Vedic Saraswati
The major rivers of north-west (Punjab, Sindh,
Rajasthan & Gujrat) were: Saraswati, Sindhu (Indus), Shatadru
(Sutlej), Vipasa (Beas), Vitasa (Jhelum), Parushni (Ravi), Asikni
(Chenab), Yamuna, Drishadwati and Lavanavati. All rivers have changed
their courses since Vedic times. Of these, three rivers: Saraswati,
Drishadwati and Lavanavati no longer exist.
In Vedic times: the rivers Beas, Jhelum, Ravi & Chenab joined
Sindhu, to form one channel from Himalayas to the Arabian Sea.
Saraswati and her tributary rivers: Yamuna, Sutlej, Drishadvati and
Lavanavati formed the other channel from Himalayas to the Arabian Sea.
Saraswati was a mighty river with three sources in the Himalayas. Her
bed was as vast as 10 km in some places. The river course was dotted
with lakes and ponds.
In the very early days, Saraswati met the Arabian Sea at the Rann of
Kachh. After the level of Rann increased, she crossed the Rann to join
Arabian Sea at the gulf of Khambat.
Course of Saraswati
Here is the proposed course of the northwestern rivers during Vedic times:
Saraswati: The Goddess of Knowledge The vedic people had realised the importance of water, and called it
life. Obviously the water providing pure streams were no less than a mother, who nurtured life on its banks.
It was on the banks of Saraswati, that the Vedic ashrams thrived. It
was on the waters of Saraswati that the vedic culture grew. She was
thus called the goddess of knowledge. (Remember goddess Saraswati is
always portrayed with water in background, blooming lotus, white swans,
and bathing elephants.)
The Rg Veda praises the river as:
ambitambe naditambe devitambe saraswati
The best of mothers, best of rivers, best of godesses, Oh Saraswati!
Saraswati-Sindhu civilization:
80% of the
Indus Civilization sites have been found on the dry banks of river Saraswati, and hence the name
Saraswati-Sindhu.
It is suggested that Saraswati-Sindhu civilization (3100-1900 BC) suceeded the earlier Vedic civilisation. (Or was it the Vedic civilization itself?) They
built their civilization on the Vedic knowledge. How else could they
build towns, navigate the seas, achieve large scale production, have
quality standards, and have commercial relations with the Mesopotomia
& Egypt cultures? It was the Vedic study that provided them the
required knowledge of geometry, algebra, geography, ship building, and
navigation.
The Saraswati-Sindhu Civilization represents itself in, about 300
cities (plus so many supporting towns & villages). Huge cities had
populations of 100,000. They had two or three storied houses built with
bricks of uniform size. The cities had underground sewage system.
Networked with grid of roads. Cities had giant reservoirs for water.
(Today, only one or two Indian cities can boast to be like those built
5,000 years ago!)
The Demise of Saraswati
Late Vedic Period: Tectonic movements pushed up the Aravali
hills, in northern Rajasthan. This changed the drainage pattern of the
Northwest drastically. Saraswati lost her major tributaries, Yamuna and
Sutlej. Sutlej turned west and joined Beas-Sindhu system, and Yamuna
started migrating east to join Ganga.
During Mahabharat times: The volume of water flowing down the
Saraswati had reduced. The waters of Saraswati did not make it upto the
sea. Yamuna at this time, partly flowed westwards to meet Saraswati and
partly flowed eastwards to meet Ganga.
At the time of Krishna's birth Yamuna was not as mighty as it is
today. Hence it must have been possible for Vasudev to cross the river,
with the new born Krishna in his arms.
It is described in Mahabharat, that Balaram travelled along the
almost dry banks of Saraswati, and then along the banks of Yamuna, from
Prabhas (Somnath) to Mathura.
After Mahabharat times: Yamuna now pirated Saraswati's
sources and flowed into Ganga. Because Yamuna brought the waters of
Saraswati to Ganga, the Sagam is called as the Triveni Sangam of Ganga,
Yamuna and Saraswati. Ganga now took the importance of Saraswati and
the title of goddess.
Saraswati now had neither her sources nor her tributary rivers. She
no longer remained the perinnial river. Only floodwaters of Sutlej
flowed through her vast channels. As late as the 16th century AD, the
floodwaters of Sutlej flowed down Saraswati.
Today, Ghaggar; a puny seasonal river, occupies some parts of
Saraswati's dry beds. The dry vast bed called the Hakra-Nara channels
lie in the western Rajasthan.
Impact of Saraswati's demise on the population
Saraswati had
such an impact on the lives, even after her disappearence, that many
rivers were later renamed after her. River Argandab (now in
Afghanistan) was named Saraswati. The lower channels of the river Luni
in Gujrat were also renamed as Saraswati. Another river born in the
Himalayas, (one of the sources of Vedic Saraswati) but flowing down in
Assam is also called Saraswati.
The demise of Saraswati, was near fatal for the Saraswati
civilization. The scarcity of water forced people to migrate. Saraswati
- Sindhu civilization did not vanish. There was a shift of population
after the economy around the Sarasvati river collapsed. People moved to
east to the Ganga-Yamuna plains, west (giving rise to the Mittani and
Kassites, who worshiped Vedic Gods), northwest and south to Godavari
plains.
Saraswati Discovered!
1819: Earthquake gives rise to Allah Band. The ground is seen to rise by 5 to 7 meters in some places in Kutch.
1870: Geologist Alex Rogers discovers: The alluvium deposited by a
river in the Gulf of Khambat. It also seems that it must be the
drainage of the Panjab, that once flowed into Gulf of Khambat.
1886: British officer Oldham saw the dry, vast bed of the seasonal
river Gaggar. He concluded that a seasonal river could not create a bed
so vast; thus Gaggar must be occupying the bed of an older river. He
wrote a paper on the change of river courses in the northwest, and
attributed that dry bed to Sutlej.
1886-1999:Many geologists, archeologists and historians some of them
being: Wilhemly, Yashpal, Valdiya, Shridhar, Manuk, Mughal, Marshall,
Ahmad, S. Kalyanaraman, Roy, Malik, Ghosh, etc. put forth the theory
that Saraswati did once flow, in now dry Gaggar, Hakra-Nara channels.
1972: The sattelite images of the northwestern region showed underground channels of water.
1980's: Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai performs carbon
testing of the underground waters. It turns out to be 3,500 years old.
1998: Rajasthan Ground Water Department undertook the task to
‘unearth’ the river with the collaboration of BARC and Physical
Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad (a wing of ISRO). If the effort is
successful, people living in the desert belt of Rajasthan will be
supplied with water for irragation.
2001 Gujarat Earthquake: The earthquake in Kutch has opened several
fissures in that arid land and at some places people have tasted sweet
water gushing out. Geologists report new ponds bursting to the surface
in Kutch area.
Conclusion
Hindu texts have mentioned the disapperance of river
Sarawati and the submergance of the city of Dwaraka. Hindus believed in
these events as facts, for centuries. Recent historians and scholars
considered these events as myths. Thus Mahabharata, that mentioned
these events, was regarded as epic rather than history. Kings like Sri
Ram & Sri Krishna became mere figment of imagination, rather than
the heroes of History.
In past few decades archeologists have proved beyond doubt that
river Saraswati once flowed from Himalayas to Arabian sea. The capital
of Sri Krishna, the city Dwaraka, once flourished on the west coast of
India.
These findings prove the observations made by the Hindu texts. They
prove the existance of Krishna. They prove that 'Aryans' lived in
Bharat long before the 'Aryan Invasion' took place. These archeological
findings have been the reason for the demise of the Aryan Invasion
Theory.