The Sarasvati River (Sanskrit: सरस्वती नदी sárasvatī nadī) is one of the chief Rigvedic rivers mentioned in ancient Hindu texts. The Nadistuti hymn in the Rigveda (10.75) mentions the Sarasvati between the Yamuna in the east and the Sutlej in the west, and later Vedic texts like Tandya and Jaiminiya Brahmanas as well as the Mahabharata mention that the Sarasvati dried up in a desert. The goddess Sarasvati was originally a personification of this river, but later developed an independent identity and gained meaning.

The identification of the Vedic Sarasvati River with the Ghaggar-Hakra River was accepted by Christian Lassen,^[1] Max Müller,^[2] Marc Aurel Stein, C.F. Oldham^[3] and Jane Macintosh,^[4] while some Vedic scholars (e.g. Kochhar 1999) believe the Helmand River of southern Afghanistan corresponds to the Sarasvati River.^[5]

Course of Sarasvati river

Map of northern India in the late Vedic period

Course of Saraswati Palaeo-drainage network formed by several palaeochannels has been worked out by different researchers in western Rajasthan and neighbouring states, which is mainly buried under sand cover of the Thar Desert and parallel to the Aravalli Hills6–8. In the last couple of years with the advancement in satellite and remote sensing technology, palaeochannels have been mapped systematically. Different workers have different opinions about the number of courses of Saraswati River. Ghosh et al.6,9 reported five, Yashpal et al.10 reported one, Bakliwal and Grover11 reported seven. On the basis of aerial photographs and Landsat imagery, faults/lineaments and palaeo-drainage system in NW India have been delineated6,7,9,12–15. Several authors16–18 have opined that upliftment of the Aravallis led to the westward migration of Saraswati River system due to fault-controlled movements. The faults have been and continue to be active, registering various sideways and up–down movements in the geological past. As a consequence, there was uplift and sinking or horizontal (lateral) displacement of the ground. Under such tectonophysiographic upheavals, the rivers and streams were frequently forced to change their courses, sometimes gradually, sometimes abruptly, as seen on satellite images.

Etymology[link]

Sarasvatī is the devi feminine of an adjective sarasvant- (which occurs in the Rigveda^[6] as the name of the keeper of the celestial waters), derived from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sáras-vant-ī (and earlier, PIE *séles-u̯n̥t-ih₂), meaning ‘marshy, full of pools’.

Sanskrit sáras means ‘pool, pond’; the feminine sarasī́ means ‘stagnant pool, swamp’.^[7] Like its cognates Welsh hêl, heledd ‘river meadow’ and Greek ἕλος (hélos) ‘swamp’, the Rigvedic term refers mostly to stagnant waters, and Mayrhofer considers unlikely a connection with the root *sar- ‘run, flow’.^[8]

Sarasvatī is an exact cognate with Avestan Harax^vatī, perhaps^[9] originally referring to Arədvī Sūrā Anāhitā (modern Ardwisur Anahid), the Zoroastrian mythological world river, which would point to a common Indo-Iranian myth of a cosmic or mystical Sáras-vant-ī river. In the younger Avesta, Harax^vatī is Arachosia, a region described to be rich in rivers, and its Old Persian cognate Harauvati, which gave its name to the present-day Hārūt River in Afghanistan, may have referred to the entire Helmand drainage basin (the center of Arachosia).

In the Rigveda[link]

The Sarasvati River is mentioned in all books of the Rigveda but not in the fourth one.

RV 6.61, RV 7.95 and RV 7.96.

Praise[link]

• The Sarasvati is praised lavishly in the Rigveda as the best of all the rivers: e.g. in RV 2.41.16 she is called ámbitame nádītame dévitame sárasvati, "best mother, best river, best goddess". Other verses of praise include RV 6.61.8-13, RV 7.96 and RV 10.17. In some hymns, the Indus river seems to be more important than the Sarasavati, especially in the Nadistuti sukta. In RV 8.26.18, the white flowing Sindhu 'with golden wheels' is the most conveying or attractive of the rivers.

• RV 7.95.2. and other verses (e.g. RV 8.21.18) speak of the Sarasvati pouring "milk and ghee." Rivers are often likened to cows in the Rigveda, for example in RV 3.33.1,

Like two bright mother cows who lick their youngling,

Vipas and Sutudri speed down their waters.

• The phrase sárasvatī saptáthī síndhumātā of RV 7.36.6 has been rendered as " Sarasvati the Seventh, Mother of Floods" in a popular translation.^[10] While this takes a tatpurusha interpretation of síndhumātā, the word is actually a bahuvrihi.^[11]

Course[link]

• The late Rigvedic Nadistuti sukta enumerates all important rivers from the Ganges in the east up to the Indus in the west in a clear geographical order. Here (RV 10.75.5), the sequence "Ganges, Yamuna, Sarasvati, Shutudri" places the Sarasvati between the Yamuna and the Sutlej, which is consistent with the Ghaggar identification.
• Verses in RV 6.61 indicate that the Sarasvati river originated in the hills or mountains (giri), where she "burst with her strong waves the ridges of the hills (giri)". It is a matter of interpretation whether this refers only to the Himalayan foothills like the present-day Sarasvati (Sarsuti) river.
• RV 3.23.4 mentions the Sarasvati River together with the Drsadvati River and the Āpayā River. RV 6.52.6 describes the Sarasvati as swollen (pinvamānā) by the rivers (sindhubhih).
• While RV 6.61.12 associates the Sarasvati River with the five tribes; and RV 7.95-6 with the Paravatas and the Purus; in RV 8.21.18, a number of petty kings are said to dwell along the course of Sarasvati,

Citra is King, and only kinglings [rājaka] are the rest who dwell beside Sarasvati.

• In RV 7.95.1-2, the Sarasvati is described as flowing to the samudra, a word now usually translated as ocean.

This stream Sarasvati with fostering current comes forth, our sure defence, our fort of iron.

As on a chariot, the flood flows on, surpassing in majesty and might all other waters.

Pure in her course from mountains to the ocean, alone of streams Sarasvati hath listened.

Thinking of wealth and the great world of creatures, she poured for Nahusa her milk and fatness.

As a goddess[link]

Painting of Goddess Saraswati by Raja Ravi Varma

In the Rigveda, the name Sarasvati already does not always relate to a river and its personification exclusively; in some places, the goddess Saraswati is abstracted from the river.

The Sarasvati is mentioned in 13 hymns of the late books (1 and 10) of the Rigveda.^[12] Only two of these references are unambiguously to the river: 10.64.9, calling for the aid of three "great rivers", Sindhu, Sarasvati and Sarayu; and 10.75.5, the geographical list of the Nadistuti sukta. The others invoke Sarasvati as a goddess without direct connection to a specific river. In 10.30.12, her origin as a river goddess may explain her invocation as a protective deity in a hymn to the celestial waters. In 10.135.5, as Indra drinks Soma he is described as refreshed by Sarasvati. The invocations in 10.17 address Sarasvati as a goddess of the forefathers as well as of the present generation. In 1.13, 1.89, 10.85, 10.66 and 10.141, she is listed with other gods and goddesses, not with rivers. In 10.65, she is invoked together with "holy thoughts" (dhī) and "munificence" (puraṃdhi), consistent with her role as a goddess of both knowledge and fertility.

Other Vedic texts[link]

In post-Rigvedic literature, the disappearance of the Sarasvati is mentioned. Also the origin of the Sarasvati is identified as Plaksa Prasravana.^[13][14]

Yajur Veda[link]

In a supplementary chapter of the Vajasaneyi-Samhita of the Yajurveda (34.11), Sarasvati is mentioned in a context apparently meaning the Sindhu: "Five rivers flowing on their way speed onward to Sarasvati, but then become Sarasvati a fivefold river in the land."^[15] According to the medieval commentator Uvata, the five tributaries of the Sarasvati were the Punjab rivers Drishadvati, Satudri (Sutlej), Chandrabhaga (Chenab), Vipasa (Beas) and the Iravati (Ravi).

Brahmanas[link]

The first reference to the disapparance of the lower course of the Sarasvati is from the Brahmanas, texts that are composed in Vedic Sanskrit, but dating to a later date than the Veda Samhitas. The Jaiminiya Brahmana (2.297) speaks of the 'diving under (upamajjana) of the Sarasvati', and the Tandya Brahmana (or Pancavimsa Br.) calls this the 'disappearance' (vinasana). The same text (25.10.11-16) records that the Sarasvati is 'so to say meandering' (kubjimati) as it could not sustain heaven which it had propped up.^[16] The Plaksa Prasravana (place of appearance/source of the river) may refer to a spring in the Siwalik mountains. The distance between the source and the Vinasana (place of disappearance of the river) is said to be 44 asvina (between several hundred and 1600 miles) (Tandya Br. 25.10.16; cf. Av. 6.131.3; Pancavimsa Br.^[17]

Late Vedic[link]

In the Latyayana Srautasutra (10.15-19) the Sarasvati seems to be a perennial river up to the Vinasana, which is west of its confluence with the Drshadvati (Chautang). The Drshadvati is described as a seasonal stream (10.17). The Asvalayana Srautasutra and Sankhayana Srautasutra contain verses that are similar to the Latyayana Srautasutra.

Post-Vedic texts[link]

The Mahabharata[link]

According to the Mahabharata, the Sarasvati dried up in a desert (at a place named Vinasana or Adarsana);^[18] after having disappeared in the desert, reappears in some places;^[19] and joins the sea "impetuously".^[20] MB.3.81.115 locates Kurukshetra to the south of the Sarasvati and north of the Drishadvati. Dried up seasonal Ghaggar River in Rajasthan and haryana reflects the same geographical view as described in Mahabharata.

Puranas[link]

• Several Puranas describe the Sarasvati River, and also record that the river separated into a number of lakes (saras).^[21] In Skanda Purana, five distributaries of the Sarasvati are mentioned.^[22]
• In the Skanda Purana, the Sarasvati originates from the water pot of Brahma and flows from Plaksa on the Himalayas. It then turns west at Kedara and also flows underground.
• According to Vamana Purana 32.1-4, the Sarasvati rose from the Plaksa tree (Pipal tree).^[21]

Smritis[link]

• In the Manu Smriti, the sage Manu, escaping from a flood, founded the Vedic culture between the Sarasvati and Drishadvati rivers. The Sarasvati River was thus the western boundary of Brahmavarta: "the land between the Sarasvati and Drishadvati is created by God; this land is Brahmavarta."^[23]
• Similarly, the Vasistha Dharma Sutra I.8-9 and 12-13 locates Aryavarta to the east of the disappearance of the Sarasvati in the desert, to the west of Kalakavana, to the north of the mountains of Pariyatra and Vindhya and to the south of the Himalaya. Patanjali's Mahābhāṣya defines Aryavarta like the Vasistha Dharma Sutra.
• The Baudhayana Dharmasutra gives similar definitions, declaring that Aryavarta is the land that lies west of Kalakavana, east of Adarsana (where the Sarasvati disappears in the desert), south of the Himalayas and north of the Vindhyas.

Identification[link]

The Sarasvati River of late Vedic and post-Vedic times is generally identified with the Ghaggar River. But the implication of a river of substantially greater volume makes the same identification of the early Vedic references problematic: either the Ghaggar was a more powerful river in earlier times, or the early Vedic Sarasvati was located elsewhere.^{[citation needed]} According to Hindu scriptures, a journey was made during the Mahabharata by Balrama along the banks of the Saraswati from Dwarka to Mathura. There were ancient kingdoms too (the era of the Mahajanapads), that lay in parts of north rajasthan; that were named on the saraswati river. This gives some logic to the theory of Ghaggar-Hakkar being the ancient Saraswati. During the Pleistocene period the Himalayan mountains were under glacial cover and climate was fluctuating between glacial and interglacial phases. Around 40,000 yrs BP, the present Thar Desert enjoyed wet climate and greenery. Mythological River Saraswati/Vedic Saraswati (also known as Saraswati Nadi, Saraswati Nala, Sarsuti and Chautang in certain places, variously spelt as Sarasvati) is believed to have flowed during 6000–3000 BC from the melting glaciers of Garhwal Himalaya to Arabian Sea through the Thar Desert1,2. Several researchers agree about the existence of palaeochannels2. According to the Ground Water Cell of Haryana, a large number of water wells fall on these palaeochannels and their lithology is coarse sand/gravel of riverine nature. Now palaeochannels exhibit discontinuous drainage. Geomorphological and tectonic study of drainage of northern Haryana was discussed by Thussu3 and Virdi et al.4. A good compilation of researches covering various aspects of Saraswati is available in Valdiya5 and also posted by him at http://www.omilosmeleton.gr/pdf/en/indology/The_Saras -wati_was_a_Major_River.pdf.

Ghaggar-Hakra River[link]

Ghaggar river flowing through Panchkula in Haryana in India. Ghaggar-Hakra River has been identified as the historic Sarasvati river by many researchers.

Evidence from survey fieldwork and recent satellite imagery have been adduced to suggest that the Ghaggar-Hakra system in the undetermined past had the Sutlej and the Yamuna as tributaries, with the Rann of Kutch as the likely remains of its delta. In this scenario, geological changes diverted the Sutlej towards the Indus and the Yamuna towards the Ganges, following which the river did not have enough water to reach the sea any more and dried up in the Thar desert.

The wide river bed (paleo-channel) of the Ghaggar river suggest that the river once flowed full of water during the great meltdown of the Himalayan Ice Age glaciers, some 10,000 years ago, and that it then continued through the entire region, in the presently dry channel of the Hakra River, possibly emptying into the Rann of Kutch. It supposedly dried up due to the capture of its tributaries by the Indus system and the Yamuna river, and later on, additionally, the loss of water in much of its catchment area due to deforestation and overgrazing. It has been proposed that the Sarasvati of the early Rigveda corresponds to the Ghaggar-Hakra before these changes took place (the "Old Ghaggar"), and the late Vedic end Epic Sarasvati disappearing in the desert to the Ghaggar-Hakra following the diversion of Sutlej and Yamuna.^[24] This is supposed by some to have happened at the latest in 1900 BCE ^[25][26]

Painted Grey Ware sites (ca. 1000 BCE) have been found in the bed and not on the banks of the Ghaggar-Hakra river, suggesting that the river had dried up before this period.^[27]

Helmand river[link]

U.S. Soldiers cross the Arghandab River. References to the Sarasvati river in the Rgveda is often identified with the present-day Ghaggar River, although the Arghandab River as a possible locus of early Rigvedic references has been discussed.

Suggestions for the identity of the early Rigvedic Sarasvati River include the Helmand River in Afghanistan, separated from the watershed of the Indus by the Sanglakh Range. The Helmand historically besides Avestan Haetumant bore the name Haraxvaiti, which is the Avestan form cognate to Sanskrit Sarasvati. The Avesta extols the Helmand in similar terms to those used in the Rigveda with respect to the Sarasvati: "the bountiful, glorious Haetumant swelling its white waves rolling down its copious flood".^[28]

Kocchar (1999) argues that the Helmand is identical to the early Rigvedic Sarasvati of suktas 2.41, 7.36 etc., and that the Nadistuti sukta (10.75) was composed centuries later, after an eastward migration of the bearers of the Rigvedic culture to the western Gangetic plain some 600 km to the east. The Sarasvati by this time had become a mythical "disappeared" river, and the name was transferred to the Ghaggar which disappeared in the desert.

The identification of the Helmand with the early Rig Vedic Sarasvati is not without difficulties. However, the geographic situation of the Sarasvati and the Helmand rivers are similar. Both flow into a terminal lakes: the Helmand into a swamp in the Iranian plateau (the extended wetland and lake system of Hamun-i-Helmand). This matches the Rigvedic description of the Sarasvati flowing to the samudra, which at that time meant 'confluence', 'lake', 'heavenly lake, ocean'; the current meaning of 'terrestrial ocean' was not even felt in the Pali Canon.^[29] In post-Rig Vedic texts (Brahmanas) the Sarasvati ("she who has (many) lakes"), is said to disappear ("dive under") in the desert.

Present-day Sarasvatis[link]

• Sarsuti is the present-day name of a river originating in a submontane region (Ambala district) and joining the Ghaggar near Shatrana in PEPSU. Near Sadulgarh (Hanumangarh) the Naiwala channel, a dried out channel of the Sutlej, joins the Ghaggar. Near Suratgarh the Ghaggar is then joined by the dried up Drishadvati river.
• Sarasvati is the name of a river originating in the Aravalli mountain range in Rajasthan, passing through Sidhpur and Patan before submerging in the Rann of Kutch.
• The Saraswati River in Bengal, formerly a tributary of the Hooghly River, has dried up since the 17th century.

Notes[link]

See also[link]

• Sapta Sindhu
• Saraswat Brahmins
• Saraswati River (Bengal)
• Triveni Sangam
• Saraswati (goddess)

References[link]

• Bryant, Edwin (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513777-9. 
• Gupta, S.P. (ed.). 1995. The lost Saraswati and the Indus Civilization. Kusumanjali Prakashan, Jodhpur.
• Hock, Hans (1999) Through a Glass Darkly: Modern "Racial" Interpretations vs. Textual and General Prehistoric Evidence on Arya and Dasa/Dasyu in Vedic Indo-Aryan Society." in Aryan and Non-Aryan in South Asia, ed. Bronkhorst & Deshpande, Ann Arbor.
• Keith and Macdonell. 1912. Vedic Index of Names and Subjects.
• Kochhar, Rajesh, 'On the identity and chronology of the Ṛgvedic river Sarasvatī' in Archaeology and Language III; Artefacts, languages and texts, Routledge (1999), ISBN 0-415-10054-2.
• Lal, B.B. 2002. The Saraswati Flows on: the Continuity of Indian Culture. New Delhi: Aryan Books International
• Oldham, R.D. 1893. The Sarsawati and the Lost River of the Indian Desert. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 1893. 49-76.
• Puri, VKM, and Verma, BC, Glaciological and Geological Source of Vedic Sarasvati in the Himalayas, New Delhi, Itihas Darpan, Vol. IV, No.2, 1998 [1]
• Radhakrishna, B.P. and Merh, S.S. (editors): Vedic Saraswati: Evolutionary History of a Lost River of Northwestern India (1999) Geological Society of India (Memoir 42), Bangalore. Review (on page 3) Review
• Shaffer, Jim G. (1995). Cultural tradition and Palaeoethnicity in South Asian Archaeology. In: Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia. Ed. George Erdosy.. ISBN 3-11-014447-6. 
• S. G. Talageri, The RigVeda - A Historical Analysis chapter 4

External links[link]

• Is River Ghaggar, Saraswati? by Tripathi,Bock,Rajamani, Eisenhauer
• Saraswati – the ancient river lost in the desert by A. V. Sankaran

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Michel Danino (b. June 4, 1956 at Honfleur), is a French‐born Indian author who has been living in Tamil Nadu, India since 1977.^[1]

He participated in the translation and publication of the works of Sri Aurobindo and of The Mother. Danino also edited India's Rebirth (a selection from Sri Aurobindo's works about India, first published in 1993, translated into nine Indian languages) and India the Mother. He engaged himself also for the preservation of tropical rainforest in the Nilgiri Hills. In 2001, he convened the International Forum for India's Heritage (IFIH) with the mission of promoting the essential values of India's heritage in every field of life.^[2]

In The Invasion that Never Was (2000), he has criticized the "Aryan invasion theory" and its proponents, instead opting for the notion of "Indigenous Aryans". Danino asserts that Aryans are indigenous to India.

Birth and Early life[link]

Michael Danino was born in 1956 at Honfleur (France) into a Jewish family, which had emigrated from Morocco. He was attracted to India from an early age. Yogis of India, Sri Aurobindo and The Mother particularly attracted him. In 1977, dissatisfied after four years of higher scientific studies, he left France for India, where he has since been living.^[3]

Life in India[link]

He spent a few years in Auroville, Tamil Nadu. Then lived in Nilgiri mountains for two decades. In 2003 he settled near Coimbatore and adopted the Indian citizenship .^[1].

While in Nilgiris he fought against the daily destruction of Shola or evergreen montane rainforests of the Western Ghats and turned into a nature conservationist. His work prompted Tamil Nadu Forest Department in 1998 to invite a committee of local citizens to assist in protecting Shola forest. He said about the incident, "It shows that public's participation is the key and that the government alone, even when it has goodwill, is simply not geared to face today's challenges, but it is important that people get involved." ^[4].

In 2001 Danino convened the International Forum for India's Heritage, having over 160 eminent founder members, with the mission of promoting the essential values of India's heritage in every field of life.^[5]

Works[link]

• Sri Aurobindo and Indian Civilization (1999)
• The Invasion that Never Was (2000)
• The Indian Mind Then and Now (2000)
• Is Indian Culture Obsolete? (2000)
• Kali Yuga or the Age of Confusion (2001)
• L'Inde et l'invasion de nulle part - Le dernier repaire du mythe aryen (2006) Les Belles Lettres. ISBN 2-251-72010-3
• The Lost River - On the trail of the Sarasvati (2010). ISBN 978-0-14-306864-8.

See also[link]

• David Frawley
• Koenraad Elst
• Francois Gautier
• Alain Danielou

External links[link]

• Michel Danino homepage
• HinduWisdom Quotes from Michel Danino
• Effects of Colonization on Indian Thought, Michel Danino (1999)

References[link]

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