Re-discovery of River Sarasvati
Everyone agrees that Rigveda was perceived on the banks of River Sarasvati. In one rica, the
Rigveda notes: sarasvati_ saptathi_ sindhu maataa (sarasvati as the mother of seven rivers;
sindhu means 'natural ocean frontier, river'.) As Sarasvati connotes the roots of Hindu
civilization, Coedes' (French epigraphist's) work on Hinduised states of southeast Asia, show
that hindu migrated eastwards along the Indian Ocean Rim to set up the largest Vishnu
Mandiram of the world in Nagara Vatika (Angkor Wat). Hindumahaasagar is the only ocean
so named after the Hindu Rashtra. This is an evocation of an extraordinary span of time from
Vedic times to the early centuries of the Common Era when Hindu culture reached many
shores along the Indian Ocean rim which extends over 63,000 miles.
The story of the discovery of Vedic River Sarasvati and a riverine, maritime civilization of
ancestors of the present-day Hindus everywhere has been made possible by a remarkable
coalition of scientists of a number of disciplines ranging from archaeology to glaciology.
Rishi Gritsamada among Rigveda rishi-s, calls Sarasvati as mother, river and devi (ambitame,
naditame, devitame sarasvati). This shows that Sarasvati had attained the stature of a devi,
divinity even in Rigvedic times. Why was she, a river, called a mother? Because, she
nurtured a civilization on her banks. A civilization evidenced by over 2,000 archaeological
sites out of a total of 2,600 sites of the so-called Indus Valley Civilization, making it
appropriate to call it Sarasvati Civilization.
Archaeological excavations and a series of scientific discoveries have established beyond
doubt that the evolution of Indian civilization was indigenous and that the Sarasvati was once
an over-ground reality, flowing from the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean.
Importance of the river
The river figures in the Mahabharata, and flows north of the Kurukshetra battlefield. The epic
writers however, also noted its drying up and the resultant desertification of the land,
recording for posterity that the river was “disappearing into the desert” and was later “lost.” It
is truly noteworthy that when in modern times British archaeologists mapped the Indus
Valley sites, they found most were located round the dried-up Ghaggar-Hakra (Sarasvati),
which is why modern Indian archaeologists feel it should be re-named the Sarasvati
civilization.
The Indus Valley civilization was so named because the first site discovered by Sir John
Marshall in the 1920s, Mohenjo Daro or “mound of the dead,” happened to be situated in the
Indus Valley. Thereafter, more discoveries were made and eventually as many as 2600 sites
were unearthed between Iran in the west, Turkmenia, Bactria and the Pamirs in the north,
beyond Delhi into western UP in the east, up to the Godavari in Maharashtra in the south,
encompassing over one million square kilometers. The culture goes back to around 7000 BC
in Mehrgarh (Pakistan), which shows evidence of a strong agricultural economy and the
presence of granaries for storing surplus grain. In its mature phase, this culture spawned the
great cities of Mohenjo Daro, Harappa and Lothal, around 2600 BC.
To this day, Mohenjo Daro startles us with the quality of its urban planning, water supply and 2
drainage systems. The more recently discovered Dholavira created elaborate stone gateways
and water harvesting structures, and is deservedly renowned for creating the world’s first
sign-board in the Harappan script. Lothal had a port with a dockyard and granaries. Yet by
1900 BC, the Indus-Sarasvati cities were being abandoned and an eastward shift in
population took place. This is reflected in the Sanskrit literature, with increasing importance
bestowed upon the Ganga and Yamuna. Saraswat Brahmins preserve a tradition of their
southward migration, while Gaud Saraswat Brahmins say they came South via Gaud (Bengal)
after the Sarasvati disappeared.
There is no evidence of invasion, or even substantial inward migration, but a population shift
following the loss of a major water source.
It seems reasonable to conclude that the Rig Veda was composed by people who called
themselves ‘Arya’ (noble) long before 2000 BC, when the Sarasvati was a mighty river, and
that Harappa was one of their cities. One clinching evidence is the finding of the Vedic fire
altar in several Harappan buildings (homes) and seals showing yogic meditation postures.
The discovery of Vedic River Sarasvati sounds the death-knell of an indological myth called
Aryan Invasion/Migration Theory.
How was River Sarasvati re-discovered?
The modern quest for the Sarasvati began in the 1970s when American satellite images
showed traces of water channels in northern and western India that had disappeared long ago.
Thereafter, Dr. Vakankar together with Moropant Pingle established the invisible river’s
route through satellite imagery and archaeological sites along its route. The Sarasvati project
was vetted and cleared by eminent archaeologists and geologists, and an earnest search for
the lost river launched in 1982.
For instance, in 1995, scientists of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) found that
water was available in the Rajasthan desert at depths of merely 50 to 60 metres, as a result of
which agriculture was possible even in the extreme summer months. The Central Arid Zone
Research Institute (CAZRI), Jodhpur, mapped the defunct course of a river through satellite
and aerial photographs and field studies. In fact, satellite imagery has given the river
scientific teeth. It seems to have originated in Kailash Mansarovar and emerged on the plains
from the Siwalik Hills at the foothills of the Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh, flowed through
the Ghaggar valley in Haryana and the Rajasthan desert, on to Hakra in the Cholistan desert
(Sindh, Pakistan), before reaching the Rann of Kutch through the Nara Valley and falling off
into the Arabian Sea.
Since the Ghaggar Valley is eight to twelve kilometers wide at many places, it is obvious the
Sarasvati was truly a great river. Earthquakes and floods changed the course of the Ghaggar
and its tributaries frequently, and satellite imagery together with ground morphological
studies confirm that it too originated in the Siwalik Himalayas before flowing into the
Arabian Sea. This was the ‘lost’ Sarasvati. Scientific studies suggest it dried up around 2000
BC, which makes it a contemporary of the Indus Valley civilization, and gives the Rig Veda a
greater antiquity than previously suspected, as the Sarasvati was a powerful river when the
seers composed the Vedic mantra-s. 3
After Dr. Wakankar’s demise in 1996, the Vedic Sarasvati Nadi Shodh Pratishthaan, Jodhpur
(regd.) continued the project, by roping in the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO),
whose chairman Dr. Kasturi Rangan and Regional Remote Sensing Services Centre (RRSSC)
director Dr. J.R. Sharma displayed a gratifying interest in the project. The Jodhpur RRSSC
conducted three major scientific seminars on the subject and analyzed satellite images of IRS
1-century, thus mapping the entire course from Kailash Mansarovar to Gujarat.
Meanwhile, after the Pokharan blasts on 11 May 1998, the Isotope Division of the Bhabha
Atomic Research Centre (BARC) led by Dr. S.L. Rao took water samples from 800 deep
wells within a radius of 250 kms. of Pokharan. Their findings, published in Current Science,
showed there was no nuclear contamination of the ground-waters. Normally, when a neutron
or hydrogen bomb implodes (3 bombs were imploded), huge amounts of tritium (an isotope
of hydrogen H3) are released. Yet the tests showed very small traces of tritium, which are
normally found in any body of water together with H2O, a tribute to the meticulous care with
which Indian scientists conducted the tests.
BARC also made some amazing discoveries. First, the waters tested were potable; second,
they derived from Himalayan glaciers; third, they were between 8000 to 14000 years old; and
finally, the waters were being slowly recharged through aquifers from somewhere in the
north despite the fact that records showed only very scanty rainfall in the semi-arid region of
Marusthali. BARC thus confirmed ISRO findings about the river, and this was an unintended
fallout of Pokharan!
Archaeologists from the Shimla Circle did excellent work in 2003-2004, reporting three sites
and a Buddha vihara in Adi Badri alone. Dr. Vijay Mohan Kumar Puri, an expert on
Himalayan glaciers, reported finds of metamorphic rocks on the terraces created by
Himalayan glacial River Sarasvati and proved that Adi Badri was the site where the river
entered the plains from its Himalayan home. Adi Badri is just 20 kms. from Jagadhri
(Yamuna Nagar) and 70 kms. from Dehradun (Paonta Saheb) or Kurukshetra. Further, Dr.
Puri proved the origins of Sarasvati from Rupin-Supin glaciers north of Paonta Saheb, where
a Yamuna tear occurred on account of plate tectonics and caused a lateral shift of the
Shiwalik ranges and consequent eastward migration of the Yamuna, a tributary of Sarasvati,
taking the Sarasvati waters to join the Ganga at Prayag and create the Triveni Sangam.
These excavations proved that Adi Badri was the spot where a Himalayan glacial river
entered the plains. The Sarasvati originated from the Svargarohini glacier mountain. Already
the revived river has reached upto Danan in Barmer, Rajasthan, and will reach the Rann of
Kutch in a few years. Plans are already afoot to take it upto the Sabarmati with S'arada
(Mahakali-Karnali) river glacial runoffs.
Given the magnitude of the findings, scholars like Dr. Karan Singh and Dr. Kasturi Rangan
suggested the Ministry for Culture examine the Vedic texts and the work done by ISRO to
prove the course of the River Sarasvati. There is a case for expediting the project, through
excavations to reveal the evolution of civilization on the banks of the river. 4
Re-birth of River Sarasvati and National Water Grid
Projects related to the re-discovery of Vedic River Sarasvati have been transformed as
projects to revive the great river to fulfil the water supply needs of 20 crore people in
Northwest India and to make the Thar desert fertile again. These projects have also led to the
demand for a National Water Grid to make every river of India a perennial river and provide
water for everyone, for generations to come.
Dr. D.K. Chaddha, Chairman, Central Groundwater Authority, Union Ministry of Water
Resources, validated BARC findings of potable water 30 to 60 m. below the ground, through
ground morphological studies. A Rs. five crore Sarasvati Project was sanctioned to drill test
tubewells along the identified course. ISRO located the test sites on the basis of a palaeochannel (old course) shown in satellite images; the existence of a tectonic fault line; and the
proximity to an archaeological site.
Dr. S. Kalyanaraman, director, Sarasvati Nadi Shodh Prakalp, author of a seven-volume
encyclopaedic study of the river, pointed out that there are over 2,000 archaeological sites
along the banks of the Sarasvati as compared to only 600 on the banks of Sindhu. The sites
identified by ISRO were drilled in 25 places, with special drilling equipment from Japan, in
order to precisely position the drills based on latitude and longitude data provided on
toposheets. Barring one drilling due to faulty positioning of the drill, all explorations were
successful and yielded sustainable tube wells at a depth of merely 30 to 60 meters, with
potable water. Dr. K.R. Srinivasan, Director, Central Groundwater Board, explained in a
detailed monograph that it was possible to create one million sustainable tube wells in central
Rajasthan alone of the Sarasvati River basin, a project taken up by the state Government.
Sustainability of these tube wells necessitates a recharge through the surface waters of the
Rajasthan Canal, which is being extended into Gujarat. In turn, Gujarat will share some
Narmada waters with Rajasthan. It is an irony that while Punjab and Haryana dispute over the
Sutlej-Yamuna link canal (SYL), Punjab has been forced to release waters into the Sarasvati
Mahaanadi Roopaa Nahar in order to save the dams which are located on fault-lines crisscrossing the entire Sutlej-Beas river basin, on account of ongoing plate tectonic activity.
Thus, waters are flowing in the 40 feet wide, 12 feet deep Sarasvati nahar, causing the sand
dunes to disappear as the banks of the reborn Sarasvati are greened by forests! Nearly 10 lakh
acres of land has already been brought under cultivation.
At present, State Governments are showing more interest in the Sarasvati than the Centre. In
October 2004, a Sarasvati Sarovar in Haryana was dedicated to the nation, and on Karthik
Purnima the following month itself, more than two lakh pilgrims took a sacred dip in the
waters of the 83 m. long, 83 m. wide and 11 ft. deep Sarovar. The waters were harvested
through eleven check dams, an example of water-shed management and also ecological
conservation of forests, apart from the development of a Vedic herbal garden.
As of now, it will take about two years for the waters of the Sarasvati to reach Gujarat. The
interlinking of rivers as part of the National Water Grid is also presently left mainly to the
initiative of State Governments, as witnessed in the moves to start Kali-Parbati SindhChambal and Ken-Betwa link projects. A revivified Sarasvati has the power to magically
transform the face of north-western India. The river will flow up to Sabarmati (Ahmedabad) 5
river once the Mahakali-Karnali-Sharada waters are transported across an aqueduct over the
Yamuna and linked with the Sarasvati.
President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has expressed interest in the potential this heritage river
has to revive the regions through which it will flow. After visiting the Sarasvati Darshan
Exhibition at Jagadhri, Yamuna Nagar, on 20 April 2003, Dr. Abdul Kalam invited experts
associated with the project to make a presentation regarding the archaeological artifacts
recovered from various digs as well as the findings through satellite images. A delegation led
by Dr. S. Kalyanaraman explained how scientific investigations proved the historical
existence of the river.
The Sarasvati springs from Himalayan glaciers in Har-ki-dun in Uttaranchal and emerges at
Adi Badri, a sacred spot 30 km. north of Jagadhri, through the foothills of the Shiwalik
ranges. About 5000 years ago, the river traversed a distance of over 1600 km., through
Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat, to reach Sindhu Sagara at
Prabhas Patan (Somnath), as asserted in the Mahabharata and other ancient texts. Then,
around 3500 years ago, tectonic changes caused river-migration and the desiccation of the
river, which has been convincingly established through satellite image analyses, geomorphological studies, BARC findings based on tritium analysis of ground-water resources in
the Sarasvati River Basin in the Rajasthan Marusthali desert, which will support construction
of over one million tube-wells for potable water after recharging the groundwater aquifers
using surface channels of the reborn river. This is a $120 billion project that is part of the
proposed National Water Grid.
Thus, what began as a historical quest for a supposedly mythical river has materialized as a
reality with the potential to transform the lives of peoples along its route, once again, as in the
past. The Sarasvati can make the water-starved north-west fertile and transform the desert
into verdant pastures, as the Rajasthan Canal draws waters of the Sutlej and Beas from the
Harike Reservoir and takes them up to Danan in Barmer district. The foundation tower at
Mohangarh (55 km. west of Jaisalmer) calls the 40 feet wide channel Sarasvati Mahanadi
Roopa Nahar, because the Sutlej was originally its tributary.
The National Water Development Agency plans to extend this canal up to the Rann of Kutch
and the Sabarmati by adding Sharada waters through an aqueduct across the Yamuna, thereby
creating a National Water Grid. Thus, waters from Mansarovar can reach Sabarmati by
constructing a 200 km. channel.
Sarasvati old and new: work to be done
Having inspired and facilitated the rich cultural and material civilization of the Vedic ‘Arya’
people, the Sarasvati was immortalized by her grateful offspring as Goddess of knowledge
and wisdom.
Given the tangible reality of the river, it is worth looking at the archaeological finds made in
the Sarasvati Basin and contiguous areas, and see the connection between the ancient
settlements and the river’s course. During 2002-2003, the Archaeological Survey of India
(ASI) decided to excavate major sites from over 2,000 sites identified after establishing the
entire 1600 km. course of the river from the Himalayas to Gujarat. Some major sites thus 6
identified included Adi Badri, Bilaspur, Sadhaoura, Mustafabad, Bhagawanpura, Thanesar,
Raja-Karn-ka Qila, Mirzapur, Pehowa, Kalayat, Kaithal, besides ongoing excavations at
Banawali, Rakhigarhi and Dholavira. These excavations are now establishing the cultural
chronology of India’s ancient past.
Investigations by the Geological Society of India show that nearly 4000 years ago plate
tectonics caused migration of Sarasvati’s tributary rivers, the Sutlej and Yamuna. As a result,
the Yamuna captured the waters of Sarasvati at Paonta Saheb in Himachal Pradesh (this is the
origin of the story of Balarama changing the course of the Yamuna by pulling the river
towards him with his plough!). Then, taking a tear in the Shiwalik ranges, the Yamuna
migrated eastwards to join Ganga at Prayag, forming the eternal Sangam of three rivers, one
of which is ‘invisible.’ As for the Sutlej (Sutudri of the Rig Veda), it took a 90-degree turn at
Ropar, 50 km. north of Chandigarh, and migrated westwards to join the Sindhu.
In our contemporary era, there is a real chance that the primordial river may be reborn and
flow 1600 km. from Kailash Mansarovar to Somnath (Prabhas Patan). In May 2004, the ASI
excavated an ancient terrace of the Sarasvati and found high-grade metamorphic rocks
belonging to the palaeo-glaciated regions of the Central Himalayas. A terrace is a level shelf
of land interrupting a declivity, i.e., steep slopes above and below.
At Nausharo (Pakistan) two terracotta figurines of female figures were unearthed. The neck
ornaments were painted golden-yellow, the hair black, while the parting of their hair was
pigmented red (to simulate the sindoor of married women), and these powerfully indicate the
sheer continuity of Indic culture from its origins 7000 years ago. At a conference of the
World Association of Vedic Studies (WAVES), 2003, Prof. B.B. Lal revealed that a
journalist was tutored to ask him if the figurines could have been forged by interested parties
seeking to prove the convergence of the Vedic and Sarasvati civilizations! Prof. Lal replied
that the images were found by French archaeologist Jarrige, in Pakistan, so the question
should be directed to them!
S'ivalinga were also found at Harappa and terracotta models in Kalibangan. So was s'ankha
wide bangle found at Nausharo dated to 6500 BCE. The s'ankha industry is a continuing
industry for the last 8500 years. At Tiruchendur (Gulf of Mannar), the total turnover of West
Bengal Handicraftd Dev. Corpn. is Rs. 50 crores acquiring s'ankha to make s'ankha bangles
which are a must in every bengali marriage. No wonder s'ankha adorns the hand of Narayana
and is used as Panchajanya by Srikrishna.
Today, Adi Badri in Haryana, where Sarasvati emerges on the plains, has been converted into
a pilgrimage-heritage site with a 83 m x 83 m sarovar with bathing ghats, set in a scenic
valley, under the benevolent gaze of the Adi Narayan, Kedarnath and Sakti Mantra Devi
temples. Yet it is also a heritage site from the point of view of water-harvesting and
watershed management. The Sarasvati waters, like those of the Ganga, are clear and pure and
without any contaminants. President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam visited an exhibition near
Jagadhri in April 2004, where satellite images, revenue records and other evidence was
showcased to establish the reality of the river. Recording his impressions in the Visitors’
Book, he wrote: “Delighted to see the hard work in realizing the reality of epic information.”
Dr. R.S. Bisht, former director, ASI, who excavated Dholavira and supervised the search for
the Sarasvati in 2001, emphasized that the Sarasvati was a reality: “The overwhelming 7
archeological evidence of ancient settlements along the course of what was once the Sarasvati
River proves that our earliest civilizations were not confined to the Indus river alone. Those
who wrote the Vedas on the banks of the Sarasvati were the same as the Indus Valley
people.”
Work has begun to decipher the so-called Indus Script. Kalyanaraman has noted that the
epigraphs are hieroglyphs in mleccha language (the same language used by Yudhishthira and
Vidura in Mahabharata discussing about the shellac palace – laakshaa griha – to trap the
pandavas). The hieroglyphs refer to the repertoire of metalsmiths and smithy – furnaces,
minerals, metals and alloys and continue to be used on Sohgaura copper plate and on punchmarked coins all over Bharatam. This points to the need for study the Bharatiya languages as
an indigenous continuum from proto-vedic. http://protovedic.blogspot.com
http://spaces.msn.com/members/sarasvati97 (with albums of Sarasvati hieroglyphs).
References:
Kenoyer, J., 2002, Ancient cities of the IndusValley, Karachi, Oxford University Press
Lal, B.B., 2003, Sarasvati Flows on…, Delhi, Aryan International.
Radhakrishna, B.P. ed., 2002, Vedic Sarasvati, Bangalore, Geological Society of India.
K.S. Valdiya, 2002, Sarasvati, the river that disappeared,
Hyderabad, Universities Press, Popular Science Series
Coedes, George, 1968, Hinduised (Indianized) States of Southeast Asia, Hawaii, EastwestCenterPress.
Dr. S. Kalyanaraman, 2003, an encyclopaedic set of 7 books on Sarasvatiwith titles: 1.
Sarasvati: Civilization; 2. Sarasvati : Rigveda ;
3. Sarasvati : River ; 4. Sarasvati : Bharati ; 5. Sarasvati : Technology ; 6. Sarasvati :
Language ; 7. Sarasvati : Epigraphs; Bangalore, Babasah Apte Smarak Samiti
