The River That
Disappeared
By M.M. Munshi
The rivers have played a prominent part in
the hymns of
Rigveda and subsequently in early vedic
religion. Seven rivers have often referred in the Rig Veda The
Avesta’s Hafta Hindu are equated with the vedic Safta Sindhu or Sindhavatha,
and Sarasvati has been referred as a she meaning a feminine one with seven
sisters. It is still confusing as to how the seven sisters [rivers] were
intended to be enumerated These have been often described in the north western
part of India and Pakistan. Even if Sarasvati is included as one of the seven
rivers and five rivers of Punjab namely Satudri
(Satluj) Vipasa
(Beas),Parushni or Iravati
(Ravi), Aksini or Chandar
Bhaga (Chenab), Vitasta
or Biloda (Jhelum) at present
part of the Sindhu (Indus) System one river still remains elusive as Sindhu
itself like Bhramputra is a special case as having been declared as a masculine
and not a feminine gender and not invoked as a goddesses.
The most prominent river of the early Rigveda
is Sarasvati losing its prominence to
Sindu in the late Rigveda. This has been ascribed to the migration of Vedic
Aryans from Gandhara (Eastern Afghanistan and Present day western Pakistan) to
Indus valley and beyond. Most probably the drying up of Sarasvati resulted in
loss of its prominence to Sindhu. The Nadustut
[hymn in praise of rivers] 10.75 of Rig Veda places the Sarasvati between the
Yanuna in the east and Satluj in the west. Latter texts have mentioned that
Sarasvati started drying up and ended in a desert. The Goddess Sarasvati was
originally personification of this river, and later developed as an independent
identity. Most of the scholars agree to the hypothesis that a number of
references to the Sarasvati in the Rig Veda point to the dry bed of Ghaggar
Hakra river while few believe that Helmend River in Afghanistan as the locus of
the early Rig Veda river. Whether such transfer of name from Helmand to Ghaggar
or vice versa is yet to be resolved.
The name Sarasvati has descended from Proto
Indo Iranian
saras-win (seles-wnt-in-th) meaning - “she with many pools”, saras
in Sanskrit means “Pool Pond” the sarasi
means large or swampy pool cognate with swamp. The way the crane Grus
Antigone derives its Indian name Saras
from Sar(pool)
the same way river Sarasvati also derived its name from pool/pond which was
gradually personified as a river GoddessThe Rig Veda refers Sarasvati mostly to
stagnant waters. Mention of Sarasvati has been made in almost all the chapters
of Rig Veda as already stated it has figured as chief of Safta Sindhu.The
seven rivers of early Rig Veda. And listed in the geographical list of the ten
rivers in the Nadistuti Sakuta of the late Rig Veda. Sarasvati has been
described as best of all the rivers” the seventh mother of floods Sarasvati
Saptath Sindumata - “ ambitame the best of the mothers, naditambe
the best of rivers and devitambe
the best of Goddesses” expresses
the reverences vedic poets paid to Sarasvati River. When Sarasvati started
drying up some unknown poet further expressed “Sarasvati do not kick us ,do
not let us go away from you. Another reference to the Sarasvati is in the
geographical enumeration of the late Rig Veda Nadastuti Sukta which includes all
the important rivers from Ganga in the east up to Sindhu and beyond in the west
in a strict Geographical order as Ganga,Yamuna and Sarasvati Sarasvati has been
placed between Yamuna and Satluj corresponding with the Ghaggar
identification. * It is no doubt that even if Sarasvati has lost much of its
former prominence it remained a personified river goddess throughout the Rig
Veda Several Puranas describe the Sarasvati river and also record that flowed
through several lakes.
“The impetuous Sarasvati is rich for
,magnificent cows ,excellent horses ,good chariots beautiful garments and
abundance of gold “ Such was the prominence in which Sarasvati river was held
during the vedic period even greater than that of Ganga (Ganges), Sindhu (Indus)
and other rivers. The mythology and history of Sarasvati River is interesting.
The diversion of the waters of (1) Yamuna to Ganges system sometime during the
vedic times and epic of Mahabharta and (2) Satadri (Sutluj) to Indus system much
latter dried up the Sarasvati which was once a mighty river flowing from
Himalayas in to Rann of Kutch independent of Indus and Ganges river systems was
reduced to a legend.. Even today it is believed by many that Sarasvati river
flows underground and joins Ganges system at latter’s confluence with
Yamuna..The quest for the legendry river about a century back when a British
engineer C.F.Oldham while riding across wide dry river bed visualized that a
three kilometer river bed could have been made by a puny seasonal stream like
Ghaggar but by a the course of a bigger river in the past.
The area between the present day limits of
Indus and Ganges river systems or to be precise between the present day courses
of Satluj and Yamuna a couple of seasonal water channels flowing in a west to
south west directions along very broad dry river beds namely Ghaggar
and Sirsa meet at Rasula
near Patiala and further downstream at Batnair
near Bikaner in Rajasthan or joined by another seasonal water channel Chitrang which can be traced upstream to Yamuna is the old and
abandoned course of Yamuna. Upstream of Bathnair and downstream of Karnal the
Ghaggar is joined from the north by another dry seasonal channel known at
present as Wah, Sirhind or Wahind
which traceable upstream as far as Ropar where Satluj emerges from the foot
hills after traversing Himalayas This was the original
course of Satudri
(Satluj) before it changed its
course to join Bipasa (Beas)
of the Indus system. Below the conflunce of Satluj and Beas the river is not
known as Satluj but Beas to the natives in Pakistan though the former is larger
of the two.. In Bikaner and further downstream for a length of about 150 Kms.the
dry river Channel where it has attained a width of 8 to 10 Kms. is known by the
name of Hakra or Sotur and at places as Sarasvati.. The former river course
in scientific/geological language as Paleo channel has been traced around
Mirgarh, Dhilawar in Bhawalpur
and eastern Sind in Pakistan western
Rajasthan and Gujarat into Rann
of Kutch quite distinct from Nara
the abandoned eastern channels of Indus
delta.
Along the course of this paleo channel about 175
pre and early historic sites have been excavated
and confirmed by archeologists while only 85 of similar sites have been located
along the Indus in Pakistan dwelling places, pot sheds and other types of
Harapan and Mohonjodaro objects /artifacts. Recent excavations at Dholvaria
in Gujarat and other places have revealed figures of ocean of going vessels providing clues to the navigability of the
former river. Based on these findings some scholars have argued that Indus
Valley civilization should be renamed as
Sarasvati Valley Civilization. It has been universally accepted that
earliest settlements in the Indian Sub-Continent and elsewhere came up along the
river valleys and not along dry arid regions or uplands. How the pre historic
settlements with riverine culture could have come up along abandoned river
courses unless major rivers were flowing
in the pre/early historic times along these Paleo Channels.
Historical evidences also suggest that
Bhawalpur in Pakistan and Bikaner in Rajasthan ere fairly well watered about
third century BC and even as late as 9th century. The Rann of Kutch was fairly a
deep inland sea and ships and dows of
Arabs used to travel along the river to Sind. Todd in his book “Annals of
Rajasthan” has stated that Hakra became dry in 11th century AD.
Historical records of Arabs also indicate that Satluj was not considered as a
Punjab River.As already stated Satluj had abandoned its original Course near
Ropar and joined the Beas. Satluj below the conflunce with Beas is still known
as Beas., though it is larger of the two.
The
existence of a 1680 kms. long dry river bed /buried channel. /paleo channel
existing from the trijunction of present Himachal Pradesh, Utrakhand, and
Haryana through Patiala, Karnal ,Bikaner, Bhawalpur, eastern Sind and south
Rajasthan to Rann of Kutch in Gujarat has been confirmed by study of black and
white as well as coloured satellite imageries by experts including Amal Kar,
Bimal Gosh and scientists of Central Arid Zone Research Institute P.S. Thakar of
ISRO and others is the dried course of once mighty Sarasvati River with its
dried up tributaries quite distinct from the Indus system This
is corroborated by some verses of Rig Veda which indicate that Saraswati
originated in Giris (mountains) where she burst with stronger waves against the
ridges of the hills and spread in the plains as a swollen river (Pinnavamna) by other
rivers apparently Yamuna and Satluj.
Sasrasvati River deprived of its waters, by
diversion of Yamuna to Ganges system during the vedic age and Satluj to Indus
System much latter due to neo tectonic moments along the Aravli Axis was reduced
to a dry river bed of several kilometers in width.. Having lost its snow and
glacier fed sources disappeared and only a legend remained in the folklore The
inhabitants on its banks migrated gradually and in stages westwards to far of
places like Kashmir, West Punjab, Rajasthan, Konkan in Maharashtra, Karnataka as
far south as northern borders of Kerala. Most of whom still call themselves Sarawatas
or Saraswat Brahmans. In
mythology and scriptures the prominence of Sarasvati was taken by Ganga.
A prominent Kashmiri Pandit writer residing
in Jammu has stated that in one of the community magazines that River Sarasvati
was fed mainly by the out flow from the south eastern corner of the Satisar (Pliestocene
Lake covering the Kashmir Valley) and due to development of a cleft on the
western side, the said lake was drained of its water resulting in depriving the
Sarasvati river of its source of water. This concept is not feasible as water
from Kashmir valley even if it flowed eastwards could have joined Chenab in
Kishtwar area instead of Jang Sarar in Pakistan but under any circumstances
would not have flown underneath four major rivers namely Chenab, Ravi. Beas and
Satluj and surfaced like a siphon to feed Sarasvati. Secondly the desiccation of
the Kashmir lake and disappearance of Sarasvati river is separated by a time gap
several millenniums. For similar reasons the theory that Sarasvati flows
underground and joins the Ganga near Allahabad is also not feasible.
Copyrights M.M.Munshi 2012
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