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Sarasvati River
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Sarasvati River (Sanskrit: srasvat nad) is one of the


main Rigvedic rivers mentioned in the Rig Veda and later Vedic and
post-Vedic texts. It played an important role in Hinduism, since Vedic
Sanskrit and the first part of the Rig Veda are regarded to have
originated when the Vedic people lived on its banks, during the 2nd
millennium BCE.[1] The goddess Sarasvati was originally a
personification of this river, but later developed an independent
identity.[2] The Nadistuti hymn in the Rigveda (10.75) mentions the
Sarasvati between the Yamuna in the east and the Sutlej in the west.
Later Vedic texts like the Tandya and Jaiminiya Brahmanas, as well as The Ghaggar river flowing through
the Mahabharata, mention that the Sarasvati dried up in a desert. The Haryana, India. The Ghaggar-Hakra
Sarasvati is also considered by Hindus to exist in a metaphysical form, system has been identified as the
in which it formed a confluence with the sacred rivers Ganges and Vedic Sarasvati river by many
Yamuna, at the Triveni Sangam.[3] The name Sarasvati was also given to modern researchers.
a formation in the Milky Way.[4]

Since the late 19th-century, scholars have conjectured that the Vedic Saraswati river is the Ghaggar-Hakra River
system, which flows through northwestern India and Eastern Pakistan. Satellite images have pointed to the more
significant river once following the course of the present day Ghaggar River.[5] Using Indian Remote Sensing
satellite data, digital elevation models, historical maps, hydro-geological and drilling data, scholars observed
that major Indus Valley Civilization sites at Kalibangan (Rajasthan), Banawali and Rakhigarhi (Haryana),
Dholavira and Lothal (Gujarat) also lay along this course.[6][7] Another theory suggests that the Helmand River
of southern Afghanistan corresponds to the Sarasvati River.[8]

These views, however, have been contradicted by more recent geophysical research, which suggests that the
Ghaggar-Hakra system, although having greater discharge in Harappan times which was enough to sustain
human habitation, was not watered by a Himalayan riversuch as the Sarasvatibut rather by a system of
perennial, but only monsoon fed, rivers.[9][10] Other research using dating of zircon sand grains has shown that
late Pleistocene subsurface river channels near the present-day Indus Valley Civilisation sites in the Cholistan
desert, in Pakistan, immediately below the dry Ghaggar-Hakra bed show sediment affinity not with the
Ghagger-Hakra river, but with the Beas river in the western sites and the Sutlej and Yamuna rivers in the eastern
ones.[11] This suggests that the Yamuna itself, or a channel of the Yamuna, may have flowed west some time
between 47,000 BCE and 10,000 BCE, but well before the beginnings of the Indus civilization.[11]

Contents
1 Etymology
2 Importance
3 In the Rigveda
3.1 Praise
3.2 Rigveda
3.3 As a goddess

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4 Other Vedic texts


5 Post-Vedic texts
6 Identification theories
6.1 Ghaggar-Hakra River
6.1.1 Identification with the Sarasvati
6.1.2 Course of the historical Ghaggar-Hakra River
6.1.3 Drying-up of the Ghaggar-Hakra system
6.1.4 Identification with the Indus Valley Civilisation
6.2 Helmand river
6.3 Mythical river
7 Drying-up and dating of the Vedas
8 Contemporary religious meaning
9 Revival
10 See also
11 Notes
12 References
13 Sources
14 Further reading
15 External links

Etymology
Sarasvat is the devi feminine of an adjective sarasvant- (which occurs in the Rigveda[12] as the name of the
keeper of the celestial waters), derived from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sras-vat- (and earlier, PIE *sles-unt-ih),
meaning marshy, full of pools, or she with many lakes. The other term -vat is the Sanskrit grammatical
feminine possessor suffix.

Sanskrit sras means pool, pond or lake; the feminine saras means stagnant pool, swamp.[13] Like its
cognates Welsh hl, heledd river meadow and Greek (hlos) swamp, the Rigvedic term refers mostly to
stagnant waters, and Mayrhofer considers unlikely a connection with the root *sar- run, flow.[14]

Sarasvat is an exact cognate with Avestan Haraxvat, perhaps[15] originally referring to Ardv Sr Anhit
(modern Ardwisur Anahid), the Zoroastrian mythological world river, which would point to a common Indo-
Iranian myth of a cosmic or mystical Sras-vat- river. In the younger Avesta, Haraxvat is Arachosia, a region
described to be rich in rivers, and its Old Persian cognate Harauvati, which gave its name to the present-day
Hrt River in Afghanistan, may have referred to the entire Helmand drainage basin (the center of Arachosia).

Importance
The Saraswati river was revered and considered important for Hindus because it is said that it was on this river's
banks, along with its tributary Drishadwati, in the Vedic state of Brahmavarta, that Vedic Sanskrit had its
genesis,[16] important Vedic scriptures like Manusmriti, initial part of Rigveda and several Upanishads were
supposed to have been composed by Vedic seers. In the Manusmriti, Brahmavarta is portrayed as the "pure"
centre of Vedic culture. Bridget and Raymond Allchin in The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan took the
view that "The earliest Aryan homeland in India-Pakistan (Aryavarta or Brahmavarta) was in the Punjab and in

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the valleys of the Sarasvati and Drishadvati rivers in the time of the rigveda."[17]

In 2015, Reuters reported that "members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh believe that proof of the
physical existence of the Vedic river would bolster their concept of a golden age of Hindu India, before
invasions by Muslims and Christians." The Bharatiya Janata Party Government had therefore ordered
archaeologists to search for the river.[18]

In the Rigveda
The Sarasvati River is mentioned in all but the
fourth book of the Rigveda. The most important
hymns related to Sarasvati are RV 6.61, RV 7.95
and RV 7.96.[19]

Praise

The Sarasvati is praised lavishly in the


Rigveda as the best of all the rivers: e.g. in
RV 2.41.16

Oh Mother Saraswati you are the greatest of


mothers, greatest of rivers, greatest of
goddesses. Even though we are not worthy,
please grant us distinction

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 Theorical reconstruction of the Sarasvati River
most conveying or attractive of the rivers.
1=ancient river 2=today's river 3=today's Thar desert
4=ancient shore 5=today's town
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.

Strong attention has been given to the Sarasvati River in the Rigveda along with several suktas dedicated
to it. As such it seems there are a number of Sarasvatis with the earliest Sarasvati not identifiable with the
Hakra and Ghaggar. The Sarasvati River is perceived to be a great river with perennial water. The Hakra
and Ghaggar cannot be compared to it. The earliest Sararvati is said to be similar to the Helmand in
Afghanistan which is called the Harakhwati in the vest.[20]
The phrase srasvat saptth sndhumt of RV 7.36.6 has been rendered as " Sarasvati the Seventh,

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Mother of Floods" in a popular translation.[21]


While this takes a tatpurusha interpretation of
sndhumt, the word is actually a
bahuvrihi.[22]
"Pavaka nah saravati, vajebhir vajinivati;
Yajnam vastu dhiyavasuh. Codayitri
sunrtanam, cetanti sumatinam; Yajnam dadhe
sarasvati. Maho arnah sarasvati, pra cetayati
ketuna; Dhiyo visva vi rajati"verse from
Rigveda[23] The complete translation would
be in Sri Aurobindo's own words: "May
purifying Sarasvati with all the plenitude of
her forms of plenty, rich in substance by the
thought, desire our sacrifice. "She, the Map of northern India in the late Vedic period
impeller to happy truths, the awakener in
consciousness to right mentalisings,
Sarasvati, upholds the sacrifice." "Sarasvati by the perception awakens in consciousness the great flood
(the vast movement of the ritam) and illumines entirely all the thoughts "[24]

Rigveda

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, where the present-day Sarasvati (Sarsuti) river flows, or to higher
mountains.
RV 3.23.4 mentions the Sarasvati River together with the Drsadvati River and the pay River. RV 6.52.6
describes the Sarasvati as swollen (pinvamn) 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 [rjaka] 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

The Sarasvati is mentioned some fifty times in the hymns of the Rig Veda.[25] it is mentioned in thirteen hymns

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of the late books (1 and 10) of the Rigveda.[26] 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" (dh) and "munificence"
(puradhi), consistent with her role as a goddess of both knowledge and
fertility.

Though Sarasvati initially emerged as a river goddess in the Vedic


scriptures, in later Hinduism of the Puranas, she was rarely associated
with the river. Instead she emerged as an independent goddess of
knowledge, learning, wisdom, music and the arts. The evolution of the
river goddess into the goddess of knowledge started with later Painting of Goddess Saraswati by
Brahmanas, which identified her as Vgdev, the goddess of speech, Raja Ravi Varma
perhaps due to the centrality of speech in the Vedic cult and the
development of the cult on the banks of the river. It is also possible that two independently postulated goddesses
were fused into one in later Vedic times.[2] Aurobindo has proposed, on the other hand, that "the symbolism of
the Veda betrays itself to the greatest clearness in the figure of the goddess Sarasvati...She is, plainly and
clearly, the goddess of the Word, the goddess of a divine inspiration...".[27]

Other Vedic texts


In post-Rigvedic literature, the disappearance of the Sarasvati is mentioned. Also the origin of the Sarasvati is
identified as Plaksa Prasravana (Peepal tree or Ashwattha tree as known in India and Nepal).[28][29]

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."[30] 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).

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.[31][note 1]

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.).[32]

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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), meaning it was not from Himalayas. Bhargava[33] has identified Drashadwati river as present day
Sahibi river originating from Jaipur hills in Rajasthan. The Asvalayana Srautasutra and Sankhayana Srautasutra
contain verses that are similar to the Latyayana Srautasutra.

Post-Vedic texts
The Mahabharata

According to the Mahabharata, the Sarasvati dried up to a desert (at a place named Vinasana or Adarsana)
[34][35] and joins the sea "impetuously".[36] The desert made when Saraswati dried up was the Thar desert.
MB.3.81.115 locates the state of Kurupradesh or Kuru Kingdom to the south of the Sarasvati and north of the
Drishadvati. The dried-up, seasonal Ghaggar River in Rajasthan and Haryana reflects the same geographical
view described in the Mahabharata.

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 and that were named on the Saraswati River.[37][38][39][40]

Puranas

Several Puranas describe the Sarasvati River, and also record that the river separated into a number of lakes
(saras).[41]

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. Five distributaries of the Sarasvati are
mentioned.[42] The text regards Sarasvati as a form of Brahma's consort Brahmi.[43] According to the Vamana
Purana 32.1-4, the Sarasvati rose from the Plaksa tree (Pipal tree).[41]

Smritis

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."[44]
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 Mahbhya 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 theories
Attempts have been made to identify the mythical Sarasvati of the Vedas with physical rivers.[45] Many think
that the Vedic Sarasvati river once flowed east of the Indus (Sindhu) river.[46] Scientists, geologists as well as
scholars have identified the Sarasvati with many present-day or now defunct rivers.

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Two theories are popular in the attempts to identify the Sarasvati.


Several scholars have identified the river with the present-day
Ghaggar-Hakra River or dried up part of it, which is located in
Northwestern India and Pakistan.[47][48][49][50] A second popular
theory associates the river with the Helmand river or an ancient
river in the present Helmand Valley in Afghanistan.[8][51] Others
consider Sarasvati a mythical river.

Ghaggar-Hakra River

The Ghaggar-Hakra River is a seasonal river in India and Pakistan Vedic rivers
that flows only during the monsoon season.

Identification with the Sarasvati

Many scholars as well as geologists have identified the Sarasvati river with the present-day Ghaggar-Hakra
River, or the dried up part of it.[48][49][50][52][53][54][55][56][57] The main arguments are the supposed position
east of the Indus, which corresponds with the Ghaggar-Hakra riverbed; the actual absence of a "mighty river"
east of the Indus, which may be explained by the drying up of the historical Ghaggar-Hakra river; and the
resemblance between the "diving under" of the Puranic Sarasvati, and the ending of the present-day Ghaggar-
Hakra river in a desert.

The identification of the Vedic Sarasvati River with the Ghaggar-Hakra River was proposed by some scholars in
the 19th and early 20th century, including Christian Lassen,[58] Max Mller,[59] Marc Aurel Stein, C.F.
Oldham[60] and Jane Macintosh.[61] Danino notes that "the 1500 km-long bed of the Sarasvati" was
"rediscovered" in the 19th century.[62] According to Danino, "most Indologists" were convinced in the 19th
century that "the bed of the Ghaggar-Hakra was the relic of the Sarasvati."[62]

Romila Thapar terms the identification "controversial" and dismisses it, noticing that the descriptions of
Sarasvati flowing through the "high mountains" does not tally with Ghaggar's course and suggests that Sarasvati
is Haraxvati of Afghanistan.[63] Wilke suggests that the identification is problematic since the Ghaggar-Hakra
river was already dried up at the time of the composition of the Vedas,[64] let alone the migration of the Vedic
people into northern India.[65][66]

Course of the historical Ghaggar-Hakra River

The historical Ghaggar-Hakra river, identified with the Sarasvati, flowed down the present Ghaggar-Hakra
River channel, and that of the Nara in Sindh.[67] Satellite images in possession of the ISRO and ONGC have
confirmed that the major course of a river ran through the present-day Ghaggar River.[68]

The full flow of the paleo-Ghaggar-Hakra River was not present during the Holocene. According to Liviu
Giosan et al. and Clift et al. the Yamuna and Sutlej were lost during the Pleistocene, and the Ghaggar-Hakra
River was a much smaller river, fed entirely by monsoon rains rather than glacial streams, during the mid-late
Holocene (including the Vedic period).[45][69][note 2]

In 2016, A committee constituted by Government of India constituted on Palaeochannels of North-West India:


Review and Assessment, concluded that Saraswati river had two branches eastern & western. The eastern
branch included Sarsuti-Markanda rivulets in Haryana and the western branches included Ghaggar-Patiali

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channels. The committee considers that branches met near Patiala, at Shatrana, then flowed as a large river.

Drying-up of the Ghaggar-Hakra system

Late in the 2nd millennium BCE the Ghaggar-Hakra fluvial system dried up, which affected the Harappan
civilisation. Giosan et al., in their study Fluvial landscapes of the Harappan civilisation,[45] make clear that the
Ghaggar-Hakra fluvial system was not a large glacier-fed Himalayan river, but a monsoonal-fed
river.[note 3][note 2] They concluded that the Indus Valley Civilisation died out because the monsoons, which fed
the rivers that supported the civilisation, migrated to the east. With the rivers drying out as a result, the
civilisation diminished some 4000 years ago.[45] This particular effected the Ghaggar-Hakra system, which
became ephemeral and was largely abandoned.[70] The Indus Valley Civilisation had the option to migrate east
toward the more humid regions of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, where the decentralized late Harappan phase took
place.[70]

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.[71]

Other scenarios suppose that 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. Active faults are present in the region, and lateral and vertical tectonic movements have frequently
diverted streams in the past. The Saraswati may have migrated westward due to such uplift of the Aravallis.[72]
According to geologists Puri and Verma a major seismic activity in the Himalayan region caused the rising of
the Bata-Markanda Divide. This resulted in the blockage of the westward flow of Sarasvati forcing the water
back. Since the Yamun Tear opening was not far off, the blocked water exited from the opening into the
Yamun system.[73]

Apart from the above reasons, the following can be the possible reasons for the drying up of the river:

Capture of the waters of the Sarasvati by the adjoining rivers, Sutlej and the Yamuna. During the Indus
period, the Sarasvati was a large river, receiving water from the Sutlej and the Yamuna. The tectonic
movements during this period resulted in a distinct separation of the river Yamuna from the Indus system.
Over time, these waters were withdrawn and the river became smaller and eventually dried up.[74]
The banks have undergone intense erosion leading to the collapse of the banks and drying of the river.
Also, the river bed could be choked with modern moving sand.[74]
Two major shifts in the course and the volume of water associated with the river during the 3rd and 2nd
millennia BC.[74] The two major shifts were the drying of one of the important tributaries of the
Sarasvati, resulting in reduced volume of water and the capture of the river Sutlej by the river Beas which
rendered part of the river dry.[74]
The lack of water far down the old course threatens the vegetation necessary to help maintain the river. It
is also assumed that the plains formed during the course of the river was a part of Indo Gangetic plains
which later turned to Thar Desert after the depletion of River Sarasvati.[74][75]

Identification with the Indus Valley Civilisation

The Indus Valley Civilisation (Harrapan Civilisation), which is named after the Indus, was largely located on
the banks of and in the proximity of the Ghaggar-Hakra fluvial system.[76]

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The Indus Valley Civilisation is sometimes called the "Sarasvati culture", the "Sarasvati Civilization", the
"Indus-Sarasvati Civilization" or the "Sindhu-Sarasvati Civilization", as it is theorized that the civilisation
flourished on banks of the Sarasvati river, along with the Indus.[49][50][77] Danino notes that the dating of the
Vedas to the third millennium BCE coincides with the mature phase of the Indus Valley civilisation,[78] and that
it is "tempting" to equate the Indus Valley and Vedic cultures.[79]

Helmand river

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".[80]

Kochhar (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.[8]

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.[81] In post-Rig Vedic texts (Brahmanas) the Sarasvati ("she who has (many) lakes"), is said to disappear
("dive under") in the desert.[8]

Mythical river

According to Michael Witzel, superimposed on the Vedic Sarasvati river is the heavenly river Milky Way,
which is seen as "a road to immortality and heavenly after-life."[4][82][83] The description of the Sarasvati as the
river of heavens, is interpreted to suggest its mythical nature.[48]

Ashoke Mukherjee (2001) is critical of the attempts to identify the Rigvedic Sarasvati. Mukherjee notes that
many historians and archaeologists, both Indian and foreign, concluded that the word "Sarasvati" (literally
"being full of water") is not a noun, a specific "thing". However, Mukherjee believes that "Sarasvati" is initially
used by the Rig Vedic people as an adjective to the Indus as a large river and later evolved into a "noun".
Mukherjee concludes that the Vedic poets had not seen the palaeo-Sarasvati, and that what they described in the
Vedic verses refers to something else. He also suggests that in the post-Vedic and Puranic tradition the
"disappearance" of Sarasvati, which to refers to "[going] under [the] ground in the sands", was created as a
complementary myth to explain the visible non-existence of the river. Suggesting a political angle, he accuses
"the BJP-led Governments at the centre and in some states to boost up Hindu religious sentiments and
prejudices over some of the sensitive areas of Indian history."[84]

Drying-up and dating of the Vedas


The Vedic and Puranic statements about the drying-up and diving-under of the Sarasvati have been used as a

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reference point for the dating of the Harappan civilisation and the Vedic culture.[3] Some see these texts as
evidence for an earlier dating of the Rig Veda, identifying the Sarasvati with the Ghaggar-Hakra River, rejecting
the Indo-Aryan migrations theory, which postulates a migration at 1500 BCE.[note 4][note 5]

Michel Danino places the composition of the Vedas in the third millennium BCE, a millennium earlier than the
conventional dates.[78] Danino notes that accepting the Rig Veda accounts as factual descriptions, and dating the
drying up late in the third millennium, are incompatible.[78] According to Danino, this suggests that the Vedic
people were present in northern India in the third millennium BCE,[90] a conclusion which is drawn by some
Indian archaeologists, but not by Western archaeologists.[78] Danino states that there is an absence of "any
intrusive material culture in the Northwest during the second millennium BCE,"[78][note 6] a biological
continuity in the skeletal remains,[78][note 5] and a cultural continuity. Danino then states that if the "testimony of
the Sarasvati is added to this,"

[T]he simplest and most natural conclusion is that the Vedic culture was present in the region in the
third millennium.[79]

Danino acknowledges that this asks for "studying its tentacular ramifications into linguistics, archaeoastronomy,
anthropology and genetics, besides a few other fields".[79]

Annette Wilke notes that the "historical river" Sarasvati was a "topographically tangible mythogeme", which
was already reduced to a "small, sorry tickle in the desert", by the time of composition of the Hindu epics.
These post-Vedic texts regularly talk about drying up of the river, and start associating the goddess Sarasvati
with language, rather than the river.[94]

Michael Witzel also notes that the Rig Veda indicates that the Sarswati "had already lost its main source of
water supply and must have ended in a terminal lake (samudra)."[65][note 7][note 8]

Contemporary religious meaning


Diana Eck notes that the power and significance of the Sarasvati for
present-day India is in the persistent symbolic presence at the
confluence of rivers all over India.[25] Although "materially
missing",[97] she is the third river, which emerges to join in the meeting
of rivers, thereby making the waters triple holy.[97]

After the Vedic Sarasvati dried, new myths about the rivers arose.
Sarasvati is described to flow in the underworld and rise to the surface at
some places.[94] For centuries, the Sarasvati river existed in a "subtle or
mythic" form, since it corresponds with none of the major rivers of Triveni Sangam, Allahabad - the
present-day South Asia.[3] The flowing together of the Ganges and confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and the
Yamuna rivers at Triveni Sangam, Allahabad, converging with the "unseen" Sarasvati.
unseen Sarasvati river, which is believed to flow underground. The
Padma Purana proclaims:

One who bathes and drinks there where the Gang, Yamun and Sarasvati join enjoys liberation. Of

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this there is no doubt."[98]

The Kumbh Mela, a mass bathing festival is held at Triveni Sangam, literally "confluence of the three rivers",
every 12 years.[3][99][100] The belief of Sarasvati joining at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna originates
from the Puranic scriptures and denotes the "powerful legacy" the Vedic river left after her disappearance. The
belief is interpreted as "symbolic".[46] The three rivers Sarasvati, Yamuna, Ganga are considered consorts of the
Hindu Trinity (Trimurti) Brahma, Vishnu (as Krishna) and Shiva respectively.[43]

In lesser known configuration, Sarasvati is said to form the Triveni confluence with rivers Hiranya and Kapila at
Somnath. There are several other Trivenis in India where two physical rivers are joined by the "unseen"
Sarasvati, which adds to the sanctity of the confluence.[101]

Romila Thapar notes that "once the river had been mythologized through invoking the memory of the earlier
river, its name - Sarasvati - could be applied to many rivers, which is what happened in various parts of the
[Indian] subcontinent."[63]

Several present-day rivers are also named Sarasvati, after the Vedic Sarasvati:

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.
Saraswati River, a tributary of Alaknanda River, originates near Badrinath
Saraswati River in Bengal, formerly a distributary of the Hooghly River, has dried up since the 17th
century.

Revival
According to the government of Indian state of Haryana, research and satellite imagery of the region has
confirmed to have found the lost river when water was detected during digging of the dry river bed at
Yamunanagar. The government constituted Saraswati Heritage Development Board (SHDB) had conducted a
trial run on July 30, 2016 filling the river bed with 100 cusecs of water which was pumped into a dug-up
channel from tubewells at Uncha Chandna village in Yamunanagar. The water is expected to fill the channel
uptil Kurukshetra, a distnce of 40 kilometres. Once confirmed that there is no obstructions in the flow of the
water, the government proposes to flow in another 100 cusecs after a fortnight. There also are plans to build
three dams on the river route to keep it flowing perennially.[102]

See also
Brahmavarta
Drishadwati River
Sapta Sindhu
Saraswati - goddess
Indus River
Saraswat Brahmins

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Triveni Sangam
Michel Danino - The lost River
Sarasvati Pushkaram

Notes
1. See Witzel (1984)[31] for discussion; for maps (1984) 5. The migration into northern India was not a large-
of the area, p. 42 sqq. scale immigration, but may have consisted of small
2. Valdiya (2013) dispute this, arguing that it was a large groups,[89] which were genetically diverse. Their
perennial river draining the high mountains as late as culture and language spread by the same mechanisms
37002500 years ago. of acculturalisation, and the absorption of other
3. Giosan et al. (2012, pp. 1688, 1689): groups into their patron-client system.[85]
"Contrary to earlier assumptions that a large 6. Michael Witzel points out that this is to expected
glacier-fed Himalayan river, identified by from a mobile society, but that the Gandhara grave
some with the mythical Sarasvati, watered the culture is a clear indication of new cultural
Harappan heartland on the interfluve between elements.[91] Michaels points out that there are
the Indus and Ganges basins, we show that linguistic and archaeological data that shows a
only monsoonal-fed rivers were active there cultural change after 1750 BCE,[92] and Flood notices
during the Holocene." (Giosan et al. 2012, that the linguistic and religious data clearly show
p. 1688)
links with Indo-European languages and religion.[93]
"Numerous speculations have advanced the
7. Witzel: "The autochthonous theory overlooks that RV
idea that the Ghaggar-Hakra fluvial system, at
3.33206 already speaks of a necessarily smaller
times identified with the lost mythical river of
Sarasvat: the Suds hymn 3.33 refers to the
Sarasvati (e.g., 4, 5, 7, 19), was a large
confluence of the Beas and Sutlej (Vip, utudr).
glacierfed Himalayan river. Potential sources
This means that the Beas had already captured the
for this river include the Yamuna River, the
Sutlej away from the Sarasvat, dwarfing its water
Sutlej River, or both rivers. However, the lack
supply. While the Sutlej is fed by Himalayan glaciers,
of large-scale incision on the interfluve
the Sarsuti is but a small local river depending on rain
demonstrates that large, glacier-fed rivers did
water.
not flow across the Ghaggar-Hakra region
In sum, the middle and later RV (books 3, 7 and the
during the Holocene." (Giosan et al. 2012,
late book, 10.75) already depict the present day
p. 1689)
situation, with the Sarasvat having lost most of its
4. According to David Anthony, the Yamna culture was
water to the Sutlej (and even earlier, much of it also
the "Urheimat" of the Indo-Europeans at the Pontic
to the Yamun). It was no longer the large river it
steppes.[85] From this area, which already included
might have been before the early Rgvedic period.[95]
various subcultures, Indo-European languages spread
8. Witzel further notes: "If the RV is to be located in the
west, south and east starting around 4,000 BCE.[86] Panjab, and supposedly to be dated well before the
These languages may have been carried by small supposed 1900 BCE drying up of the Sarasvat, at
groups of males, with patron-client systems which 4-5000 BCE (Kak 1994, Misra 1992), the text should
allowed for the inclusion of other groups into their not contain evidence of the domesticated horse (not
cultural system.[85] Eastward emerged the Sintashta found in the subcontinent before c. 1700 BCE, see
culture (21001800 BCE), from which developed the Meadow 1997,1998, Anreiter 1998: 675 sqq.), of the
Andronovo culture (18001400 BCE). This culture horse drawn chariot (developed only about 2000 BCE
interacted with the BMAC (23001700 BCE); out of in S. Russia, Anthony and Vinogradov 1995, or
this interaction developed the Indo-Iranians, which Mesopotamia), of well developed copper/bronze
split around 1800 BCE into the Indo-Aryans and the technology, etc."[96]
Iranians.[87] The Indo-Aryans migrated to the Levant,
northern India, and possibly south Asia.[88]

References
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Sarasvati River - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarasvati_River

dq=sarasvati+10,000+years+ago&hl=en&sa=X&ei=NhvCVOSAKY758QWmg4KwCA&
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/topic/523994/Sarasvati#ref946781)
4. Witzel (2012, pp. 74, 125, 133): "It can easily be understood, as the Sarasvat, the river on earth and in the nighttime
sky, emerges, just as in Germanic myth, from the roots of the world tree. In the Middle Vedic texts, this is acted out in
the Ytsattra... along the Rivers Sarasvat and Dadvat (northwest of Delhi)..."
5. Vedic River Sarasvati and Hindu Civilization, edited by S. Kalyanaraman (2008), ISBN 978-81-7305-365-8 PP.308
6. Mythical Saraswati River (http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelcontent.aspx?relid=94098) | "The work on delineation of
entire course of Sarasvati River in North West India was carried out using Indian Remote Sensing Satellite data along
with digital elevation model. Satellite images are multi-spectral, multi-temporal and have advantages of synoptic
view, which are useful to detect palaeochannels. The palaeochannels are validated using historical maps,
archaeological sites, hydro-geological and drilling data. It was observed that major Harappan sites of Kalibangan
(Rajasthan), Banawali and Rakhigarhi (Haryana), Dholavira and Lothal (Gujarat) lie along the River Saraswati."
Department of Space, Government of India.
7. "Saraswati The ancient river lost in the desert" (http://www.iisc.ernet.in/currsci/oct25/articles20.htm) |
A.V.Shankaran.
8. Kochhar, Rajesh (1999), "On the identity and chronology of the gvedic river Sarasvat", in Roger Blench; Matthew
Spriggs, Archaeology and Language III; Artefacts, languages and texts (https://books.google.com
/books?id=h8jfBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA257), Routledge, ISBN 0-415-10054-2
9. Giosan, L.; et al. (2012). "Fluvial landscapes of the Harappan Civilization" (http://www.pnas.org/content/109/26
/E1688.full). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. 109 (26): E1688E1694. PMC 3387054
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3387054) . PMID 22645375 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
/pubmed/22645375). doi:10.1073/pnas.1112743109 (https://doi.org/10.1073%2Fpnas.1112743109). Quote:
"Numerous speculations have advanced the idea that the Ghaggar-Hakra fluvial system, at times identified with the
lost mythical river of Sarasvati (e.g., 4, 5, 7, 19), was a large glacier fed Himalayan river. Potential sources for this
river include the Yamuna River, the Sutlej River, or both rivers. However, the lack of large-scale incision on the
interfluve demonstrates that large, glacier-fed rivers did not flow across the Ghaggar-Hakra region during the
Holocene. .... The present Ghaggar-Hakra valley and its tributary rivers are currently dry or have seasonal flows. Yet
rivers were undoubtedly active in this region during the Urban Harappan Phase. We recovered sandy fluvial deposits
approximately 5;400 y old at Fort Abbas in Pakistan (SI Text), and recent work (33) on the upper Ghaggar-Hakra
interfluve in India also documented Holocene channel sands that are approximately 4;300 y old. On the upper
interfluve, fine-grained floodplain deposition continued until the end of the Late Harappan Phase, as recent as 2,900 y
ago (33) (Fig. 2B). This widespread fluvial redistribution of sediment suggests that reliable monsoon rains were able
to sustain perennial rivers earlier during the Holocene and explains why Harappan settlements flourished along the
entire Ghaggar-Hakra system without access to a glacier-fed river."
10. Maemoku, Hideaki; Shitaoka, Yorinao; Nagatomo, Tsuneto; Yagi, Hiroshi (2013), "Geomorphological Constraints on
the Ghaggar River Regime During the Mature Harappan Period", in Giosan,Liviu; Fuller, Dorian Q.; Nicoll,
Kathleen, Climates, Landscapes, and Civilizations (http://books.google.com/books?id=D7aw5mfscBMC), American
Geophysical Union Monograph Series 198, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 978-1-118-70443-1
11. Clift, Peter D.; Carter, Andrew; Giosan, Liviu; Durcan, Julie (2012). "U-Pb zircon dating evidence for a Pleistocene
Sarasvati River and capture of the Yamuna River" (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Peter_Clift/publication
/229062223_Pb_zircon_dating_evidence_for_a_Pleistocene_Sarasvati_River_and_Capture_of_the_Yamuna_River
/links/00b7d51ba682dd3e01000000.pdf) (PDF). Geology. 40 (3): 211214. doi:10.1130/g32840.1 (https://doi.org
/10.1130%2Fg32840.1).
12. e.g. 7.96.4, 10.66.5
13. e.g. RV 7.103.2b
14. Mayrhofer, EWAia, s.v.; the root is otherwise often connected with rivers (also in river names, such as Sarayu or
Susartu); the suggestion has been revived in the connection of an "out of India" argument, N. Kazanas, "Rig-Veda is
pre-Harappan" (http://www.omilosmeleton.gr/english/documents/RVpH.pdf), p. 9.
15. by Lommel (1927); Lommel, Herman (1927), Die Yats des Awesta, Gttingen-Leipzig: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht/JC
Hinrichs
16. Manu (2004). Olivelle, Patrick, ed. The Law Code of Manu. Oxford University Press. p. 24. ISBN
978-0-19280-271-2.

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17. Bridget Allchin, Raymond Allchin, The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan, Cambridge University Press, 1982,
P.358.
18. Special Report - Battling for India's soul, state by state (http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/reuters/special-reports---
battling-for-india-s-soul--state-by-state/41715874). Reuters. Accessed 13 October 2015.
19. Ludvk 2007, p. 11
20. Vedic River Sarasvati and Hindu Civilization,Edited by S.Kalyanaraman ISBN 978-81-7305-365-8 PP.96
21. Griffith
22. Hans Hock (1999) translates sndhumt as a bahuvrihi, "whose mother is the Sindhu", which would indicate that the
Sarasvati is here a tributary of the Indus. A translation as a tatpurusha ("mother of rivers", with sindhu still with its
generic meaning) would be less common in RV speech.
23. Rigveda,4.58.1
24. Sri Aurobindo , op.cit.
25. Eck 2012, p. 145.
26. 1.3, 13, 89, 164; 10.17, 30, 64, 65, 66, 75, 110, 131, 141
27. K.R. Jayaswal,Hindu Polity, pp. 12-13
28. Pancavimsa Brahmana, Jaiminiya Upanisad Brahmana, Katyayana Srauta Sutra, Latyayana Srauta; Macdonell and
Keith 1912
29. Asvalayana Srauta Sutra, Sankhayana Srauta Sutra; Macdonell and Keith 1912, II:55
30. Griffith, p.492
31. Witzel 1984.
32. D.S. Chauhan in Radhakrishna, B.P. and Merh, S.S. (editors): Vedic Saraswati 1999. According to this reference, 44
asvins may be over 2600 km
33. Sudhir Bhargava, "Location of Brahmavarta and Drishadwati river is important to find earliest alignment of Saraswati
river" Seminar, Saraswati river-a perspective, Nov. 20-22, 2009, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, organised by:
Saraswati Nadi Shodh Sansthan, Haryana, Seminar Report: pages 114-117
34. Mhb. 3.82.111; 3.130.3; 6.7.47; 6.37.1-4., 9.34.81; 9.37.1-2
35. Mbh. 3.80.118
36. Mbh. 3.88.2
37. [1] (http://www.academia.edu/1615237Haigh_M._2011._Interpreting_the_Sarasvati_Tirthayatra_of_Shri_Balar
%C4%81ma._Itihas_Darpan_Research_Journal_of_Akhil_Bhartiya_Itihas_Sankalan_Yojana_ABISY_New_Delhi_1
6_2_pp.179-193_ISSN_0974-3065_)
38. [2] (http://www.grahamhancock.com/forum/DMisraB5.php)
39. [3] (http://indology.info/email/members/kalyanaraman/)
40. Studies in Proto-Indo-Mediterranean culture, Volume 2, page 398
41. D.S. Chauhan in Radhakrishna, B.P. and Merh, S.S. (editors): Vedic Saraswati, 1999, p.35-44
42. compare also with Yajurveda 34.11, D.S. Chauhan in Radhakrishna, B.P. and Merh, S.S. (editors): Vedic Saraswati,
1999, p.35-44
43. Eck p. 149
44. Manusmriti 2.17-18
45. Giosan et al. 2012.
46. Eck p. 145
47. Darian 2001, p. 58.
48. Pushpendra K. Agarwal; Vijay P. Singh (16 May 2007). Hydrology and Water Resources of India. Springer Science &
Business Media. pp. 3112. ISBN 978-1-4020-5180-7.
49. Upinder Singh (2008). A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century.
Pearson Education India. pp. 1378. ISBN 978-81-317-1677-9.
50. Charles Keith Maisels (16 December 2003). "The Indus/'Harappan'/Sarasvati Civilization". Early Civilizations of the
Old World: The Formative Histories of Egypt, The Levant, Mesopotamia, India and China. Routledge. p. 184.
ISBN 978-1-134-83731-1.
51. Darian p. 59
52. Darian p. 58
53. "Proceedings of the second international symposium on the management of large rivers for fisheries: Volume II"
(http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/ad526e/ad526e09.htm). Fao.org. 2003-02-14. Retrieved 2012-07-12.
54. Mughal, M. R. Ancient Cholistan. Archaeology and Architecture. Rawalpindi-Lahore-Karachi: Ferozsons 1997, 2004

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55. J. K. Tripathi et al., "Is River Ghaggar, Saraswati? Geochemical Constraints," Current Science, Vol. 87, No. 8, 25
October 2004
56. "Press Information Bureau English Releases" (http://pib.nic.in/newsite/pmreleases.aspx?mincode=38). Retrieved
2016-10-18.
57. PTI. "Government-constituted expert committee finds Saraswati river did exist" (http://indianexpress.com/article
/india/india-news-india/goverment-constituted-expert-committee-finds-saraswati-river-did-exist-3084722/). Indian
Express. PTI. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
58. Indische Alterthumskunde
59. Sacred Books of the East, 32, 60
60. Oldham 1893 pp.5152
61. The ancient Indus Valley:new perspectives By Jane McIntosh (https://books.google.com
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f=false)
62. Danino 2010, p. 252.
63. Romila Thapar (2004). Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300. University of California Press. p. 42.
ISBN 978-0-520-24225-8.
64. Wilke 2011.
65. Witzel 2001, p. 93.
66. Mukherjee 2001, p. 2, 8-9.
67. A. V. Sankaran. "Saraswati the ancient river lost in the desert" (http://www.iisc.ernet.in/currsci/oct25
/articles20.htm). Indian Institute of Science. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
68. Valdiya, K. S. (2002-01-01). Saraswati: The River that Disappeared (https://books.google.co.in
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p. 23. ISBN 9788173714030.
69. Clift et al. 2012.
70. Giosan et al. 2012, p. 1693.
71. Gaur, R. C. (1983). Excavations at Atranjikhera, Early Civilization of the Upper Ganga Basin. Delhi.
72. D. S. Mitra & Balram Bhadu (10 March 2012). "Possible contribution of River Saraswati in groundwater aquifer
system in western Rajasthan, India" (http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/102/05/0685.pdf) (PDF). Current
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73. Puri and Verma 1998, Glaciological and geological source of Vedic Saraswati in the Himalayas.
74. http://www.ancientindia.co.uk/staff/resources/background/bg9/bg9pdf.pdf
75. Valdiya, K. S. (2002), Saraswati: The River That Disappeared, Universities Press (India), Hyderabad, ISBN
81-7371-403-7
76. Jayant K. Tripathi, Barbara Bock, V. Rajamani and A. Eisenhauer (25 October 2004). "Is River Ghaggar, Saraswati?
Geochemical constraints" (http://www.iisc.ernet.in/currsci/oct252004/1141.pdf) (PDF). Current Science. 87 (8).
77. Denise Cush; Catherine A. Robinson; Michael York (2008). Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Psychology Press. p. 766.
ISBN 978-0-7007-1267-0.
78. Danino 2010, p. 256.
79. Danino 2010, p. 258.
80. Yasht 10.67
81. Klaus, K. Die altindische Kosmologie, nach den Brhmaas dargestellt. Bonn 1986; Samudra, XXIII Deutscher
Orientalistentag Wrzburg, ZDMG Suppl. Volume VII, Stuttgart 1989, 367-371
82. Ludvk (2007, p. 85): "The Sarasvat river, which, according to Witzel,... personifies the Milky Way, falls down to
this world at Plaka Prsarvaa, "the world tree at the center of heaven and earth," and flows through the land of the
Kurus, the center of this world."
83. Wilke (2011, p. 310, note 574): "Witzel suggests that Sarasvat is not an earthly river, but the Milky Way that is seen
as a road to immortality and heavenly after-life. In `mythical logic,' as outlined above, the two interpretations are not
however mutually exclusive. There are passages which clearly suggest a river."
84. Mukherjee 2001, p. 2, 6-9.
85. Anthony 2007.
86. Beckwith 2009, p. 29.
87. Anthony 2007, p. 408.
88. Beckwith 2009.
89. Witzel 2005, p. 342-343.

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90. Danino 2010, p. 256, 258.


91. Witzel 2005.
92. Michaels 2004, p. 33.
93. Flood 1996, p. 33.
94. Wilke 2011, pp. 310311
95. Witzel 2001, p. 81.
96. Witzel 2001, p. 31.
97. Eck 2012, p. 148.
98. Eck 2012, p. 147.
99. Ludvk 2011, p. 1
100. At the Three Rivers (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,798222,00.html) TIME, February 23, 1948
101. Eck p. 220
102. Zee Media Bureau (August 6, 2016). " 'Lost' Saraswati river brought 'back to life' " (http://zeenews.india.com
/news/india/lost-saraswati-river-brought-back-to-life_1915729.html). Zee Media. Retrieved 19 August 2016.

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doi:10.1073/pnas.1112743109 (https://doi.org/10.1073%2Fpnas.1112743109)
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.
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Banarsidass Publ., ISBN 978-81-208-0394-7
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Artefacts, languages and texts, Routledge (1999), ISBN 0-415-10054-2.
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Ludvk, Catherine (2007), Sarasvat, Riverine Goddess of Knowledge: From the Manuscript-carrying V-player to
the Weapon-wielding Defender of the Dharma (https://books.google.com/books?id=4lsYKIXBOK0C&pg=PA85),
BRILL, ISBN 90-04-15814-6
Michaels, Axel (2004), Hinduism. Past and present, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press
Mukherjee, Ashoke (2001), "RIGVEDIC SARASVATI: MYTH AND REALITY" (http://www.breakthrough-
india.org/archives/saraswati.pdf) (PDF), Breakthrough, Breakthrough Science Society, 9 (1)
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1893. 49-76.
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Itihas Darpan, Vol. IV, No.2, 1998 [4] (http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/glaciology/glaciology1.htm)

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Sarasvati River - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarasvati_River

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) (http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci
/feb102000/BOOKREVIEWS.PDF) Review (http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/VedicSaraswati1.html)
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 (http://www.tri-murti.com/ancientindia/rigHistory
/ch4.htm)
Valdiya, K. S. (2002), Saraswati: The River That Disappeared, Universities Press (India), Hyderabad,
ISBN 81-7371-403-7
Valdiya, K.S. (2013), "The River Saraswati was a Himalayan-born river" (http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes
/104/01/0042.pdf) (PDF), Current Science, 104 (1): 42
Wilke, Annette (2011), Sound and Communication: An Aesthetic Cultural History of Sanskrit Hinduism
(https://books.google.com/books?id=KZCMe67IGPkC&pg=PA310), Walter de Gruyter, ISBN 978-3-11-018159-3
Witzel, Michael (1984), Sur le chemin du ciel (http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/CheminDuCiel.pdf) (PDF)
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(http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/EJVS-7-3.pdf) (PDF), Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies, 7 (3): 193
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%20%282005%29.pdf) (PDF), Routledge
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Further reading
Eck, Diana L. (2012), India: A Sacred Geography, Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony,
ISBN 978-0-385-53191-7
Ludvk, Catherine (2007), Sarasvat, Riverine Goddess of Knowledge: From the Manuscript-carrying
V-player to the Weapon-wielding Defender of the Dharma, BRILL, ISBN 90-04-15814-6
Danino, Michel (2010), The Lost River - On the trail of the Sarasvati, Penguin Books India

External links
Is River Ghaggar, Saraswati? by Tripathi,Bock,Rajamani, Eir
Wikimedia Commons has
(http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/oct252004/1141.pdf) media related to Sarasvati
Saraswati the ancient river lost in the desert by A. V. Sankaran River.
(http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/oct25/articles20.htm)
Sarasvati research and Education Trust (https://sites.google.com/site/kalyan97/)
Map " () (Regional River Basin: Saraswati Basin)" (http://guj-
nwrws.gujarat.gov.in/showpage.aspx?contentid=1738&lang=English). Narmada, Water Resources, Water
Supply and Kalpsar Department.

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Categories: Locations in Hindu mythology Mythological rivers Ancient Indian rivers Rigvedic rivers
Sacred rivers Sea and river goddesses Rivers of Haryana Indigenous Aryanism Sarasvati River

17 of 18 6/26/17, 1:22 PM
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