

 

It was a cooperating society among the yajnikas and others, both endeavouring to generate wealth:

 

samAne Urve adhi sangatAsah sam jAnate na yatante mitha-s-te te devAnAm na minanti vratAnyamardhanto vasubhir-yAdamAnAh (RV. vii.76.5)

 

being united with common people they become of one mind; they strive together as it were, nor do they injure the rituals of the gods, non-injuring each other they move with wealth. (SAyaNa explains samAne Urve as cattle -- common property of all: sarveSAm sAdhAraNe go-samUhe).

 

The vedic period was a nascent material culture: the period had weavers; the words sirI and vayitrI denote a female weaver. (RV. x.71.9; PB, I.8.9); tasara is reffered to which is a shuttle (RV. xiv.2.51). Reference to women weaving is provided: tantum tatam samvayanti (RV. ii.3.6). Gold (hiraNyapiNDAn, hiraNyayuh) was highly valued (cf. RV. vi.47.23, vii.78.9). DivodAsa gave golden treasures to the Rsi Garga. Rigveda refers to niSkagrIva (RV. v.19.3) which is a golden ornament on the neck and necklaces of gold reaching down to the chest. HiraNya (pl.) means gold ornaments (RV. 1.122.2). Gold was smelted from the ores (PB, xviii.6.4, JB I,10) which evoke the Indian alchemical tradition enshrined in the soma rasa, later elaborated as the science of alchemy: rasa-vAda. In Tamil soma-maNal means, sand containing silver ore. In Egyptian, assem means electrum; in Gypsy, somnakay means gold. Gold was won from the river-beds: Sindhu is called the hiraNmayI (RV. x.75.8); SarasvatI is called hiraNyavartanI (AV. vi.61.7). [cf. the reference to vasatIvari waters in vedic hymns related to soma, an apparent reference to panned-gold from the SarasvatI river-bed.] It is notable that in 1992, Rafiq Mughal (Pakistan archaeological department) has discovered a site, Guneriwala, an industrial site on the dried-up river bed of the Sarasvati across the Rajasthan border). This site is reportedly as large as Mohenjo-daro. The vedic people had used ships to cross oceans: anarambhaNe... agrabhaNe samudre... SatAritram nAvam... (RV. I.116.5; cf. VS. 21.7) referring to aSvins who rescued bhujyu, sinking in mid-ocean using a ship with a hundred oars (nAvam-aritraparaNIm). There is overwhelming evidence of maritime trade by the archaeological discoveries of the so-called Harappan civilization, which can now be re-christened: Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization. Some beads were reported to have been exported to Egypt from this valley (Early Indus Civilization, p. 149); Sumerians had acted as intermediaries for this trade (L. Wooley , The Sumerians, pp. 46-47; cf. Ur Excavations, vol. II, pp. 390-396).which extended to Anatolia and the Mediterranean.

 

The Sarasvati-Sindhu rivers supported the cultivation of wheat and barley, as evidenced by the archaeological finds. ( John Marshall, Mohenjo-daro and the Indus Civilization, vol. 1, p.27) Sunam nah phAla vi kRsantu bhUmim... SunASIrA Sunam-asmAsu dhattam: the ploughshare ploughing makes the food that feeds us and with the feet cuts through the path it follows (RV. iv.57.5-7).

 

Many vedic people were herdsmen, pastoralists: jAto-yad-agne bhuvanA vyakhyah paSun na gopA: agni looks upon the people of the world as a herdsman watches his cattle. (RV. x.19.3-5).

 

Rigvedic(Rk,Rca,or rk) hymns on Sarasvati.

The Rigvedic(rk) sources which refer to Sarasvati river are as follows:

 

yastE stanah SaSayo yo mayobhUyemna viSvA pushyasi vAryANi yo ratnadhA vasuvidyah sudatrah sarasvati tamiha dhAtave kah (RV 1.164.49)

 

Oh Sarasvati offer that breast of yours for our nourishment here which is on your body, which spreads happiness by which you nourish (those who praise you) with all the choicest things, the one which holds all the beautiful things, which knows the enemies' wealth and which offers good gifts.

 

pAvakA nah sarasvatI vAjebhirvAjinIvatI yajnam vashTu dhiyAvasuh (RV 1.3.10)

 

May Sarasvati be our purifier may she who holds food offer us food, the holder of wealth may desire yajna.

 

cOdayitrI sUnrtAnAm cetantI sumatInAm yajnam dadhe sarasvatI (RV 1.3.13)

 

The Sarasvati inspirer of good acts and good thoughts holds yajna.

 

maho arNah sarasvatI pra cetayati ketunA dhiyO viSvA vi rAjati (RV 1.3.12)

 

Sarasvati is known, by the flag (course) of great water. All prayers shine very much.

 

sarasvatI tvamasmAm aviDDhi marutvatI jeshi SatrUn tyam cicchardhantam tavishIyamANamindro hanti vrshabham SaNDikAnAm (RV 2.30.8)

 

Oh Sarasvati you protect us. You who are joined with Maruts, who are a great fighter conquer our enemies. Indra kills that famous and powerful of Shandikas who despised us.

 

iyam SushmebhirvisaravAyi rujatsAnu giriNAm tavishebhirurnibhih pArAvatahnImavase suvrktibhih sarasvatImAr vivAsemadhItibhih (RV 6.61.2)

 

We serve the Sarasvati who with flames and tides destroyed the peaks of mountains (the fortified towns) like one who plucks lotuses, with good prayers and with good nets for food. [ ... by her force and her impetuous waves, has broken down the sides of the mountains like a digger of lotus fibres.]

 

ni tvA dadhe vara A prthivyA iLAyAspade sudinatve ahmAm drshadvatyAm mAnusha ApayAyAm sarasvatyAm revadagne didIhi (RV 3.23.4)

 

Oh Agni, you were placed on the earth on an auspicious day on the best of the places on the earth. Blaze with wealth among the men (on the banks of) Drshadvati, Apaya and Sarasvati.

 

imam me gange yamune sarasvatI Satudri stomam sacatA parushNyA asikanyA marudvrdhe citastayArjIkIye SrNutdyA sushomayA (RV 10.75.5)

 

Oh Ganga, Yamuna, Sarasvati, Sutudri with Parshi, Marudvridha with Asikni; Arjikiya with Vitasta and Sushnoma hear this praise.

 

ambitamA ... naditamA (RV. 2.41.16)

 

best of mothers ... best of rivers ... Ascertaining the wishes of the great sages the best of rivers (the Sarasvati) incorporated AruNA with her own body; formerly the flow (of the AruNA) was hidden. Afterwards (the Sarasvati) inundated the divine AruNA wih its own waters.

 

A yat sAkam yaSay vAvaSnAh sarasvati saptathI sindhumAtA yAh sushvayanta sudughah sudhArA abhi svena payasA pIpyanah (RV 7.36.6)

 

May the seventh (stream), Sarasvati, the mother of the Sindhu and those rivers that flow copious and fertilizing, bestowing abundance of food, and nourishing (the people) by their waters, come at once together.

 

prakshodasA dhAyasA sasr eshA sarasvatI dharUNamAyasI pUh prabAbadhana ratthyeva yAti vishvA apo mahina sindhuranyA (RV 7.95.1)

 

This Sarasvati, firm as a city made of Ayas (copper) flows rapidly with all sustaining water, sweeping away in its might all other waters, as a charioteer (clears the road). Alternative: AyasIh pUh : (Sarasvati is) like a great fortified town. [With her fertilizing stream the Sarasvati comes forth. (She is to us) a stronghold, an iron gate. Moving along, as on a chariot, this river surpasses in greatness all other waters.]

 

ekAchetat sarasvatI nadInAm SuchIryati giribhya A samudrAt rAyaSchetantI bhuanasya bhurer ghrtam payo dudue nAhushAya (RV 7.95.2)

 

Sarasvati, chief and purest of rivers, flowing from the mountains to the ocean, understood the request of Nahusha and distributing riches among the many existing things, milked for him butter and water. [Alone among all rivers Sarasvati listened, she who goes pure from the mountains as far as the sea. She who knows of the manifold wealth of the world has poured out to man her fat milk.]

 

[cf. Max Mueller, Sacred Books of the East, xxxii.60: ``Here we see Samudra used clearly in the sense of sea, the Indian sea, and we have at the same time a new indication of the distance which separates the Vedic age from the late Sanskrit literature. Though it may not be possible to determine, by geological evidence, the time of the changes which modified the southern areas of the Punjab and caused the Saraswati to disappear in the desert, still the fact remains that the loss of the Saraswati is later than the Vedic age, and that, at that time, the waters of the Saraswati reached the sea.''] cf. RV 10.64.9 BaudhAyana's DharmasUtra (I,1,2,9) describes MadhyadEsa as lying to the east of the region where sarasvatI river disappears, to the west of the black forest: kAlakavan, to the north of the pAripAtra mountain and to the south of the Himalayas.

 

MahAbhArata (BhIshmaparva, 6.49,50) refers to seven divyagangas: nalinI, pAvanI, sarasvatI, jambu, sItA, gangA and sindhu. The epic locates kurukshetra to the south of sarasvatI and to the north of DrshadvatI (iii,83.204). [This area is defined as Brahmavarta in Manu Smriti 2.17]. The doab formed by these two rivers thus becomes the locus of the Bharata war of kurukshetra (fought on five lakes: samanta-pancaka; said to be the northern sacrificial altar of brahmA: MB, Vana, lxxxiii). [Alberuni found, in 1000 A.D., a holy lake in Kurukshetra]. The epic provides an account of Balarama's sojourn along this river dotted with centers of learning and austerities. [The dividing line of Drshadvati is at Chunar near Varanasi; the modern name is Rakshi].

 

The dried-up bed -- wadi -- of sarasvatI might have constituted the great road between hastinApur and dvArAvatI (dwAraka). Part of this road would have constituted the road from Sind to Delhi via Bahawalpur, MaroT, Anupgarh, Suratgarh, Dabli, KAlibaggAN, BhaTner (Hanumgarh), Tibi and SIrsa suggested by Major F. Mackeson in 1844 to the British government (Report on the Route from Seersa to Bahawulpore, JAS, Beng., XLII, Pt.I, 1844, No. 145 to 153)]. A synonym of sIrsa is sarsuti < sarasvatI; at this place, about 100 miles below Rassauli, a fortress was built.

 

Hieun Tsang's reference to `five indies' is amplified by Cunningham to define northern India to comprise the Punjab proper including Kashmir and the adjoining hill states, eastern Afghanistan beyond Indus and the Sutlej states to the west of the sarasvatI river.

 

Geographically, the sarasvatI basin can be traced to the currently known: ghaggar-nALI-hakDA-rainI-nArA-wAhindA-mihrAn-purAN channels. Ghaggar might have been a stream that rose in the Siwaliks and that joined the sarasvatI. This network runs parallel to the Indus across Sind. The river flowed from the Himalayas to the Rann of Kutch. [cf. Oldham, C.F., JRAS, 1893, p.49 on the Lost river of the Indian desert; Sir A. Burnes, Memoir n the Eastern Branch of the River Indus, given an Account of the alterations produced on it by an earthquake, also a Theory of the formation of the Runn, Trans. RAS, III,1834, pp. 550-88].

 

Geologically, the entire sarasvatI river bed, and the arm of the Arabian sea (formerly spanning into saline Ranns of kutch) into which the river fell are on an earth-quake belt; an earthquake could have upraised this entire river-sea-bed profile, drying up the river. [This may explain the formation of the Thar desert on the left banks of the river in earlier earthquakes; also, perhaps of the Thal desert in Pakistan. Did some tracts of the thar desert support cultivation in ancient times? Geological surveys do indicate subsoil water in some tracts. Even today, over 2 million people in Rajasthan live in these tracts! The Sanskrit name is maru-sthalI. cf. Tamil maruta-nilam??].

 

Was this event of the dried-up sarasvatI linkable to the 12 years of drought in the Santanu reign -- an anecdote in the Mahabharata? Could this explain the migrations of the Indus-Sarasvati people to other parts of the sub-continent?

 

Another possibility is that the head-waters of sarasvatI were captured by sutlej (sutudrI) shrinking the water-volume carried by sarasvatI. [cf. H.Raychaudhari, The Sarasvati, in Science and Culture, VIII, 12, June 1943; Studies in Indian Antiquities, Calcutta University, 1958, pp. 121-41]. Yamuna is also considered a tributary of the sarasvatI (Wadia, D.N., Geology of India, London, 1949, p.41).

 

Could the Indo-Aryan migrations, attested in a number of scholarly studies, have been caused by the (gradual?) drying-up of the river?

Linguistically, was this Indus\-Sarasvati a region which had synthesized the Indo-Aryan (Gypsy, Dardic, Panjabi, Gujarati), Dravidian (Brahui, Tamil) and Munda language streams, before internal migrations began circa 1700 B.C.? Was this a south asian linguistic area, circa 2500 B.C.? In the lingua franca, was the river called khal = stream (Tamil)? [khAyal (Malayalam); khADI (Gujarati); khAl (Hindi)]? Was drshadvatI like gangA, a term absorbed from Munda? [The absorption of the Dravidian retroflex sounds render the Indo-Aryan tongues to be distinct from the IE; also, cf. references to Indian sememes in Turner's comparative indo-aryan dictionary and the author's work: Comparative Etymological Dictionary of South Asian Languages (in press)].

 

What are the dates of the formation of the Rann of Kutch? What are the dates of the drying-up of the Sarasvati river? Do the vivid landsat pictures of the lost river skirting the Indian desert convey enough information to unravel the geological causes of the drying-up?

 

Maybe, further researches to firm up these dates will hold a clue to unravel the apparent discontinuity between Indus-Sarasvati proto-historic culture (circa 3000-1700 B.C.) and the linguistic evidence of the historical periods (circa 300 B.C.) of the region. [Recent excavations in Banawali and Dholavira seem to establish the continuity of settlements bridging this apparent gap between circa 1700 and 300 B.C. belying some theories about the abrupt disappearance of the Harappan tradition, say, caused by floods on the Indus?]

 

Defining the course of the ancient, `lost' Sarasvati river

The following extracts, principally from earth sciences' and LANDSAT literature establish the existence of Sarasvati river contiguous to the Indus river valley and the area of Rann of Kutch and the Gulf of Cambay in Gujarat. This region is studded with many Harappan culture sites.

 

Background

Harappa is a site on the west bank of Ravi; Kalibangan is a site on the right bank of Sutlej; Amri is a site on the west bank of Indus (close to the Arabian sea); Banawali is located 15 km northwest of Fatehbad, near the Sarasvati river and about 120 km east of Kalibangan; Lothal and Rangpur are sites below the Rann of Kutch.

 

Landsat photographs analyzed

Bimal Ghose et al (1979) use images taken in 1972. Plate V traces the wide valley of the Sarasvati running from Suratgarh through Anupgarh to Fort Abbas and Ahmadpur East. From Anupgarh another wide belt of discontinuous patches of dark grey tone runs southwestward upto Sakhi. From Sakhi, the remnant of a former valley can be traced towards the west ... the imagery reveals the presence of a narrow zone of saline/alkaline fields, partly obliterated by the overlying sand dunes, extending upto Khangarh. To the south of Khangarh, a narrow strip of green vegetation, producing a slightly darker tone than the surroundings, can be identified. It runs from Islamgarh, through Dharmi Khu, Ghantial, Shahgarh, Babuwali and Rajar to Mihal Mungra. This was the course of the Sarasvati from the Himalaya to the Rann of Kutch after the river severed relations with Luni. South of Mihal Mungra, the course could be traced up to the present Hakra channel and there are indications of its having even crossed the Hakra channel (Plate VI). This signifies that the course of the old Saraswati might have been somewhere to the west of the present Hakra ... The other major courses of the Saraswati could be identified further to the west, through Mithra and Sandh, the remnants of which are now known as the Raini and the Wahinda rivers. Here also the river shifted its course several times, and, at one time, flowed to the east of the Wahinda river, through Mundo. Finally, the river ceased to flow southward and met the Sutlej to the west of Ahmadpur East.

 

Ramasamy, Bakliwal and Verma (1991) show satellite photographs mosaiced, planimetrically controlled ... Figure 1 shows the last tongue of the Saraswati river ... The study of remotely-sensed data in the desert tract of Rajasthan shows that there are plenty of paleochannels with well sprung-up tentacles throughout the desert (figure 3). On the northern edge of the Thar-Great Indian desert at the Ganganagar-Anupgarh plains a well-developed set of paleochannels are clearly discernible in satellite photographs (figures 1 and 4). Bakliwal et al (1988) have explained that these well sprung-up paleochannels are traces of the mighty Saraswati river which once ruled the desert. Yashpal et al (1980) have argued that the paleochannels observed in the Anupgarh plains are the arm of the Saraswati river, which has been displaced by the present day Gaggar river ... that the Saraswati river once flowed close to the Aravalli hill ranges and met the Arabian Sea in the Rann of Kutch, that it has migrated towards the west, the north-west and the north and has ultimately got lost in the Anupgarh plains ... Yash Pal et al (1980) present in Figure 3 a synoptic view provided by the Landsat of the northwestern Indian subcontinent showing 6-8 km wide paleochannel of the Saraswati ... ; Figure 4 shows the old bed of the Sarasvati river ... Figure 7 shows a synoptic view of the Indus valley showing possible course of the Sarasvati beyond Marot through the Nara into the Rann of Kutch ...

 

Ringstones in ancient time in Gulf of Cambay

Alex Rogers, 1870. A few remarks on the Geology of the country surrounding the Gulf of Cambay in Western India, Quarterly Journal of Geological Society of London, 26: 118-124 who was perhaps among the earliest observers of the geology of the Gulf of Cambay (close to Lothal), points out that from the geological formation of the country bordering on the Rann, it appeared that the drainage of the PanjAb once flowed into it: `` ... The rapid silting up of the Gulf of Cambay gives particular interest to an inquiry into the geological conditions which probably shaped it in remote ages ... (The head of the Gulf) comprises within itself te Great Runn of Cutch ... primary or metamorphic rocks are traceable in its immediate vicinity only in a small tract on its west coast ... even the highest points of the granite peaks show signs of weathering, and probably also of the erosive action of waves ... Many considerations point to the existence in former ages of some large river flowing down from the north, and falling into the Indian Ocean somewhere in the position of the present Gulf of Cambay: and it is not improbable that that river may have been the Indus. It may have been that the original course of the Indus from the Punjab was in a more south-easterly direction than that of the present day ... (In this Gulf), coinciding to a large extent with the black-soil belt, there can be clearly traced a natural depression in the surface of the country for some twenty miles from the head of the Gulf, terminating in a shallow lake of brackish water called the Null ... Shells of the genus CERITHIUM, an estuarine form, are found lying loose in the black soil many miles from this point (Bhogava); and the records of the old Revenue Survey of Goozerat state that there were formerly found in the Null large stones with holes through them, which had evidently served as anchors for boats of some size ... [cf. the ring stones found in Mohenjo-daro] ... there is historical and well-known proof of the alteration of the level of the larger of these salt flats as the consequence of an earthquake in AD 1819 ... only a much more violent action would have separated the laterites of the high and low levels ... this rock, again, appears at precisely the same level on the opposite sides of valleys in the Concan and Deccan, giving ample proof of dunudation ... at the time (some of the Vedas) were composed, the Suruswuttee, the most easterly of the Punjab rivers, which now loses itsels in the desert of Rajpootana, flowed into the Indian Ocean. This confirms to come extent the theory of the case of the alluvial deposit at the head of the Gulf of Cambay.''

 

Raverty, H.G.Major, Bombay Army, 1893, The Mihran of Sind and its tributaries: a geographical and historical study, Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. lxi, Pt. 2, pp. 155-297: `` ... to notice some of the numerous fluctuations in the courses of the Sindhu, Ab-i-Sind, or Indus, and of the rivers of the Panj-ab. The changes in the courses of two of these rivers, together with the drying up of the Hakra, Wahindah, or Bahindah were so considerable that they reduced a vast extent of once fruitful country to a howling wilderness, and thus several flourishing cities and towns became ruined or deserted by their inhabitants ... the old course of the Biah, or `Bias' previous to its junction with the Sutlaj, when both rivers lost their names and became Hariari , Nili or Gharah ... why the army of Islam marched along the bases of the mountains, for the route was long, and the way by Sasruti and Marut was nearer? He (Mangu Khan) was answered that the numerous fissures on the banks of the river rendered the way impossible for the army ... Sarasti is the ancient name of Sirsa: Sursuti is the name of a river, the ancient Saraswati ... Sutlaj was a tributary of the Hakra or Wahindah ... Hakra ... appears to be the modified form of Sagara, the letter S being pronounced H in Rajputana and Sindh ... Sagar is the Sanskrit for `ocean', `sea' etc., and it is still known as the Sind-Sagar near the sea coast. Tod calls it the `Sankra', which is another form of the name; and it is called Sankrah in the treaty entered into by Nadir Shah, and Muhammad Shah, Badshah of Dihli, when ceding all the territory west of it to the Persians ... Hakra did once run through the so-called `Indian Desert' ... Ghag-gar, the Sursuti and the Chitang were also the tributaries of Sind-Sagar or Wahindah or Hakra ... Mansuriyat ... this city is situated among the branches of the Mihran river, and from that place the river unites with the ocean by two channels. One is near the town of Loharanj, and the other bends round towards the east in the confines of Kaj (Kachch) and is called the Sind Shakar (Sind-Sagarah) which means the The Sea of Sind. The river Sarasat unites with the ocean to the east of Suminath. This last named river is, of course, the Saraswati, which falls into he sea near Pattan Som-nath, not the classical river, the tributary of the Ghag-ghar, described farther on, the sacred river of the Brahmans ... At Thatha the Sind is called Mihran ...''

 

Leshnik, Lawrence S., 1968, The Harappan Port of Lothal: Another View, American Anthropologist, 70, 1968, pp. 911-921: `` ... The Volkerwanderung that brought the Harappans to Lothal (2450 BC) is conceived of as a sea passage from the Indus ... This dating is, however, questionable and exploration of the Kutch area has brought to light a number of Harappan sites there (Joshi, J.P. 1966, Exploration in Northern Kutch, Journal of the Oriental Institute, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, 16: 62-67), so the arrival- by-sea theory will have to be reconsidered ... In Mohenjo-daro there is a linear representation of a man using the shaduf, so that its presence is documented for the Harappan civilization as well ... Marshall describes the Mohenjo-daro ringstones as having slots that were used to fasten stones to something that passed through the central aperture. This could have been the arm of a shaduf, to which the stone weights were lashed by rope or leather thongs. The shaduf is still employed near Lothal, although the stones are no longer pierced, but simply secured with rope. Pierced stones continue however to be used in this way in Eastern India ... A note on the Lothal tank as an irrigation reservoir ... ''

 

R.D. Oldham, 1886, On probable changes in the geography of the Punjab and its rivers - a historico-geographical study, J. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, 55: 322-343: `` ... we have now seen that a dry river bed can be traced, practically continuously, from Tohana in Hissar district to the Eastern Narra in Sind ... `` C.F. Oldham, 1893, The Saraswati and the lost river of the Indian Desert, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, pp. 48-76: `` ... local legends assert (that Sarasvati) once flowed through the desert to the sea. In confirmation of these traditions, the channel referred to, which is called Hakra or Sotra, can be traced through the Bikanir and Bhawulpur states into Sind, and thence onwards to the Rann of Kach ... attested by the ruins everywhere overspread what is now an arid sandy waste. Throughout this tract are scattered mounds, marking the sites of cities and towns. And there are strongholds still remaining ... Amongst these ruins are found, not only the huge bricks used by the Hindus in the remote past, but others of a much later make ... Freshwater shells, exactly similar to those now seen in the PanjAb rivers, are to be found in this old river-bed and upon its banks ... After entering Sind the Hakra turns southward, and becomes continuous with the old river-bed generally known as Narra. This channel, which bears also the names of Hakra or Sagara, Wahind and Dahan, is to be traced onward to the Rann of Kach ... Tha Hakra varies in different parts of its course from about two to six miles in width, which is sufficient for a very large river ... The only river near Marot was the Hakra ...

 

Lost courses of the Sarasvati

Bimal Ghose, Amal Kar and Zahid Husain, 1979, The lost courses of the Sarasvati river in the Great Indian Desert: New evidence from Landsat Imagery, Geographical Journal, 145: 446-451: ``Interpretation of LANDSAT imagery and field investigation in the western part of Jaisalmer district in India have revealed some hitherto unknown abandoned courses of the former Saraswati river. It has been suggested that these courses were alive before the Saraswati occupied the Raini or the Wahinda courses, and contributed to the alluviation of the region. The subsurface water in the region is contributed mainly by the Himalayan precipitation flowing subterraneously through the former courses of the Saraswati ... .''

 

River migrations in Western India

Ramasamy, SM, PC Bakliwal and RP Verma, 1991, Remote Sensing and River migrations in Western India, Int. J. Remote Sensing, Vol. 12, No. 12, 2597-2609: ``The art of remote sensing has opened up many vistas in the study of river migration as satellite photographs, both in their normal and digitally enhanced modes, vividly show the rivers and their migratory signatures. The rivers migrate for various reasons amongst which tectonic movement is one of the main causes ... The study has shown that Western India sow considerable signs of Quaternary tectonics ... `` ... (Landsat photographs, on a 1:1 000 000 scale) ... the palaeochannels were interpreted, as exhibiting linear, curvilinear and loop-like features with typical black ribbon-like stripes ... The Landsat imagery studies show that the Indus river has a very wide flood plain on either side of its course up to a maximum width of 100-120 km in the east and south-east. To have such a wide flood plain on only one side shows that the Indus river has preferentially migrated towards the north-west in the northern parts and towards the west in the central and southern parts. The study of remotely sensed data in the desert tract of Rajastan shows that there are plenty of paleochannels with well sprung-up tentacles throughout the desert. On the northern edge of the Thar-Great Indian desert at the Ganganagar-Anupgarh plains a well-developed set of palaeochannels are clearly discernible in satellite photographs. (Bakliwal PC , Ramasamy, SM, and Grover, AK, 1983, Use of remote sensing in identification of possible areas for groundwater, hydrocarbons and minerals in the Thar desert, Western India, Proceeding volume of the International conference on prospecting in areas of desert terrain, The Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Publications, 14-17 April, Rabat, Morocco, 121-129) have explained that these well sprung-up palaeochannels are traces of the mighty Saraswati river which once ruled the desert ... . (these and) the present study show clearly that the Saraswati river once flowed close to the Aravalli hill ranges and met the Arabian sea in the Rann of Kutch, that it has migrated towards the west, the north-west and the north and has ultimately got lost in the Anupgarh plains ...

 

`` ... When the Aravalli hills are traced back to the foothills of the Himalayas the water divide of the Yamuna and Saraswati rivers becomes apparent. Hence, it follows that the drifting of the Saraswati river from its easterly flow towards the Great Indian Desert would have been initiated by such a rise in the Aravalli mountains and that due to the subsequent Luni-Sukri cymatogenic arching, the Saraswati migration towards the north-west would have been accelerated ...

 

`` ... it seems that climatic changes have also played a subordinate role in shifting the (Sarasvati) river towards the north. When the Saraswati flowed in a southwesterly direction it was flowing against the northeasterly moving sand advance in the Thar desert. It can be concluded, therefore, that the Saraswati river could not overcome such a sand advance and hence that it started drifting towards the north with a rotational migration in a clockwise direction until ultimately it was buried in the Anupgarh plains ... ''

 

P.C. Bakliwal and A.K. Grover, 1988, Signatures and migration of Saraswati river in Thar desert, Western India, Rec. Geol. Surv. Ind., 116: Pts. 3-8, pp. 77-86:

 

`` ... Remote sensing study of the Great Indian Desert reveals numerous signatures of palaeochannels in the form of curvilinear and meandering courses with feeble to contrasting tonal variations. The Saraswati river, which is believed to be lost in the desert, could be traced through these palaeochannels as a migratory river. Its initial course flowed close to the Aravalli ranges and successive six stages took west and northwesterly shifts till it coincides with the dry bed of Ghaggar river. The groundwater, archaeological and pedological data with selected ground truths also corroborate these findings. The migration of river Saraswati seems to be caused by tectonic disturbances in Hardwar-Delhi ridge zone, Luni-Surki lineament, Cambay Graben and Kutch fault facilitated by contrasting climatic variations. The stream piracy by Yamuna river at later stage is responsible for the ultimate loss of water and drying up of the Saraswati river ... ``

 

Secrets of the Thar desert

Singhvi AK and Kar, Amal eds., 1992, Thar Desert in Rajasthan: Land, Man and Environment, Bangalore, Geological Society of India, Bangalore: `` ... In the south it (Thar desert) has a sharp natural boundary with the world's largest saline waste - the Great Rann of Kahchh, while in the north the riparian sub-Himalayan plains define its boundary ... Quaternary continental sediments in the Thar desert of Rajasthan comprise a succession of fluvial, fluvio-lacusrine and aeolian deposits ... The neogene tectonic movements ... are considered as responsible for controlling the origin, configuration and development of basins of deposition ... Occurrence of aligned earthquake epicentres of different dates from 1879 to 1976 AD along it (Luni-Sukri lineament from the Rann to the Sambhar lake) in the Kachchh area suggests its neotectonic potentiality ...`` ... The dry bed of the Ghaggar is conspicuous on the satellite imagery of north Rajasthan and adjoining parts of Pakistan as a continuous wide belt running through Suratgarh and Anupgarh in India to Fort Abbas and Ahmadpur East (in Pakistan) [(Ghose et al., 1979, The lost courses of the Sarasvati river in the Great Indian Desert - new evidence from Landsat imageries, Geographical Journal, 145 (3): 446-451); Balkiwal, PC and Grover, AK, 1988, Signatures and migration of Sarasvati river in Thar desert, western India, Rec. Geol. Surv. India, 116 (3-8)]. Some south-flowing earlier courses of this stream were detected through the western part of Jaisalmer district and in the Bikaner-Sardarshahr tract further east. Buried courses of another Himalayan stream, R. Drishadvati (which was also a tributary to the Saraswati) were found in the Churu-Nagaur tract. The rivers had several tributaries joining them from the Aravallis and other rocky areas within the desert. Recent SEM analysis of the Quaternary sediments of the northeastern part of the desert indicate considerable glacial, as well as fluvial, transport of some of the sediments [Raghav, KS, 1991, Quaternary history of a part of the northeast fringe of the Thar desert of India, Ann. Arid Zone, 30(4)]. The survival of the Saraswati-Drishadvati courses depended to a large extent on the perennial supply of water from the mightier Sutlej (the Satadru of Vedic literature) which shifted its course several times in the sub-Himalayan plains due to neotectonism, change of grade etc. (Valdiya, KS, 1989, Neotectonic implication of collision of Indian and Asian plates, Ind. J. Geology, 61: 1-13). A detailed account of former streams in the region is provided by Kar (Kar, A., 1992, Drainage desiccation, water erosion and desertification in northwest India, in: Desertification in the Thar, Sahara and Sahel Regions, AK Sen ed., Scientific Publishers, Jodhpur). Some of the buried stream segments are potential ground water aquifers.. The course of the Saraswati to the west of Jaisalmer has an estimated reserve of about 3000 mcm water awaiting a judicious exploitation ...

 

`` ... Mughal M.R. (1982, Recent archaeological research in the Cholistan desert, in: Harappan Civilization, GL Possehl, ed., Oxford, pp. 85-95) has located a large number of settlements of the Hakra Ware culture, dating to the fourth millennium BC., and of the Harappan culture, dated to the third millennium BC, on this (Ghaggar-Hakra) river in Pakistan. Nearly two hundred settlements of the Harappan culture have been located by Indian archaeologists on the Ghaggar river and is tributaries in Punjab, Haryana and northern Rajasthan [Ghosh, A., 1952, The Rajasthan Desert - its archaeological aspect, Bulletin of the National Inst. Sci., I : 37-42; Bhan, S., 1973, The sequence and spread of prehistoric cultures in the upper Saraswati basin in: Radiocarbon and Indian Archaeology, DP Agrawal and A. Ghosh eds., TIFR, Bombay, pp. 252-263] ... Kalibangan was abandoned at the beginning of the second millennium BC., probably due to the drying up of the river and shifting of the Sutlaj away from it (Lal. B.B., 1979, Kalibangan and Indus civilization, in: Essays in Indian Protohistory, DP Agrawal and DK Chakrabarti eds., BR Publ., Delhi, pp. 65-97).

 

Bhan, Suraj., 1973, The sequence and spread of prehistoric cultures in the upper Saraswati basin in: Radiocarbon and Indian Archaeology, DP Agrawal and A.Ghosh eds., TIFR, Bombay, pp. 252-263: `` ... The Kalibangan I culture (c. 2300 - 2100 BC) ... The Siswal A ware was recovered from 16 sites in the south-western part of Haryana adjoining northern Rajasthan. It extended to Jind and Paoli in the north-eat. The comparative preponderance of the ware in the Drsadvati valley suggests the preference of the pre-Harappan folk for smaller river valleys as in north Rajasthan ... But the absence of the Late Harappan ware from north Rajasthan and the adjoining regions of Haryana (south of Vanawali near Fatehabad in the Sarasvati valley and Alipur Kharar near Hansi in the Drsadvati valley) suggests the survival of the Harappa culture in our region (as also in the north-eastern Panjab and western UP), after the lower and mid zones of the Sarasvati basin had been deserted. The desertion of the semi-arid zone of north Rajasthan and Bahawalpur by the Harappans or the Harappa-influenced kindred folks, and their subsequent expansion further north-east seems to have been forced by the growing desiccation of the Sarasvati basin consequent upon the changes in the courses of the Sarasvati, Drshadvati and the Yamuna rivers. It was this second phase of the Harappan expansion which was largely responsible for the colonization of the ancient Madhya Desa which ensued with the settlements of Daulatpur I, Alamgirpur I etc ... With more than 90 OCP or Late (degenerate) Harappan sites reported from the doab it would be difficult to agree with Agrawal (1967-68) that the doab was first colonized by the iron-using PGW people.''

 

Yash Pal, Baldev Sahai, R.K.Sood and D.P. Agrawal, Space Applications Centre, and PRL, Ahmedabad, 1980, Remote sensing of the `lost' Sarasvati river: Proc. Indan Acad. Sci. (Earth and Planetary Sci.), Vol. 89, No. 3, Nov. 1980, pp. 317-331: `` ... delineation of the palaeochannels of the Satluj, the Yamuna and the Ghaggar to trace the `lost' Sarasvati. Study of Landsat imagery shows that the Satluj once flowed into the Ghaggar; it is also probable the Yamuna too was flowing into the Ghaggar river at the same time. The bed of this river is traceable upto Marot, from where it is likely to have extended through Hakra/Nara bed to the Rann of Kutch. The present dried bed of the Ghaggar was thus part of a major river, anciently known as Sarasvati. Analysis of satellite imagery supports the above hypothesis regarding the course of the `lost' Sarasvati ...

 

`` ... Satluj and Yamuna are perennial rivers ... the rivers Ghaggar, Sarasvati, Markanda and Chautang all rise from the Siwalik Hills and are non-perennial. They flow mainly during the monsoon. At present none of them reaches the sea or joins any major river as a tributary ... `` ... The sharp westward right-angled bend in the course of Satluj is suggestive of its diversion in the past, as at the point of river capture or stream diversion similar elbows develop ... There is a sudden widening of the Ghaggar Valley about 25 km. south of Patiala ... can be explained only if a major tributary was joining Ghaggar at this place. The satellite imagery does show a major palaeochannel joining the Ghaggar here ... Our observations are supported by the field data of Singh (Gurdev Singh, 1952, The Geographer, 5,27) who mentions a channel starting near Ropar and leading towards Tohana (29.35N, 75.55E). The area along this old course of the Satluj is called `dhaia' meaning an upland or high bank ... It might have required only a little tectonic movement to disturb its previous course and force it into its present channel ... Our studies show that the Satluj was the main tributary of the Ghaggar and that subsequently the tectonic movements may have forced the Satluj westward and the Ghaggar dried. Wilhelmy (H., 1969, Z. Geomorphol. Suppl., 8, 76) considered ... the second alternative, i.e., river capture. The Satudri (Satluj) might have been a tributary of the Vipasa (Beas) and through headward erosion captured the waters of the river coming down the Himalayas near Ropar. Tectonic movements may have aided the river capture ...

 

`` ... the Landsat imagery of the Indus system and it appears that the confluence of the Satluj with the Indus may not be an ancient feature. The palaeochannel of the river Beas, which is quite conspicuous in Landsat imagery, joined the Indus independent of the Satluj. There is a distinct palaeochannel which seems to suggest that the Satluj flowed through the Nara directly into the Rann of Kutch ...

 

`` ... The ancient bed of the Ghaggar has a constant width of about 6 to 8 km. from Shatrana in Punjab to Marot in Pakistan. The bed stands out very clearly having a dark tone in the black-and-white imagery and reddish one in false colour composites. There is a clear palaeochannel southeast of the river Markanda which joins the ancient bed of the Ghaggar near Shatrana ... Another channel which corresponds to the present Chautang (Drishadvati) seems to join the Ghaggar near Suratgarh. Near Anupgarh the ancient Ghaggar bed bifurcates and both the plaeochannels come to an abrupt end; the upper one terminates near Marot and the lower one near Beriwala. These two terminal channels of the Ghaggar seem to disappear in a depression which is suggested by salt encrustation and the physiography of the area ...

 

`` ... Palaeo-Yamuna was alive during the Painted Grey Ware (PGW) period (c. 800-400 BC) as indicated by the distribution of the PGW sites on its banks (Gupta SP etal., 1977, Ecology and archaeology of Western India eds. DP Agrawal and BM Pande, New Delhi, Concept Pub., p. 79). Both the Chautang and the Ghaggar beds have archaeological mounds on their banks (Pande BM, ibid, p.55). The Ghaggar continued to be a live river during the pre-Harappan (c. 2500-2200 BC) and the Harappan times (c. 2200-1700 BC). Even during the PGW times, there is some indication of habitation along the palaeochannel, though the PGW mounds follow a very narrow river bed, perhaps indicating a dwindling water supply. The archaeological evidence for dating the Chautang is not very definite yet, though the late Harappan mounds along it appear to be a clear indication that it was a living river during at least the late Harappan time (c. 1700-1000 BC) ...

 

`` ... For miles and miles around Marot one finds numerous place names with a suffix toba, which in the local language means a playa (or rann) ... It is obviously improbable for such a mighty river to vanish into a shallow depression (or khadins in the local languages) in its heyday. There is, therefore, a good possibility that the Ghaggar flowed into the Nara and further into the Rann of Kutch without joining the Indus ... `` ... If the bore-hole samples from these areas are analysed, one is sure to come across mineralogical compositions reflecting the signatures of the ancient Satluj and the Palaeo-Yamuna when they flowed through the Sarasvati bed ... A multidisciplinary approach employing archaeological, mineralogical, chemical and thermoluminescence, combined with remote sensing techniques can provide a clear and consistent history of these changes in the palaeochannels of northwestern sub-continent in an absolute time-frame.''

 

R.L. Raikes (a hydrologist) and R.K. Karanth (a geologist) found at Kalibangan (in 1967) through a drilling program, that at a depth of 11 m. below the present flood-plain level, a coarse, greyish sand very similar in mineral content to that found in the bed of the present-day Yamuna. It extended over a width at least four times that of the bed of the present-day Yamuna and down to a depth, at one point at least, of 30 m. ..the material in short is typical flood-plain deposit of the kind being laid down today at a rate of about 2 m. per thousand years. (R.L. Raikes, 1968, Kalibangan: Death from Natural causes, Antiquity, 42, pp. 286-291).

 

Climate change

Gurdip Singh, 1971, Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania, 6, 177-189: The Indus Valley Culture seen in the context of post-glacial climatic and ecological studies in North-West India: suggests that `` ... the significant increase in rainfall at the beginning of the third millennium BC, attested by palaeoecological evidence, played an important part in the sudden expansion of the Neolithic-Chalcolithic cultures in north-west India, ultimately leading to the prosperity of the Indus culture ... The present evidence would suggest that the onset of aridity in the region around 1800 BC probably resulted in the weakening of the Harappan culture in the arid and semi-arid parts of north-west India ... ''

 

Amal Kar and Bimal Ghose, 1984, Geographical Journal, The Drishadvati river system of India: an assessment and new findings, 150: 221-229: `` ... there are indications that the riveer formerly flowed southwards, through the desert, and was supplied from streams originating in the Aravallis, thus explaining the distribution of alluvium in the region ... Drishadvati ... means a stream with a pebbly bed ... The interfluve between the Saraswati and the Drishadvati used to be known as Brahmavarta and was sacred ... Sir Alexander Cunningham (1871, The ancient geography of India, repr. 1979, Indological Book House, Varanasi) first identified the Drishadvati with the modern Rakshi ... ``

 

Aurel Stein, 1942, A survey of ancient sites along the `lost' Sarasvati River, Geographical Journal, 99: 173-182: `` ... the sketch-map based on the latest survey shows how great is the contrast between the very scanty volume of water brought down by the Ghaggar and the width of its dry bed within Bikaner territory; over more than 100 miles it is nowhere less than 2 miles and in places 4 miles or more. This bed is lined on both sides by dunes varying in height ... the Ghaggar bed above Hanumagarh, one notes that the number of mounds marking ancient sites long abandoned is here distinctly smaller than farther down the old river bed ... (mounds) known as ther or theri ... Archaeological facts prove cultivation, and with it settled occupation, to have been abandoned much earlier on the Hakra than on the Ghaggar ... trial excavation at Sandhanawala Ther, 3 miles to the north-west of Fort Abbas ... some sherds with incised characters which appear on many inscribed seals from Mohenjodaro and Harappa, chief sites of the Indus Valley cultre ... The great height and size of several others indicate prolonged settlement ... the evidence shows that down to historical times the Ghaggar carried water for irrigation under existing climatic conditions much farther than it does now. This makes it intelligible how the Sarasvati has come in hymns of the Rigveda to be praised as a great river ... upper portion of the ancient bed ... drying up during historical times ... hastened by diversion of flood water for irrigation brought about by more settled conditions and the resulting pressure of population. Lower down on the Hakra the main change was due to the Sutlej having in late prehistoric times abandoned the bed which before had joined the Ghaggar: the result of a law affecting all rivers whose course lies over alluvial plains ...

 

D. A. Holmes, 1968, The recent history of the Indus, Geographical Journal, 134: 367-382: ``.. Lambrick (H.T., 1967, The Indus Flood-plain and the `Indus' civilization, Geographical Journal, 133,4: 483-95) believes that the union of the Sutlej with the Beas (and thence with the Indus) in the West Punjab had already occurred prior to the time of Alexander. It must be assumed that the Nara was continuing to flow as a result of seasonal overspill from both the Indus and the Sutlej, the latter floods using the now dry Ghaggar channel (which is a remnant of the Sutlej-Nara system) ... ''

 

The 'cult object' on Harappan seals

What was this `cult object' which occurs on Harappan seals `called' in the lingua franca of circa 2500-1700 BC? What does it connote?

 

Using the `rebus' principle for decipherment of glyphs is a method that proved successful in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics. This principle has been modified and extended to cope with the Harappan glyphs (e.g. svastika) and other pictorial motifs (e.g. unicorn, `cult object', animals occupying the `field' of the seals with inscribed sign sequences).

 

What does the cult object look like?

It is a portable device that could be carried with hands aloft the shoulder of the carrier, as evidenced in Harappan tablets where this object occurs also as a field symbol by itself (without the ubiquitous `unicorn'). The structure has two elements.

 

It depicts a `flow' or a `churning motion' on the upper element. The upper element ends in a tapering, sharp-pointed edge as it is rests (or just floats) on the lower element.

 

The lower element is a bowl which also depicts some `spilling' or `drops' or alternatively, some `smoke or dust' and `dotted droplets'.

 

Mahadevan calls the structure a `filter' and sees echoes of `soma process.

 

The author of this author calls it a `drill-lathe-stove', the lapidary's tools of trade. The upper element looks like a drill used by the lapidary to drill holes in, say, faience beads. The lower element is the stove to bake the inscribed object.

 

The rationale for this interpretation is as follows: The upper element is the sharp-pointed drill bit depicted with zig-zag lines in a churning motion. The lower element is a portable stove depicted with flames or smoke emanating and bits of `drilled' articles depicted with dotted circles around the bowl.

 

What was the cult object called? What does the homonym 'mean' in Hara

ppan Economy

There is a word in Gujarati (and cognate words of South asian languages which can be semantically clustered) which connotes both a `drill-lathe' and a `portable stove'. The word is sangaDi.

 

Rebus: jangaDi is an extraordinarily specific, technical-professional term in Gujarati. It connotes an armored guard who accompanies the treasure brought into or taken out of the treasury. A cognate Sanskritized morpheme is jagada = a guard. cf. also jagati = pedestal.

 

Conclusions

Instead of providing conclusions with definitive statements on the proto-historic problem of great importance, the following simply-styled questions will be raised and possible answers indicated. The tentative, often hypothetical nature of the answers and the plethora of unanswered questions are intended to provoke further research work.

 

What is the saraswati river civilization?

 

After the discovery of the first archaeological site at Harappa in 1920, the civilization was referred to as Harappan culture. With the discovery of another major site at Mohenjo-daro in the same decade, it was re-christened as Indus civilization. Since 1950's a number of new type sites have been located. In particular, the sites of Rupar, Kalibangan, Lothal, Dholavira and Banawali. The characteristic feature of the location of these sites is that these are on the banks of or very close to the `lost' sarasvati river. Hence, the civilization should be re-christened as Indus-Sarasvati civilization. Sarasvati river is extolled in the Rigvedas(Rks).

 

Does the river exist in part and rest of it has disappeared?

 

A part of the river exists as Ghaggar in Haryana; the rest of it has disappeared in the fringes of the maru-sthalI or the thar desert.

 

Where were the geological excavations done?

 

Landsat pictures have revealed the traces of the lost river right upto Hakra river and the Rann of Kutch. Geological surveys in a number of locations along the `lost' river course have established the existence of a river flowing down from the Siwalik ranges and also the changes in the courses of the Indus tributaries and the Yamuna rivers. As Yamuna and Sutlej captured the water sources, Sarasvati might have dried up, aided by the upraisings of land caused by earthquakes.

 

What was found in the process?

 

The cumulative knowledge gained through geology, landsat and archaeological finds establishes the vast expanse of this great civilization. Kalibangan and Lothal may not be as grandiose as the urban Harappa but are typical Indus\-Sarasvati civilization sites.

 

How does it relate to Harappan civilization?

 

Seals of the type found in Harappa and Mohenjo-daro are also found in the Sarasvati river sites. Kalibangan also shows a ploughed field and fire-altars.

 

What research work needs to be done?

 

More researches need to be done in identifying the civilization that flourished along the Sarasvati river. Balarama's sojourn along this river up from the Rann of Kutch is depicted in the Mahabharata. This has to be studied further. Sanskrit literature will have abundant material on the importance of sarasvati. Siddha-mAtrka is the name of the BrAhmi script. BrAhmi is another name for Sarasvati. Without apriori assumption that brAhmI was derived from the Indus\-Sarasvati seal inscription script, it should be possible to postulate a hypothesis that sarasvati river played a significant part in the sustenance of the civilization circa 3000 to 1700 B.C. This may mean a new paradigm in our protohistoric studies. Aryans and Dravidians and perhaps Mundas lived in harmony in this civilization. The so-called indo-aryan and so-called dravidian languages may have originated from the common lingua franca spoken by these people on the Indus and Sarasvati river valleys. Thus, common words of Tamil can be found in Sanskrit/Vedic. The author claims to have established that the Dravidian etymological dictionary with 5000 entries can cease to exist since many of these words have cognates in vedic/munda and many south asian languages.

 

What research is going on to find the remains of the civilization?

 

Hopefully, this perspective should lead to more intensive geological and archaeological work on the banks of the lost river which has hundreds of unexplored sites.

 

Assistance and critical comments from the readers are requested

There should be an awareness that there is an essential unity that binds the south asian culture. Scholars should help build up on these strands of unity.

 

People should provide with information on cultural habits of the peoples of the region traversed by the rivers. For e.g. the festival bhogi celebrated on winter solstice is not only a South Indian festival. Bhogali bihu is celebrated in Assam; RohRi in Punjab. On the same day, mahAvrata is celebrated according to aitareya brAhmaNa. What is the ancient significance of this day? What are the practices followed by the womenfolk and agriculturists? Is something done about land rights on this day or is it just restricted to the distribution of winter crop produce?

 

Why is Sarasvati revered as goddess of speech? What are the anecdotes linked to Brahma? Why are so many brahma temples found along this river? What kind of research is already done?

 

A number of claims of decipherment of Indus (Sarasvati-Sindhu) script have been made. Mahadevan counted upto 40 such claims in 1992. Each new claim renders every one of the 40+ claims suspect. The problem is acute because we do not have a `rosetta stone' or multilingual inscriptions to authenticate the correctness of a decipherment. The next problem is that the sample is rather small -- only 2500+ inscriptions have been reported, with an average of six signs recorded on each seal/table inscription. The next larger problem is the so-called cleavage between the so-called Indo-Aryan and so-called Dravidian languages which has led to two distinct language groups in decipherment claims. [is this cleavage valid in `semantic' terms? Any Prakrit dictionary will attest to thousands of words common to both language streams?]

 

Which are the supporting organizations?

Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia has a group working on this problem. Prof. Asko Parpola in Helsinki Univ.is a keen enthusiast. Mahadevan in Madras has dedicated his entire life to this problem. Univ. of Aachen has a team working on the architectural aspects of Mohenjodaro.

 

What kind of research can foreign organizations support?

 

Areas which can be supported are: research into languages of south asia and comparative lexemes and grammatical features; archaeological explorations, more landsat analyses and geological drillings of more sites along the sarasvati river.

 

Why the reference to the cult object?

 

The earlier message, providing a possible word for the cult object as sangaDi is intended to re-kindle an interest among a large group of scholars to indicate if there are words in the south asian languages which may fit with the pictorial motif. From an artistic point of view, is the interpretation valid? Are there alternative readings? What indeed were the Indus-Sarasvati people trying to convey through such seal messages?

 

Are there words similar to Gujrati sangADi in other South asian languages and what do the words mean?.

Maru is the Sanskrit name of the desert that lies between the Indus-Sarasvati river valleys of south Asia. It is also called thar in India and thal in Pakistan.

 

For a maritime civilization, a zone exterior to the habitation is the marsh, the inundated area, and by extension, the sea. The recent geological studies and analysis of satellite images show the tracts of sub-soil water-channels in the thar desert and the channels of the dry-beds of the 'lost' sarasvati river which merge with the hakra [(cf. sAgara = ocean (Sanskrit)] channels in to the Rann of Kutch and the possibility that these zones supported agriculture and hence, habitations in ancient times (circa 3000 B.C.)

 

These analyses add a new significance to the interpretation of the term 'maru' as marsh-land; cf., marutam = agricultural tracts (Sangam Tamil).

 

Is there a proto-south asian (indic) root word which explains the word: maru = desert? also, ocean-shore (rann)?

 

(1) SEMANTIC CLUSTER: DESERT

 

The proto-dravidian/indo-aryan forms are found in etyma with the semantic cluster = land boundary: maryA = boundary (Sanskrit); mariyAdA = boundary, limit, shore (Pali); varampu, varappu = limit, boundary; a low ridge or bank to retain water in fields for irrigation (Tamil); barangayI = borough or county in the Philippines (Tagalog); barhA, barhetA = land of a township or village farthest from the inhabited portion, constituting the third class of land (Hindi -central and upper doab); baruA, barwA = sandy soil of inferior quality, a mixture of sand and clay (Hindi).

 

(2) SEMANTIC CLUSTER: WATER/OCEAN

 

A semantic cluster = water/shore is found in the following lexemes: bAr = water (Hindi); vAri = water (Sanskrit); bArAn = rain (Hindi); bArAni = land watered by rain (Hindi); bharu = sea (Pali, Sanskrit); maru = desert; sand-desert (Pali); mariyAdA = shore (Pali); [cf. Indo-European lexemes for sea: mare (Latin); muir (Irish); marei (Gothic); (are-)morica (Gaulish); mArEs (Lithuanian); morje (Slavonic).

 

Jean Przyluski, in Var

[Guest guest]

Recent Research on the Sarasvati River

 

 

 

There is a book available that goes further into the details of the Saravati river research, 'New Discoveries About Vedic Sarasvati' written by Dr Ravi Prakash Arya. He is the Chief Editor of Vedic Science journal.

 

Kolkata (on Ma_gha Shukla Panchami day: Sarasvati janma tithi celebration held in a big way on Feb. 17, 2002), Delhi, Kalibangan, Mohangarh (Jaisalmer Dist.) where the river is flowing again: 40 ft. wide, 12 ft. deep channel; the huge inaugural plaque there reads: Sarasvati mahanadi ru_pa_ nahar. Kalyan

 

 

 

India's 'miracle river'

 

 

 

Scientists say new evidence could unearth the Saraswati. The legend of the mighty Saraswati river has lived on in India since time immemorial. Ancient Hindu scriptures called the Vedas, recorded thousands of years ago, are full of tantalising hymns about it being the life-stream of the people.

 

In a new radio programme, Madhur Jaffrey recounts the legend of the Saraswati river - and explores startling new evidence that it may not have been a myth after all. Vast and awesome, the Saraswati's holy waters are supposed to have flowed from the Himalayas into the sea, nourishing the land along the way. But as the centuries passed and no one could find it, myth, belief and religion came together and the Saraswati passed into the realm of folklore.

 

Now most people in India think of it as a mythical river. Some even believe that it is an invisible river or that it still flows underground. Another commonly held perception is that the Saraswati once flowed through the north Indian city of Allahabad, meeting there with two other rivers, the Ganges and the Jamuna. The confluence of these three rivers - one of which is not visible to the eye - is considered one of India's holiest spots.

 

 

 

Saraswati, Hindu goddess of Learning

 

 

 

For most of the country, the name Saraswati is better known for its divine namesake - the goddess Saraswati, Hindu goddess of Learning. Worshiped particularly by students and school children, her festival falls in February, and the city of Calcutta is famous for celebrating her in style. Makeshift shrines are erected in every street and after the festival is over, thousands of the images are taken to the banks of the river Hooghly and pitched into the water where they are forever carried away by the river.

 

The goddess' connection to water is part of the enigma that surrounds the river. But that mystery could be set to be dispelled forever, as startling scientific evidence has come to light. Through satellite photography, scientists have mapped the course of an enormous river that once flowed through the north western region of India. The images show that it was 8 km wide in places and that it dried up 4,000 years ago.

 

Dr JR Sharma who heads the Remote Sensing Services Centre in Jodhpur which is mapping the images, believes a major earthquake may have played a part in the demise of the Saraswati. There was, he says, a big tectonic activity that stopped the water supply to the river. Sharma and his team believe they have found the Saraswati and are excited about what this discovery could mean for India. The idea is to tap its potential as a water source. They are working with India's leading water experts who are using the satellite images as clues.

 

 

 

Scientists hope to find water under the desert

 

 

 

Deep in the western Rajasthan desert, not far from the security- conscious border with Pakistan, an extraordinary programme is underway. Giant drilling rigs probe deep into the dry, arid earth pulling out undisturbed layers of soil and sediment for scientists to study and test. Water engineers are exploring the region's ancient riverbeds for what they call groundwater - underground reservoirs that contain perfectly drinkable water. If they are successful, their discovery could transform the lives of thousands of locals who currently experience harsh water shortages.

 

Mr KS Sriwastawa of the Rajasthan State Groundwater Board believes one of these ancient buried channels may be the Saraswati. He knows the stories refer to the ancient river flowing through this area and says excitedly that carbon dating has revealed that the water they are finding is 4000 years old. That would date it to the time of the Saraswati. The modern search for the Saraswati was first sparked by an English engineer called CF Oldham in 1893 when he was riding his horse along the dry bed of a seasonal Rajasthani river called the Ghaggar.

 

As he rode on, he was struck by a sudden thought. The Ghaggar when it flowed, was a small, puny river and there was no reason for its bed to be up to 3km wide in places unless it occupied the former course of a much larger river - the Saraswati. The discovery of a vast prehistoric civilisation that lived along the banks of a major river, has added impetus to the growing modern belief that the Saraswati has been found. Over 1000 archaeological sites have been found on the course of this river and they date from 3000 BC. One of these sites is the prehistoric town of Kalibangan in northern Rajasthan.

 

The town has proved a treasure trove of information about the Bronze Age people who actually lived on the banks of the Saraswati. Archaeologists have discovered that there were priests, farmers, merchants and very advanced artists and craftsmen living there. Highly sophisticated seals on which there is evidence of writing have also been found, indicating that these people were literate, but unfortunately the seals have never been deciphered. They may well hold the clue to the mystery of what happened to the Saraswati and whether it has really been found again.

 

The Miracle River is [was] broadcast at 3.30pm on Saturday 29 June, 2002 on BBC Radio 4

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_2073000/2073159.stm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Recent Research into the Sarasvati River

 

 

 

The URL which details the efforts to trace River Sarasvati is at:

 

http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/prakalp/sarasvati01.htm

 

 

 

 

What a privilege it is to be part of this endeavor, unparalleled in the history of human civilization, as a 1600 km. long river which got desiccated about 4000 years ago comes alive to enable the present and future generations to recollect memories of Vedic cultural heritage, which is world heritage.

 

Jagmohan sets about bringing Saraswati alive

 

AKSHAYA MUKUL

 

Times News Network [ SATURDAY, JUNE 15, 2002 1:05:27 AM ]

 

NEW DELHI: A day after Culture Minister Jagmohan announced excavation to trace the ancient course of the Saraswati, the 'lost' river of Harappan civilisation, he has already set up a team of four "experts" who will undertake this onerous task.

 

Though Jagmohan denies the project is linked to the Sangh Parivar's agenda of equating Harappan civilisation with Hindus, he does talk of myths associated with several areas in Haryana where the Saraswati presumably once flowed. "Marxist historians have fed us on a certain kind of history. One should not close options," he says, adding, "If there is any evidence of Saraswati, we will see it, otherwise we will not push forward any view."

 

The four experts û Baldeo Sahai of ISRO, Ahmedabad, archaeologist S Kalyan Raman, glaciaologist YK Puri, and water consultant Madhav Chitle -- will carry out the first phase of excavation from Adi Badri to Bhagwanpura in Haryana followed in second phase from Bhagwanpura to Kalibangan on Rajasthan border.

 

Along with tracing the river's course, the experts have been tasked with deepening Kapalmochan and Ranmochan û "two wells fed by Saraswati where Pandavas had come and taken bath," says Jagmohan. If the effort does not yield Saraswati water in the wells, the experts have been told tap tubewells. "People consider it sacred. Right now water is muddy. Tubewell

 

water will be clean and faithfuls can take bath," says Jagmohan.

 

Another place where Saraswati will be traced is Thanesar, capital of Harshvardhan, a few kilometres from Kurukshetra. "Saraswati flowed here also and we have marked six points to trace its route," says Jagmohan. Plan also is to excavate seven mounds in Rakhigarhi, where minister claims five are of Harappan lineage and two of pre-Harappan times. With all this work, Jagmohan is "confident that Saraswati will come alive."

 

But Jagmohan's confidence is not shared by noted historians Suraj Bhan and Irfan Habib. Says Suraj Bhan, "In the 1960s, I worked in this area to trace the Saraswati's route. In Adi-badri no course of the Saraswati can be seen." He also denies having found any evidence related to Pandava period in this area.

 

"The legend goes that there were 1400 pilgrim centres on the Saraswati. RSS for decades has been working on the Saraswati project. In 1980s, its Itihas Sankalan Samiti and Apte Memorial Committee did take it up in a big way. The idea is to revive brahminism and sanctity of Vedas. Now it is showing dividends," he observes. "All of us know there is water underground which will come out through excavation anywhere," he says. "How can it be called Saraswati's water. Important thing is to trace the dry course of Ghaggar which has already been done." Habib, who has written extensively on Saraswati, feels the exercise is a "waste of money". The Hindutva historians, he notes, claimed Saraswati flowed from the Himalayas and now they are tracing it in the foothills of the Shivaliks. "This is an attempt by the RSS to make Harappan civilisation synonymous with Saraswati culture," he says.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=12987455

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Efforts to trace Saraswati's course

 

 

 

The Tribune, Chandigarh, June 13, 2002 Our Correspondent

 

Yamunanagar, June 12.

 

 

Union Culture and Tourism Minister Jagmohan has said research work on the Saraswati river would be undertaken on a priority basis. While addressing a seminar on Saraswati river research held here today, he said the Saraswati, originating from har Ki Doon glacier in the interior Himalayas, after crossing the Shivalik range, enters into the plains, near Adi Badri in the district.

 

He said he had been to Adi Badri today along with Union Minister of State for Home I.D. Swami. He said since the last century, several scholars and organizations had been making efforts to trace the course of Saraswati river. He lauded the contribution of the National Remote Sensing Agency, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, the Indian Space Research Organization, the Geological Survey of India and the Central Water Commission in this regard.

 

He announced that the work regarding tracing the course of Saraswati river would be started shortly in two phases, first from Adi Badri to Bhagwanpura and in Kurukshetra district and second from Bhagawanpur to Sirsa. He also announced that watershed management and water-harvesting dams would be constructed shortly by the Union Government.

 

Mr. Jagmohan announced that an international seminar on Saraswati river will be conducted at Kurukshetra in December. Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala assured the Union Government that the state government would provide all assistance in the development of Adi Badri and Kapal Mochan as pilgrim spots. He said Saraswati was revered not merely for its sanctity but also for being the mother of the ancient civilization and cradle of vedic literature that was conceived on its banks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Project to Revive Sarasvati River

 

 

Times News Network [ SATURDAY, JUNE 15, 2002 1:29:54 AM ]

 

 

SHIMLA: Sarasvati Nadi Shodh Prakalp, Bangalore, director Dr S Kalyanaraman said on Friday that the search for the "mythical" Sarasvati river, which began about 16 years ago, had reached a stage where it could be said that the river was neither a myth nor a legend, but hard fact.

Delivering a lecture organized by the Institute of Integrated Himalayan Studies at the Himachal University here, he said that after years of intensive research through scientific techniques, he could trace the origin of the river and the civilization which prospered along its banks.

 

``The revival of Sarasvati river begins in Haryana, with the water harvesting project from Adh Badri through Bilaspur and Kapala Mochan up to Pehoa, a distance of about 150 km, check-dams, clearing of the water-ways, restoration and renewal of the ghats of river and elimination of pollutants,'' he said.

 

"It is a proud moment that our engineers and scientists have established the feasibility of reviving this great Vedic river, with a conjunctive use of surface and sub-surface drainage systems. The feasibility study of the National Water Development Agency has been going on for the last 19 years and is continuing," he added.

 

Kalyanaraman said that the Rajasthan Canal, also called Sarasvati Mahanadirupanahar, was now flowing till Danan in Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan and would be extended to Gedra Road in Barmer district of the state.

 

"The waters of Sutlej river, which was the anchorage river of Sarasvati, flowing from Harike can be taken to the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, through the Mahanadirupanahar," he added. He said that of the nearly 2600 archeological sites of varying sizes, over 1500 settlements were found on the Sarasvati river basin, which included settlements larger than those of Harappa and Mohenjodaro.

 

Director of Himalayan Studies Yoginder Verma said that the research project being undertaken by the Sarasvati Nadi Shodh Prakalp aimed at making the river flow again in north-west India from Mansarovar to Gujarat and to interlink Himalayan and peninsular rivers to create a 40,000-km long national waterway in the country. This, along with the long coastline, would improve the infrastructure facilities in the country and complement the railways and national highways, he added.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=13006120&sType=1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Indian Satellites Find Water Under Desert

 

 

 

Hyderabad July 28, 2002. India's remote sensing satellites have traced the buried course of Saraswati, the mythical Himalayan river, kindling hopes of finding drinking water under the hot sands of the Thar desert in Rajasthan.

 

Mentioned in the Rig Veda, the Hindu scripture, and other ancient literature, the river is believed to have once flowed, parallel to the Indus, through what is now desert before falling into the Arabian Sea.

 

According to published literature, the river disappeared between 5000 BC and 3000 BC due to tectonic events in the Himalayas, that cut off the water supply, and climatic changes that converted what was once a lush green Rajasthan into an arid zone. Past attempts to accurately trace the lost river and reconstruct its drainage system did not succeed.

 

"Recent advancements in space-based sensors and in data processing technologies made it possible", says J. R. Sharma of the Jodhpur-based Remote Sensing Service Centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). He and his colleagues, A. K. Gupta and G. Sreenivasan have mapped the "palaeo channels" relics of the river and its tributaries using data from three different sensors on board Indian satellites.

 

Mr. Sharma said over telephone that 13 borewells drilled along the predicted river course have yielded water at a depth of 35 to 40 metres. The size of the palaeo channels, as estimated from satellite data, was huge, about 15 to 40 metres thick, implying that there was plenty of water out there. "The Government of Rajasthan is planning to increase the number of borewells to 50 in two months and has earmarked Rs. 40 million for the project," he said, adding, "chemical analysis indicates these palaeo channels could form a source for good quality ground water."

 

The ISRO scientists do not to the theory that Saraswati is flowing as a subterranean river. "Radioactive tracer studies show that the maximum flow of water is 15 cms per year, too slow to indicate that connection with the Himalayan source is still there," Mr. Sharma said.

 

PTI

http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2002072901060800.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Riddle of the River Sarasvati

 

 

 

Union Minister Jagmohan's efforts to establish a role for the Sarasvati river in the Indus Valley civilization take the shape of a project of excavations, which will begin in Haryana.

 

T.K. RAJALAKSHMI

 

in New Delhi

 

 

UNION Minister for Tourism and Cultural Affairs Jagmohan has an unenviable task in hand - that of putting in place a cultural policy for "national reconstruction", which is explained as a cultural renaissance that will enable Indians to be aware of their heritage. One step in this regard is the revival of interest in the Sarasvati river, references to which are found in the Rig Veda.

 

Efforts are on to identify the river's course and to ascribe to it a civilisational virtue under the camouflage of promoting domestic and religious tourism. These are based on the assumption that the seasonal Ghaggar river in Haryana is the ancient Sarasvati. The cultural revival as envisaged by Jagmohan will be made possible by excavating the course of the river in parts of Haryana and then developing certain areas there as religious and tourist sites.

 

At a seminar organised at Yamunanagar, Haryana, on June 12 by the Sarasvati River Research Centre (Sarasvati Nadi Shodh Sansthan), Jagmohan announced that the Central government, along with the State governments concerned, including the Haryana government, would undertake the excavation of the entire course of the extinct river. A four-member committee will be in charge of this. The committee comprises Baldev Sahai, former Deputy Director, Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad; V.M.K. Puri, a glaciologist who was formerly with the Geological Survey of India, Lucknow; S. Kalyanaraman, a former senior executive of the Asian Development Bank, who is also trained in archaeology; and Madhav Chitle, former Secretary, Ground Water Management, and coordinator for Global Water Partnership. The first phase will involve the digging up of the stretch from Adi Badri in Yamunanagar district to Bhagwanpura in Kurukshetra district to Sirsa (all in Haryana). In the second phase, the excavation and related work will be taken up from Bhagwanpura to Kalibangan in Rajasthan. The Central government is yet to sanction the funds, as the estimates are still in the process of being prepared by the State governments concerned.

 

Darshan Jain, president of the Sarasvati Nadi Shodh Sansthan, feels it would be convenient if the first phase is launched before the annual fair in Adi Badri in November to mark the birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism. As for the river whose origins are sought to be found at Adi Badri, Darshan Jain conceded that all that remained was a trickle from one of the rock formations. However, if fresh water could be filled in the several tanks that date back to the Mahabharata period, which are muddy now, people could take their holy dips in them, he averred.

 

The present effort is definitely novel. Jagmohan told Frontline that it was not important whether the Sarasvati was found or not. But in the course of the research on the "mighty river" which has been referred to 50 times in the Rig Veda, a certain consciousness will find its way into the minds of the people, he hopes. The river, the Minister explained, was mentioned along with other rivers, and if these rivers had existed, it was not correct to assume that the Sarasvati had not existed. He said that there was cultural, geological, hydrological and geographical evidence to show that the river was not a mythological desert river. "There is a school of thought - I would not say there is irrefutable evidence - that believes that a sophisticated civilisation flourished on the banks of the Sarasvati," said Jagmohan.

 

It is here that the real purpose of the programme comes into the open. The project is evidently a conscious effort to address the "plaguing problem" of the origin of the Aryans, an ideological riddle that was first raised by the Baba Saheb Apte Smarak Samiti (named after the founder of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad) and the Bharatiya Itihasa Sankalan Samiti (which is devoted to the rewriting of history) in the early 1980s. A survey of the lost Sarasvati was planned in 1983 by the former institution.

 

Attempts to make the Indus civilisation and the Rig Veda chronologically compatible have been afoot for quite some time now. One major proponent of the Sarasvati's civilisational link is B.B. Lal, former Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). In his latest book The Sarasvati Flows on: The Continuity of Indian Culture (Aryan Books International, New Delhi, 2002), Lal argues that the Rig Vedic Sarasvati and the present-day Sarasvati-Ghaggar

 

combine, which flows through Haryana and Punjab and dries up near Sirsa, are the same. His other theory refutes the Aryan invasion theory. R.S. Bisht, Director for Excavation at the ASI, also s to a similar theory though he is against the digging of the entire course of the river.

 

Bisht, who accompanied Jagmohan to Yamunanagar, asked how it was that so many sites were found located on the banks of the Sarasvati - such as Gaveriwala, Rakhigarhi and Dholavira - if it had not been a perennial river. Bisht contends that the territory of the Rig Vedic Aryans was coterminous with that of the Harappans. Between 2000 B.C. and 1800 B.C., a dry spell heralded the decline of the Indus Valley civilisation, he says. Bisht argues that the Sarasvati died a clinical death and rejuvenating it is impossible; but in the same breath he underscores the Vedic importance of the river. The Nadi Sukta or the river hymn, although a late composition compared to the Rig Veda, enumerated a large number of rivers that ran from the east to the west. Bisht said that it was thought that the Yamuna and the Sutlej flowed into the Sarasvati, an idea that was dear to S.P. Gupta, the historian who proposed the idea that the Indus Valley civilisation be renamed the Indus-Sarasvati civilisation. The Sarasvati is mentioned in the Rig Veda several times.

 

Over the years, man-made interventions obstructed the course of the surface water channels. To redeem the lost glory of the river, its easternmost source, in Haryana, was taken as the most sacred one. All the depressions along the course of the river would be symbolically cleaned, Bisht said.

 

On the other side is Suraj Bhan, renowned archaeologist and historian. He argues that the Rig Vedic references to the Sarasvati do not always pertain to a particular river. In the early parts, it perhaps means the Harakhvati of Afghanistan and the Sindhu (Indus), he says. There is no evidence even to suggest that either the Sutlej or the Yamuna contributed to the Sarasvati, he contends. R.C. Thakran, Reader in the Department of History, University of Delhi, who is a trained archaeologist and hails from rural Haryana, does not buy the argument that the Sarasvati was a mighty perennial river. Like the Yamuna, most perennial rivers have two important features on their surfaces and sub-surfaces - sand deposition and water reservoirs, the latter on account of the constant flow of water on their floodplains. Despite continuous exploitation of water in the sub-soil of the Yamuna, water reservoirs remain. And this could happen only if the river was a "mighty" one, he said. But in the case of the Sarasvati, sand deposits and water reservoirs were missing, he pointed out. The impact of a river with a bed ranging from 10 to 30 kilometres should be felt along its course and depositions would be naturally available. But nowhere in the State were sand deposits visible either on the sub-soil or the surface soil, he said. The depth of the sand deposits would indicate the impact of the river, said Thakran. Even if they did find sand deposits, it by no means would establish that the river was a perennial one. Sub-soil reservoirs were missing in most parts of Haryana. The water was not fresh. Only in some districts, such as Karnal, Kurukshetra and Ambala, water was of good quality and was freely available (but not to the extent in the Yamuna belt). He said that most tubewells were shallow, and that the majority of borewells were located in areas where canal water had reached. On the theory of the dry period, Thakran said that the region received erratic rainfall from ancient times. Even so, people never made habitations along the banks of rivers, especially mighty rivers, for the simple reason that they posed a hazard, he argued.

 

Thakran said rivers per se were not essential for human settlements; what was essential was the supply of water in one form or the other. Ethnographic archaeology or the study of modern lifestyles in the State could explain how people coped with the semi-arid conditions. The prevalence of village ponds widely indicates a certain degree of rainwater harvesting. Wells were also constructed alongside the ponds. The muddy water in the wells would be desilted and stored for later use. Thakran recalls that in his childhood days clearing of ponds was a community activity, which gradually diminished as alternative sources of water, such as canals, appeared.

 

According to him, villages located themselves near ponds, not rivers.

 

Thakran said that in the mid-1980s an ASI-French archaeological mission found that there was no river action in this belt in the Harappan times and even afterwards. Water action observed at local levels revealed surface water run-off or rainwater run-off. On the question of settlements, Thakran said that only a nominal number of them were observed though there was a mild increase in their numbers between the early and mature Harappan phases. After agriculture, pastoralism is the other known source of subsistence for people in the State. Cattle outnumber other domestic animals as they are hardy and require less water and food than others. The practice, which started in the proto-historical times, continues even today. Pastoralists would not have known how to control such a mighty river as the mythological Sarasvati, said Thakran.

 

As for remote-sensing and satellite imagery of paleo-channels or past channels of water, Thakran said the images appeared as impressions of flowing water. They begin in the north, move towards Rajasthan and get lost beyond that. There is hardly any evidence to show that these images are that of the Sarasvati. However, he said, remote-sensing did not reveal the antiquity of the images and was not capable of dating or soil morphology. In such a situation, it was difficult to say which period an image belonged to. He said another limitation of remote-sensing was that it was effective only on dry soil. Moisture in the sub-soil tends to absorb the signals and therefore a message cannot be sent to the satellite.

 

Thakran is certain that the Ghaggar river made no contribution to the evolution and development of the early and mature Harappan settlements. Nor was the number of settlements found to be substantial. On the contrary, a greater number of early and mature Harappan sites were found in the upland dry areas which had saline water, away from the rivers. A far greater concentration of Harappan settlements was found in the Ghaggar basin and in the basins of other rivers, but these were not in the formative phase but in the terminal phase of the civilisation.

 

Hence the river neither was helpful in promoting human activities nor could become a centre of human settlements by the end of the mature Harappan phase. But, according to Jagmohan, there is a preponderance of evidence to show that the Sarasvati was an important river. There were 1,500 settlements along the course of the Sarasvati, though in the late Harappan period, he said. He added that the Central Water Commission, with assistance from its counterparts in the State, had been told to dig two wells in the Adi Badri area; if there was water in them "it would come out", he said.

 

The Rig Veda makes references to several rivers, including the Indus. To magnify the importance of one particular river in this context and promote tourism around it only betrays the enthusiasm of the BJP-led government in the case of anything Vedic. But many feel that both the Centre and the Haryana government should concentrate more on getting water for the parched State from Punjab instead of promoting an extinct Sarasvati.

 

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl1916/fl191600.htm

 

http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/riddle1.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bringing Back the Sarasvati

 

 

 

AHMEDABAD, INDIA, August18, 2002: The government of India, with the assistance of hydrologists, geologists, archaeologists and space scientists, is trying to bring back the Saraswati River, which dried up in Vedic times. The dry bed of the "mythological" river was spotted in satellite photos, five miles wide, coursing from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea. Some water still flows along this course, but underground. The government's attempt is to tap this water in wells and reservoirs, so that Hindus may once again be blessed by the Saraswati's sacred waters. http://www.the-week.com/22aug18/cover.htm

 

 

 

 

 

Unearthing Lost Saravati Cities

 

 

PTI [TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 04, 2003 05:34:22 PM]

 

KURUKSHETRA: Union Minister for Tourism and Culture Jagmohan on Tuesday announced that the Centre has launched a scheme of unearthing lost cities, which once existed along the embankments of Saraswati River, and left a number of signposts of the Saraswati-Indus civilization from Adi Badri near Kurukshetra to Dhola Vira in Gujarat.

 

Addressing the students of Kurukshetra University at the 25th convocation here he said that "all these signposts are intended to be converted into new centres, all over the country, in which elements of culture, tourism and clean civic life are being synthesised. Kurukshetra is being given a top position in the list of such centres, Jagmohan added.

 

He said, "Believe me, a revolution is in the making. Kurukshetra would become not only a world class tourism destination but also a pace-setter for this revolution". Adding that a new life was being injected in Kurukshetra which would make it a symbol of a resurgent and reawakened India.

 

Chancellor of the University, Babu Parmanand, conferred the honorary degree of Doctorate of Philosophy (honoris causa) upon Jagmohan in recognition of the exceptionally meritorious services rendered by him to the nation.

 

Babu Parmanand also conferred Ph.D upon 121 students and M.Phil on 47 students in different subjects. Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala awarded medals to the outstanding students of the university.

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/comp/articleshow?artid=36474030

 

 

NEW DELHI, INDIA, July 26, 2003: It has been reported that to uncover ancient Hindu cultural sites, the Indian government, in collaboration with the Department of Tourism, has started excavating along the legendary Saraswati River from Haryana to Gujarat. The task is an arduous one in a land where the local people are often not aware of the value of their heritage and artifacts from cultural sites are often smuggled out of the country. Tourism Minister Jagmohan says, "We are shortly coming up with an amendment to the existing legislation on protection of antiques and arts which will make illegal trafficking a cognisable offense and give police the powers of seizure." As they forge ahead with the excavation, it is expected that treasures, such as abandoned towns and habitations from the Harappan civilization dating well before 3000 bce, will be revealed. The Tourism Department has grand plans to house the artefacts uncovered in museums to attract tourists. Communities along the dried up river have been encouraged to keep the environment around the heritage sites clean. After Jagmohan addressed an interactive meeting organized by UNESCO about the heritage sites, Indian-born Australian Amareswar Galla commented, "As long as you have poverty, you will have problem with dealing illicit trafficking in cultural property, be it India or elsewhere." Source: http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEH20030725112452&Page=H&Title=Top+Stories&rLink=0

 

[Available at: http://www.stephen-knapp.com ]

 

 

[Guest guest]

http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/sarasvatihieroglyphs.pdf

 

 

NEVER EVER DOUBT HINDU HISTORY!!!!

[krishnadasa]

Ba bye to the thread no more questions

 

hari hari bol

[Guest guest]

while i thank all the people who sent so much info on the river, this is all info i could have found myself.

 

my question was not about where the river was, or wht happened to it or anything like that. my question was why did a culture that recorded so much of the river when it was still there not record anything about how the river died or how it was without the river there? why are there no verses in the vedas that talk about how the river dried up? why none in the puranas about life after the saraswathi?

 

these questions still have yet to be answered.

[Guest guest]

I can't remember if it was in the Ramayana or the Maharbarata but I think someone metioned the river was drying up... But that's what I heard.

[Guest guest]

The vedas have been written prior to the end of the harappan civilization.....although they have been carried by word of mouth (all those thousands of lines by sheer memory due to the strict practice of brahmacharya among the brahmins) from time immemorial...........

 

Indians have not really been good recorders of history......they never felt the importance of recording events........however, many historical documents were also destroyed by the endless invasions during india;s more than 5000 yr old civilization

 

 

[Guest guest]

"Indians have not really been good recorders of history......they never felt the importance of recording events"

 

I really condemn this opinion.

Indians have tried their hard with the technology they have at that times. And captured lot of things which are useful for the person. To preserve these ethics Indians spent lot effort/property and they have succeeded in doing it.

 

Coming to Saraswathi River...

What people mean in attaching a word Saraswathi with River, I dont know. To my understanding I visualized like this.

You heard word "Trinity" used across many areas in ethics. This word refers the junction of three. A place in North India where three rivers meat. Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswathi. Ganga looks white & clear. Yamuna looks red and Saraswathi is inside, an underground flow but meets at the same place.

 

Here we have to understand in other way, this is junction of White river, Red river and underneath one more river. And this is a trinity of these three rivers. Vedas told this to realize the importance of Saraswathi river.

 

Near spinal cord there will be two nerves flowing from head to bottom, in which one is Red (hot) and one is White (cold). And also here there will be one more river running in the same junction that is Saraswathi (means knowledge). Which you have to find it evolve out to realize the river. This river helps in reaching the real god. So Vedas have given so much importance to this river.

 

The main thing here is People are not talking about histories which are just information but not knowledge.

People are talking about the essence, the result they have achieved and kept on the paper.

 

Only after the outside rulers came, Indian ethics in reaching the people got deccelarated, and now this in acceleration and give a good knowledge to the people.

 

If you are able to read still...

I want to tell you an interesting thing, but you have understand closely.

Have you seen "The Matrix" film released in English. The three series of it. You can see the word "Trinity" named to Heroin. Neo the hero loves Trinity in all the series. Atlast tries to go from Real world to Machine world, for the rescue. Loose Trinity there and reach the one. You have understand here also and take the essence of it.

Also, you can see after the film (the last series) is over name will scroll there you can here in the background BhagavatGita. Here also the Director is trying to tell something, which needs very keen to understand.

 

Here in the film they are not saying directly but they are trying to say something indirectly. You can visualize the same with Vedas tooo.

 

[maadhav]

Thanks Prabhu, excellent post!

 

Ratheesh, sorry about my previous post. dont feel bad.

what I know is this:

 

Per Bhagavatam, it was written by Vedvyaasa, in shamyApraAs Ashrama that was located on the west bank of Sarasvati river.

 

This to me is more important than why so and so is not mentioend in our books. unless the historians have guts to write truth in their history books, their books are only false or give distorted facts suitable to the ruler of their time, or their own ideology.

 

the current Bharat's gov. does not teach the truth about Bharat's real history. why? becase they want Hindus to suffer as the Hindus did for 1000 years.

but that is besides the point of this thread.

 

[maadhav]

<< The vedas have been written prior to the end of the harappan civilization.....although they have been carried by word of mouth (all those thousands of lines by sheer memory due to the strict practice of brahmacharya among the brahmins) from time immemorial...........>>

 

this is direct answer to ratheesh's question.

 

the vedic scriptures are written with essence in mind, teh essence (spiritual aspect) that is as much independent of time and place as possible, and applicable to all human beings.

 

no matter how much one writes, one cannot address all the questions another can pose aimlessly.

 

some aimless/uselsss questions can be:

 

- why hairs do not grow on forehead?

- what is the number of hairs that grow on a head?

- why man does not grow toller than 12 feet?

 

the vedas do not address such aimless question.

vedas are for a varnasrami society that is desigend to progresss towards god.

 

[Guest guest]

Ratheesh, you already have decided that this dried up river is the rig vedic Sarasvati. Why is that?

[Guest guest]

true, my belief that the dried up river is saraswathi is based on some knowledge.

 

first off, it fits right in with the indus valley area, where the saraswathi was supposed to be

 

second, it fits a description of a massive river, bigger than the rest. geologists believe the river at some places was 6 miles across (or was it kms? doesnt matter)

 

third, contrary to popular belief the majority of archeological sites are found on the banks of this disappeared river.

 

hindu history talks of the saraswathi river, a massive river in the indus valley area that supported the majority of settlements there. the back bone of vedic society.

 

as much as i understand that hindu history as a whole cannot be taken as literal truth in everything they say, i dont have his colonial mindset that european scholarship is what shouldbe followed and is the only conceivably believable account of history. why should we believe a 5thcentury BC greek book and not believe a 5th century BC indian, or chinese or iranian or aztec book?

 

popular academics still follow academics of the past as their groundwork, but this is a groundwork rooted in inequality and grandizement of european colonial society. we are bound to have subconsious biases still today.

[Guest guest]

This argument of dried up river calling the Sarasvati is probably done to crick age of rigveda up. The info given by non-objective promotors that they can see from NASA picture when river dried up cannot be taken serious, there is no research done by experts. Without research we dont know if it dried up 30.000 years ago or 10.000.

 

maybe reading this interesting and not to long article tells you what I mean. ./www.ee.iitkgp.ernet.in/~soumitro/bt/archives/saraswati.pdf.

[Guest guest]

doesnt work

 

also, i do believe that some geologists have done some work on it

[Guest guest]

Now I think this works :

 

http://www.ee.iitkgp.ernet.in/~soumitro/bt/archives/saraswati.pdf

 

""""as much as i understand that hindu history as a whole cannot be taken as literal truth in everything they say, i dont have his colonial mindset that european scholarship is what shouldbe followed and is the only conceivably believable account of history. why should we believe a 5thcentury BC greek book and not believe a 5th century BC indian, or chinese or iranian or aztec book?

 

popular academics still follow academics of the past as their groundwork, but this is a groundwork rooted in inequality and grandizement of european colonial society. we are bound to have subconsious biases still today. """"

 

Ï agree we should be careful with bias. That is why we also must be carefull with scholars with religious and etnocentric motives. I have seen too much scholars that because of that can not accept normal research. When outcome of research does not fit religiuos idea some people call it Western colonialism or Euro-centrism. But some people forgot methodology does not have double standard and cut both ways.