River Saraswati

Climatic change and geotectonic movements have led to relocation and desertion of several rivers, and drainage plan. Some of them are ‘misplaced’, because of the overburden of silt. But numerous confirmations left by them, generally help in explaining the survival of a geomorphic characteristic, in a particular site, which attract the attention of the interested group to discover the past. In India, the river Saraswati reproduce such a charming history, supported by geological, hydrological and archaeological, proof as well as the records of the most modern tools, such as remote sensing, and GIS. With the aid of remote sense through orbiting satellites, the secrecy of the river is more or less solved.

It is clearly from the Vedic text, that the Rig Vedic, society lived on the bank of a river called the Saraswati.

There were about 300 cities along the banks of Saraswati. It was named Saraswati-Sindhu society.

Hindus believe rivers as sacred, and have personified them as divinity, and voiced their respect in their sacred text, the Vedas (Rigveda, Yajurveda and Atharveda), Manusmriti, Puranas and Mahabharata. These quote names of numerous rivers that survive during the Vedic age, and which had their source in the Himalayas. One such river Saraswati has been glorified in these document and referred by a diversity of names like Markanda, Hakra, Suprabha, Kanchanakshi, Visala, Manorama etc. Mahabharata has glorified Saraswati River, as covering the universe and having seven separate names. Rig Veda point up it as one of seven chief rivers of Vedic times, the others being, Shatadru (Sutlej), Vipasa (Beas), Askini (Chenab), Parsoni, or Airavati (Ravi), Vitasta (Jhelum) and Sindhu (Indus).

The river Saraswati, during its zenith, is demonstrated to be much larger than Sindhu or the Indus River. During the Vedic period, this waterway had path through the area between current Yamuna and Sutlej.

Saraswati had such an impact on the lives, even after her disappearance, that many rivers were later renamed after her. River Argandab (now in Afghanistan), was named Saraswati. The lower canals of the river Luni, in Gujrat were also renamed as Saraswati. One more river born in the Himalayas, but flowing down in Assam is also identified as Saraswati.

Mostly, Indus and Saraswati, were the two major waterway, schemes of northwestern India during the Vedic period Sridhar have classified the rivers into four main groups– (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 branch in its middle course; (iv) Drishadvati, and Lavanavati,

About 200 scientists and archeologists had undertaken a project to scorch the well-known Saraswati River, 15 years ago. Their hard work recognized that the river, appreciated in the Rigveda, and celebrated in the culture for thousands of years, is not a legend but a ground reality. The contribution of scientists, not only helped to investigate the Saraswati but also, provide a chance to chalk out an act for interlinking about all the major rivers, of the country to keep away from any future water disaster.

Disclosing the outcome of the research work, and the proposal to interlink the rivers at a press meeting recently here the manager of Saraswati Nadi Sodh Prakalp of Akhil Bhartiya Itihas Sank Alan Yojana, (ABISY) S. Kalyanraman, said that the scientific search have recognized the causes and dates of the dislocation of the great river Saraswati, which was mightier than the Sindhu.

The demise of Saraswati was near fatal for the Saraswati civilization. The scarcity of water forced people to migrate. Saraswati - Sindhu civilization did not disappear. There was a shift of population after the economy around the Saraswati River collapsed. People moved to east to the Ganga-Yamuna plains, west, northwest and south to Godavari plains.

Significant discuss 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, concerning Saraswati disappearing in the sands at Vinäsana, and not in the sea, but at the same time, there is also course in some of these ancient texts about a thin sea, probably a stream, coming right up to Bikaner, but which disappeared during the Vedic times. Rigvedic and archaeological orientation describe, how Saraswati supported inland and marine trade and travel and that, around 3000 BC, there was continuous flow of this river up to even the Little Rann.

Saraswati is believed to have originated from the Har-ki-Dun glacier in west Garhwal (Uttaranchal). It flowed parallel to the river Yamuna for some distance and later joined it, proceeding south as the Vedic Saraswati. The seasonal rivers and streams, including Ghaggar, joined Saraswati as it follow the course of the present river through Punjab and Haryana. River Sutluj, the Vedic Shatadru, joined the river Saraswati as a tributary at Shatrana, approximately 25 km south of Patiala. Saraswati then followed the course of Ghaggar through Rajasthan and Hakra in Bhawalpur before emptying into the Rann of Kutch via Nara in Sindh province, running parallel to the Indus River. It has been established that the river Saraswati, carrying the waters of three perennial and numerous seasonal rivers, was a mighty river in the Vedic times.