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Saraswati:
River Beyond the Myth
By V G Rao
Publication: The Times of India, New Delhi
Date: November 13, 2000
The sacred literature of every, religion abounds in parable, and semantically
loaded symbolisms, usually contrived for easy, comprehension of spiritual ideas
by lay followers. Hindu texts are no exception to this convention.
It is easy to be misled by the unyielding layers of meaning informing our
age-old scriptures, accumulated over time and open to subjective
interpretation., One particular problem concerns the authenticity of the river
Saraswati, venerated by Hindus throughout India with the fervency of the
faithful and long believed to be a product of poetic reverie. But not
anymore. Scientific studies have dispelled this ambiguity and helped
restore the reality behind the myth.
In 1910, G E Pilgrim published a landmark paper in which he drew attention to an
alluvial deposit of great antiquity found stretching all the way from the
Himalayan foothills to the Sind gulf Pilgrims imagined
the deposit to have been laid by a primitive river that he named appropriately
as the Siwalik river. Geological changes brought about a vivisection of
this river leading to the formation of the Gangetic
system, the Indus system and its five Punjab tributaries. Pointedly, the
Rig Vedic poets appear to have been aware of such a one as this, for the
Saraswati of their vision is also looked upon as a gargantuan river
flowing from the Himalayas to the sea. One cannot but wonder at the
similar imageries
Though the Vedas are fundamentally religious texts their contents are supposed
to encrust a core of history. The number of allusions to Saraswati in the
Rig Veda far outnumber those to other rivers. a fact
that corroborates the all-important position assigned to her in the Vedic
pantheon. For instance, in the Rig Veda she is praised as the Mother among
rivers. the Goddess Saraswati - "Ambitame Naditame
Devitame Saraswati" (RV II.41.16). Saraswati
was also revered as Haraohati in the parallell evolving culture that flourished
in Iran under the stewardship of Zarathustra.
The precincts of Saraswati were
home to a large population belonging to an avowedly pastoral society given to
religious persuasions.
The Manu Samhita describes the land between
Saraswati and Drishadwati, created by the gods as "the land of
brahmins" (MS II. 17-8). But before the end of the early Vedic
period, the Saraswati began to ebb away from public consciousness, and in the
Panchavimsa Brahmana we come across a clear reference to her
disappearance. Simultaneously the Ganges and the northern plains began to
figure prominently. Historians have taken this to mean the expansion of
Aryan race in India. As the eminent historian Romila Thapar writes:
"The Saraswati disappeared into the desert in north-eastern Rajasthan and
the Sutlej and the Yamuna seem to have changed course. Such major changes
would certainly have affected settlement and migration, and this
may in part explain a movement into the Doab".
Much evidence has been gathered on the Saraswati in recent years. She
seems to have been massive, up to five miles across in her heyday, flowing
through Hanumangarh in Rajasthan to Marot in Pakistan as
divulged by satellite photography. The river seems to have changed course
at least four times, in her lifespan, each time shifting to a more westerly
alignment. The Post Graduate Research Institute, Deccan
College has worked out the changing routes of the river in detail. About 4000
BC, Saraswati in her original course emanating from the Himalayas lay in a
south-west direction passing through Mathura and
Panchbhadra to the mouth of the Kutch. With the climate turning drier, the
flow shifted between Sirsa and Nohar through Bikaner. The next shift
occurred with the flow through Rangmahal, also in Rajasthan. In
the tertiary stage she wended her way through Jaikkal and Hanumangarh during the
Indus civilisation and in the fourth and final stage she flowed westward from
Samargarh to merge with the Indus, thereby losing
her independent identity'
There is also some evidence to show that even the Yamuna and the Sutlej once
drained into the Saraswati, before the Yamuna started flowing east into the
Ganges as it does today. Likewise the Sutlej changed its
direction, westward into the Indus through the Ravi instead of flowing south
into the Saraswati. Also some of the many Indus sites, such as Lothal and
Kalibangan, stood on the Saraswati and drew sustenance from
her, which would explain the secret of their existence far removed as they were
from they heart of the Indus Valley. A 350 km land survey conducted in
1985 by V S Wakankar from Adibadri to Somnath has yielded
over 160 more sites on the dried-up course of the river.
The search for Saraswati is of paramount
importance because once her actuality and location are irrefutably determined it
will help to place the ancient history of India on a firmer footing.
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