The chronology of some of the relics unearthed from the Saraswati Valley region goes back to periods prior to BC 10,000.
Right from early times India has been the cradle of cultural florescence. Her northwestern parts gave birth to one of the ancient civilizations. Differently called as Harappan Culture or Sindhu Valley Civilization, this early civilization of India has been of much historical interest to archaeologists, geologists and even space researchers. However, as archaeological research progressed, the very name Indus Civilization proved to be a misnomer since the remains of this civilization unearthed from various parts of India reveal that it was not confined exclusively to Indus Valley. Its cultural dissemination took place in an area of about 2.5 million sq. km. of India. The northern most of Indus sites is Manda located on river Beas near Jammu. The southernmost is Bhagatrav on river Tapti in Maharashtra. The eastern most sites are Alamgirpur on river Hindon near Delhi and Mandoli near Nandanagari in North Delhi. In the west it extended to Sutkagendor on the ancient shore of Arabian Sea near the eastern border of Iran. The main sites include Harappa, Mohenjodaro, Chanhudaro, Lothal, Rupar, Kalibengan, Banavali, Kunal, Kot-Diji, Dholavira, Surkothada, Mehrgarh, Rahmandheri, Ranagundai, Amri, Kil Gul Mohamad and a host of other major and minor ones. However what is most astonishing is the concentration of these sites in the vast tract lying between Indus on the west and Ganges on the east, where the archaeologists and geologists alike have discovered the paleo-channels of a lost river with more than 22 km breadth at some places. This according to D. N. Wadia is the “old bed of Saraswati … at a time when it and the Sutlej flowed independently of the Indus to the sea, i.e. the Rann of Kutch”. (D N Wadia, Geology of India, Delhi, 1984, p. 368. (First published in 1919.) By 1886 itself R D Oldham, the then Deputy Superintend of the Geological Survey of India had pointed to the existence of this river. He observed the paleo-channels of a river that flowed in between Yamuna and Sutlej and that this river had two channels one of which passed through Haryana (Khaggar-Saraswati channel). He also observed some shifts in the channels of this river, which according to geological findings had changed its course many times. Analyzing the fossils unearthed from the beds of these lost rivers, he concluded that these were of the creatures, which floated in the same river. (R D Oldham, ‘On Probable Changes in the Geography of the Punjab and its Rivers an Historico-Geographical Study’, Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1886, Vol.55, pp.322-343). C F Oldham also took notice of the paleo-channels of this river. He traced an old riverbed, the Hakra or Sotra (Ghaggar) or Wahind, more than thousand Km. in length, the channel of a lost river, traceable from Ambala near the foot of the Hymalayas through Bhatinda, Bikaner and Bahawalpur to Sind and thence onwards to the Rann of Kutch. Quoting from the R/k Veda, Mahabharata and Manusmruti, he concluded that this was the channel of the ancient river Saraswati which nourished a great civilization. Beside the river, all along its course he came across remains of highly civilized centers. He wrote:</p>
The existence of this river at no very remote period and the truth of the legend which assert the ancient fertility of the lands through which it flowed, are attested by the ruins which everywhere overspread what is now an arid sandy waste.
Throughout this tract are scattered mounts, marking the sites of cities and towns. And there are strongholds still remaining, in a very decayed state, which were places of importance…
Amongst these ruins are found, not only the huge bricks used by the Hindus of the remote past, but others of much later make too.
Taking the once urban nature of these areas and the unerring geological findings about the long and wide riverbed of this lost river, he concluded that this was nothing other than the Vedic Saraswati referred to in ancient Indian literature. (C F Oldahm, ‘The Saraswati and the Lost River of the Indian Desert’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1893, Vol.34, pp.49-76). Later the geologists engaged in geomorphologic survey on the eve of launching the Fakra-Nangal project also came across the old bed of a long river, which flowed in the southwest direction and ended up in the desert. (B C Roy, ‘Geological Map of Rajasthan’, Geological Survey of India, Vol. 86; ‘Lost Course of Saraswati River in the Indian Desert’, Geographical Journal, Vol-145 (3), 1979) The evidence from the Manusmruti about the existence of the rivers Saraswati and Drishadwati, which flanked the area it calls Brahmavarta is further attested by the most modern geological findings and also imageries sent by the earth sensing satellites of both NASA and ISRO. They give information about the ancient geological structure of northwest India based on the pictures of the paleo-channels of the rivers that flowed and ended up in Thar Desert.(Yas Pal, ‘Remote Sensing of the Saraswati River’, Frontiers of Harappan Civilization, (Ed. B Lal and S P Gupta), New Delhi, 1984, pp. 491-498) According to Geological and hydrological findings this area, though now appears arid, was in ancient times watered by a group of mighty rivers that flowed in between the Sindhu in the west and Ganga on the east. The long channel of the river sourcing off the foot of Sivalik ranges and coursing southwest was junctioned with many streams having considerable volume of water. The main Khaggar-Saraswati channel was enriched from the west by Sutlej, while from the east rivers like Drishadwati (the present Chautang), Yamuna and Markanda combined flowed into the Saraswati-Khaggar channel which took its mighty south-western course till it emptied itself into sea at Rann of Kutch. (K S Valdia, Saraswati – The River that Disappeared, Orient Longman, Hyderabad, 2002, pp. 23-36.) Consequently the areas between Saraswati and Drishadwati became resourceful to support the all-round prosperity of the people there. According to Manu this place, being the most auspicious, was suitable for all kinds of spiritual activities and he calls it Brahmavarta, the divine land:
Saraswatidrushadvatyo
tam de`vanirmitamde`s`am brahma=vartam prachakshate` (Manu Smruti. 2. 17.)
This opinion of Geology has not changed till date and it continued only to be buttressed up by similar findings of archaeology and space research later. Interestingly, most of the sites of what was so far called Indus Valley Civilization have been excavated from the areas this lost river with its many feeder sources had flowed and changed its course many times. Indeed most of the archaeological finds regarding what we call Harappan civilization have been unearthed from the Cholistan desert area where a Pakistani team of archaeologists headed by M Rafique Mughal concentrated its surveys along 300 miles of the dry bed of Hakra River. The Cholistan discoveries, Mughal says, have given a “new perspective and orientation for planning future research on Indus Valley Civilization”, because “sites of various periods, and their concentration or distribution, provides a reliable basis for reconstructing various changes in the course of the Hakra River, often identified with the Saraswati of the Vedic period”. (M. Rafique Mughal, ‘Recent Archaeological Research in the Cholistan Desert’, Harappan Civilization, (Ed. Gregory L. Possehl) New Delhi, Oxford & IBH, 1993, pp. 85-94) Further excavations in Cholistan and other sites which dot all across the regions where this lost river had flowed have brought to light that what has been thus far described as Indus Valley Civilization had only a few sites on the Indus. Most sites of this civilization including the maritime and other navigational centers were concentrated on the strands of the once mighty River Saraswati or were connected to it.
One may wonder as to whether this lost river was so big that its sand beds and valleys helped flower so great a civilization and fostered it for a long time till it ceased to have its mighty flow and ended up in the desert. According to geologists the two thousand year period, between 6000 B.C and 4000 B.C., witnessed the full splendour of Saraswati when as a great river it watered the plains of Punjab, Rajastan, Gujarat and Haryana. Definitely this mighty river became an object of much praise and veneration and was deified and eulogized by the seers who authored the Vedic hymns. The river is described in the Rig Veda as:
<strong>eka=cetat saraswati+ nadiinam s`uchiryati giribhya a= samudra=t <sup> </sup>(R/k Ve`da</strong></b></em><em><b>
She is flowing from the mountains to the ocean”.</p>
So great was she to the Vedic people that they praised her as the best of mothers, best of rivers and best of Goddesses and invoked her blessings:
ambi+tame` nadi+tame` de`vi+tame` saraswati
apras`asta iva smasi pras`astim amba naskridh/i (R/k Ve`da, 2:41:16)
Best of mothers, best of rivers, Best of Goddesses, Saraswati we are ignorant and untrained, give us wisdom and knowledge.
She is described as the river whose unlimited and uninterrupted flow with its swift movement and speedy rush gushes forth with tempestuous roar:
yasya ananto ahnuta stvesha s`charisn/urarn/ava amas`charati roru=vat (R/k Ve`da, 6:61:8.)
Her mighty current is described to have broken the boulders on either side easily like breaking the lotus stems. (R/k Ve`da, 6: 61:2.) Similarly Yajur Veda, Atharva Veda, Brahmanas, Manusmruti, Mahabharata and Puranas wax eloquent in praise of the River Saraswati, which was the lifeline of the versatile progress of ancient northwest India. But all the available sources say that this river gradually dried up and lost its course in later time and the civilization that flowered on its banks turned lackluster with its industrious population migrating to elsewhere. Plate tectonics, according to geology, had done away with the existing earth structure resulting in the hydro changes of the area leading to aridity. A comparative study of the paleo-channels of Sutlej and Yamuna as found in the imageries sent by the satellites and the geological graphs with their present courses would reveal that some catastrophes like an earthquake resultant of plate-tectonics caused Sutlej to take a westerly course to join the Sindhu, and Yamuna an easterly one to flow into the Ganga. Consequently the main channels with no feeder streams, dried up in the desert sands. What remained were only the Ghaggar, Chautang and some insignificant channels, which could not help Saraswati and Drishadwati flow with as much waters as in the time fed by Sutlej and Yamuna. Literary sources like Panchavims`a Brahmana, Latyayana Srauta Sutra, Baudhayana Dharmasutra, etc., state that Saraswati in later times had only a little water. According to Mahabharata Saraswati dried up with its fishes dieing and the occupants of its valley migrating to other places in search of safe settlements. (Mahabharata, Vanaparvan, LXXXII, CXXX, etc.) Manusmruti says that Saraswati lost its flow and went underground at the place called Vinasana (vinasy`ati antardadh/a=ti saraswati atre`ti vinas`anam) which the scholars identify as somewhere at Kalibengan, one of the major sites of Saraswati-Sindhu civilization. (Manu Smruti, II, 21.) The oral tradition that Saraswati is vilupta or completely hidden at Prayag is thus testified right by archaeological, geological, literary and other sources. According to S. P. Gupta:
“It may also be noted that from Adi Badri in the Sivaliks supposed to be the source of Saraswati, to the site of Bahar, running past Kapalmochana, Bhagawanpura, Thanesar-Kurukshetra and Pehoa, the river is still seasonably alive. At Bahar it meets the river Ghaggar. Its old course, which is now seen running parallel to that of the Ghaggar, is still visible on the ground in the form of a long and wide depression, some four to five km. At the widest, called Sottar Valley … This old channel runs through the districts of Jind, Hissar, and Srisa in Haryana until it meets the modern Ghaggar near the Rajastan border. The old channel of Saraswati is popularly known as Rangoi, Nai, Nadi, Hakra, Ban, Sarsuti, etc”. (S. P. Gupta, The Indus-Saraswati Civilization, pp. 13-14.)
Thus on the basis of all these findings what may be assumed is that the earliest cradle of civilization of northwest India was Saraswati Valley which accommodated almost all sites of what historians have been calling Indus Valley Civilization. Indus, as famous as Saraswati in the time when Vedas were composed, compiled and classified, was no less than any other river in caressing the cultural growth of ancient India. Nonetheless it was Saraswati that top-ranked. It was the Vedic civilization that flourished on her valley, and it is from Saraswati valley region that archaeologists unearthed the relics of the civilization whose chronology goes back, in some cases, to periods prior to 10,000 BC. Indeed it is in the light of these findings and developments that many historians and archaeologists like B. B. Lal have concluded that it was the people of Indus-Saraswati Valley who authored the Vedas. And this is again supported by many facts and also similarities between what have been so far written off as entirely different civilizations in race, nature, religion and many other ways of life – Indus and Vedic cultures.
The new discoveries have brought to light more data regarding this civilization that challenged many early views and beliefs. First, they have undone many false notions about the differences between Indus culture and Vedic culture, which have thus far been a stereotyped discussion in ancient Indian history. Second, these findings help us recast the chronology of ancient Indian history. Third, the readings in Indus script, the findings of archaeology, both land and marine and reliance on astronomical data and modern space research combined with a bit mathematics help us look at the history of ancient India from a new angle.
South-westerly swing of Saraswati at Anupgarh; LANDSAT image (1982) from University of California, San Diego, obtained by Dr. S. Kalyanaraman; the black spots are near Suratgarh, northeast of Anupgarh, representing the formation of hard pans (gypsum and lime deposition) due to water-logging.
(Excerpts from the Author’s book VEDIC INDIA: A HISTORY, Gyan Books, New Delhi)
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