The Lost River: On The Trail of Saraswati

by Michel Danino

  Fig. 2.6. A detail of Louis Renou’s map of northwest India in Vedic times, with the Sarasvatī flowing between the Yamunā and the Sutlej.

  Fig. 3.1. A closer view of the ten main channels in the Ghaggar system (their seasonal waters are today largely diverted to irrigation).

  Fig. 3.2. A composite satellite view of the ‘Yamuna tear’ through which the river, assumed to have previously flowed westward through the Bata and Markanda Valleys, now escapes eastward.

  Fig. 3.3. A composite satellite view of northwest India, with a well-delineated Ghaggar-Hakra system.

  Fig. 3.4. The upper Ghaggar system reconstituted from LANDSAT imagery, with a few of the palaeobeds (adapted from Yash Pal, et al.).

  Fig. 3.5. Two major palaeochannels identified in the Tanot-Kishangarh region of Jaisalmer district (adapted from A.S. Rajawat, et al.).

  Figs 3.6 (above) and 3.7 (on the next page). The main ancient watercourses identified in the Sutlej-Yamuna watershed by the ISRO team.31 In the above, simplified map, courses 1 and 2 are regarded as representing those of the Vedic Sarasvatī.

  Fig. 3.8. Wilhelmy’s reconstruction of the first stage of the Sarasvatī river system, ‘around 2000 BCE’.

  Fig. 4.1. The expanse of the Indus civilization (in white), with some of the principal sites.

  Fig. 4.2. The main sites of the Indus civilization. The Sarasvatī river (in a segmented line) follows the course of the Ghaggar-Hakra. Note the density of sites in the Sarasvatī basin, particularly in the Cholistan Desert of Pakistan.

  Fig. 5.1. Mohenjo-daro’s acropolis, with the main structures. (© ASI)

  Fig. 5.2. An area of Mohenjo-daro’s lower town. (© ASI)

  Fig. 5.3. A part of Harappa’s ‘mound AB’ (acropolis) and adjoining structures, with the ‘granary’ at the northern end. (© ASI)

  Fig. 5.6. Sphere of interaction among several Bronze Age civilizations of the third millennium BCE. (See timeline in Table 4.1.)

  Fig. 6.3. Some of the cities, towns, villages and mounds visited by Aurel Stein in the Ghaggar-Hakra Valley and Rajasthan.

  Fig. 6.7. Early Harappan sites in the Sarasvatī basin.50

  Fig. 6.8. Mature Harappan sites in the Cholistan Desert.

  Fig. 6.9. Late Harappan sites in the Cholistan Desert.58

  Fig. 7.1. The Harappan town of Banawali, in Haryana. (© ASI)

  Fig. 7.3. Plan of Kalibangan, on the Sarasvatī. (© ASI)

  Fig. 7.7. Plan of Dholavira, in the Rann of Kachchh. (© ASI)

  Fig. 11.2. Details of six maps showing the Sarasvatī, sampled from the works of a few archaeologists. Clockwise from top left corner: J.-M. Casal,96 G. Erdosy,97 R. and B. Allchin,98 G.L. Possehl,99 J. McIntosh100 and J.M. Kenoyer.101 (Arrows pointing to the Sarasvatī are my additions.)

  Notes

  To quickly locate the desired reference, follow the page range in the header at the top of the page. Works mentioned in Suggested Further Reading figure here under their titles alone, without subtitles or bibliographical details; to make this clear, their titles are followed here by the symbol Thus, The Sarasvatī Flows On° indicates that full details for this title are to be looked up in the Suggested Further Reading section.

  1. The ‘Lost River of the Indian Desert’

  1 BBC News, ‘India’s “Miracle River”’, 29 June 2002. The same day, the BBC broadcast a radio programme on the topic by Madhur Jaffrey.

  2 Tod, James, Lt-Col, Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, London, 1829-32; republ. Lolit Mohun Audhya, Calcutta, 1894, pp. 239 & 242.

  3 Ibid., vol. II, p. 187; this reference is to the first edition of 1832 : it is quoted by the French geographer Vivien de Saint-Martin (see note 22 below), p. 22. I could not consult the first edition of Tod’s Annals nor locate this passage in the 1894 edition (which is perhaps abridged). It is retranslated here from Vivien de Saint-Martin’s French translation and may not be in the exact words used by Tod, though certainly a faithful approximation.

  4 Ibid., sec. edn, p. 242.

  5 Rennel, James, Memoir of a Map of Hindoostan; or the Moghul Empire, London, 1788, p. 71.

  6 Tod, James, Lt.-Col., Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, vol. II, Higgin-botham, Madras, 1873, p. 189.

  7 I am grateful to Prof. R.N. Iyengar for those references. (About the last, see also Bharadwaj, O.P., ‘The Rigvedic Sarasvatī’, ch. 3 in In Search of Vedic-Harappan Relationship°, p. 25.)

  8 Colvin, Major, ‘On the Restoration of the Ancient Canals of the Delhi Territory’, Journal of the Asiatic Society, vol. II, March 1833, p. 107.

  9 Mackeson, F., Major, ‘Report on the Route from Seersa to Bahawulpore’, in Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. XIII, January-June 1844, no. 145-50, p. 302.

  10 Ibid., p. 298.

  11 Ibid., p. 299.

  12 Ibid., pp. 299-300.

  13 Ibid., p. 301.

  14 Ibid.

  15 Ibid., p. 308.

  16 Ganguly, D.C., ‘Northern India during the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries’, The Struggle for Empire, vol. 5, in Majumdar, R.C., (ed.), The History and Culture of the Indian People, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay, 1960-90, p. 93.

  17 Majumdar, R.C., ‘The Invasion of Timur and the End of the Tughlug Dynasty’, The Delhi Sultanate, vol. 6, in The History and Culture of the Indian People, op. cit., pp. 117-18.

  18 Wilhelmy, Herbert, ‘Le cadre naturel’, in Franz, Heinrich Gerhard, (ed.), L’Inde ancienne : histoire et civilisation, Bordas, Paris, 1990, p. 28.

  19 Quoted by Stein, Marc Aurel, An Archaeological Tour along the Ghaggar-Hakra River°, p. 12.

  20 Something of their story and excerpts from their testimonies can be found in Deleury, Guy, Les Indes florissantes: anthologie des voyageurs français (1750-1820), Robert Laffont, Paris, 1991.

  21 Schwab, Raymond, La Renaissance orientale, Payot, Paris, 1950, p. 38.

  22 Vivien de Saint-Martin, Louis, Étude sur la géographie et les populations primitives du nord-ouest de l’Inde, d’après les hymnes védiques, Imprimerie Impériale, Paris, 1860, p. i.

  23 Ibid., p. lvii.

  24 Vivien de Saint-Martin, Louis, Étude sur la géographie grecque et latine de l’Inde and Mémoire analytique sur la carte de l’Asie centrale et de l’Inde, Imprimerie Impériale, Paris, 1858.

  25 Vivien de Saint-Martin, Louis, Étude sur la géographie et les populations primitives du nord-ouest de l’Inde, d’après les hymnes védiques, op. cit., p. iii.

  26 Ibid., p. 15.

  27 Ibid., p. 18.

  28 Ibid., pp. 19-20.

  29 Rennel, James, Memoir of a Map of Hindoostan; or the Moghul Empire, op. cit., p. 71.

  30 Gupta, A.K., B.K. Bhadra & J.R. Sharma, ‘Sarasvati Drainage System of Haryana: Satellite-Based Study’, in Vedic River Sarasvati and Hindu Civilization°, pp. 47 & 51.

  31 Vivien de Saint-Martin, Louis, Étude sur la géographie et les populations primitives du nord-ouest de l’Inde, op. cit., p. 20.

  32 The map is from Beveridge, Henry, A Comprehensive History of India, Civil, Military, and Social, Blackie & Son, London, 1862, vol. 1.

  33 Vivien de Saint-Martin, Louis, Étude sur la géographie et les populations primitives du nord-ouest de l’Inde, op. cit., p. 22.

  34 Ibid., p. 23.

  35 Ibid., p. 24.

  36 Hunter, W.W., ‘Ganjam’ to ‘India’, Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. 5, Trübner & Co., London, sec. edn, 1885, pp. 54-55.

  37 ‘Ratlam’ to ‘Sirmur’, Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. 12, Trübner & Co., London, sec. edn, 1887, pp. 261-62.

  38 Oldham, R.D., ‘On Probable Changes in the Geography of the Punjab and Its Rivers: An Historico-Geographical Study’, Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. 55, 1886, pp. 322-43. (Oldham’s paper is partly reproduced in Vedic Sarasvatī° pp. 81-88.)

  39 Ibid., p. 340.

  40 Ibid., p. 342.

  41 Ibid., p. 341.

  42 Strabo, Geography, book XV, I.19, tr. John W. McCrindle, Ancient India as Described in Classical Literature, 1901; reprinted O
riental Books Reprint Corporation, New Delhi, 1979, p. 25.

  43 Ibid.

  44 Raverty, H.G., ‘The Mihrān of Sind and Its Tributaries: A Geographical and Historical Study’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 61, no. 1 & extra number (1892), pp. 155-206 & 297-508.

  45 E.g. Wilhelmy, Herbert, ‘The Shifting River: Studies in the History of the Indus Valley’, Universitas, vol. 10, no. 1, 1967, pp. 53-68.

  46 Sivewright, Robert, ‘Cutch and the Ran’, The Geographical Journal, vol. 29, no. 5, May 1907, pp. 518-35. I am indebted to Prof. R.N. Iyengar for drawing my attention to Sivewright’s paper, and to M.S. Gadhavi for a scan of Sivewright’s map. Prof. Iyengar’s own research on the Rann and its identification with the Vedic Irina fills many blanks in our understanding of the region : Iyengar, R.N. & B.P. Radhakrishna, ‘Geographical Location of Vedic Irina in Southern Rajasthan’, Journal of Geological Society of India, vol. 70, November 2007, pp. 699-705, and Iyengar, R.N., B.P. Radhakrishna & S.S. Mishra, ‘Vedic Irina and the Rann-of-Kutch’, Puratattva, no. 38, 2008, pp. 170-180.

  47 Sivewright, Robert, ‘Cutch and the Ran’, op. cit., p. 528.

  48 Ibid., p. 530.

  49 Snead, Rodman E., ‘Recent Morphological Changes along the Coast of West Pakistan’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, vol. 57, no. 3, September 1967, pp. 550-65. My thanks to Prof. R.N. Iyengar for drawing my attention to this paper.

  50 Sivewright, Robert, ‘Cutch and the Ran’, op. cit., p. 532.

  51 Anonymous (Oldham, C.F.), ‘Notes on the Lost River in the Indian Desert’, Calcutta Review, vol. 59, 1874, pp. 1-27.

  52 Oldham, R.D., ‘On Probable Changes in the Geography of the Punjab and Its Rivers’, op. cit., p. 322.

  53 Oldham, C.F., ‘The Sarasvatī and the Lost River of the Indian Desert’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 34, 1893, pp. 49-76.

  54 Ibid., p. 51.

  55 Ibid. Oldham invokes the Punjab Gazetteer of Hissar as evidence (which I have not been able to consult).

  56 This is not C.F. Oldham’s original map, in which names are hardly legible, but an exact reproduction borrowed from Misra, V.N., ‘Climate, a Factor in the Rise and Fall of the Indus Civilization : Evidence from Rajasthan and Beyond’, in Lal, B.B. & S.P. Gupta, (eds), Frontiers of the Indus Civilization°, p. 478.

  57 Oldham, C.F., ‘The Sarasvatī and the Lost River of the Indian Desert’, op. cit., p. 54.

  58 Ibid., p. 60.

  59 Ibid., p. 61.

  60 Ibid., p. 73.

  61 As quoted by Oldham, R.D., ‘On Probable Changes in the Geography of the Punjab and Its Rivers’, op. cit., pp. 326-27. (The tradition is mentioned by C.F. Oldham in his earlier, anonymous article, see note 51 above.) It is R.D. Oldham who takes ‘Kak’ to refer to Kachchh.

  62 Oldham, C.F., ‘The Sarasvatī and the Lost River of the Indian Desert’, op. cit., p. 63.

  63 Ibid., p. 76.

  64 Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. 23, new edn, London, 1908, p. 179. Quoted by Vishal Agarwal in ‘A Reply to Michael Witzel’s “Ein Fremdling im Rigveda”’, August 2003, available online at: www.omilosmeleton.gr/english/ documents/ReplytoWitzelJIES.pdf (accessed 15 September 2009).

  65 Oldham, C.F., ‘The Sarasvatī and the Lost River of the Indian Desert’, op. cit., p. 76.

  2. The Mighty Sarasvatī

  1 Several works refer to descriptions of the Sarasvatī in Vedic and post-Vedic literature; among them, Bhargava, M.L., Geography of Rgvedic India, Upper India Publishing House, Lucknow, 1964 (but written in the 1930s), is a classic, followed by Law, Bimalachurn, ‘Mountains and Rivers of India (from Epic and Paurānic Sources)’, Journal of the Department of Letters, vol. XXVIII, Calcutta University Press, 1935, pp. 1-31. More recent studies include Bhargava, P.L., India in the Vedic Age°, ch. 4; Frawley, David, Gods, Sages and Kings”, part I, chs 2 & 3, and his paper ‘Geographical References : The Ocean and Soma’, ch. 4, in In Search of Vedic-Harappan Relationship°; Singh, Shivaji, ‘Sindhu and Sarasvatī in the Rigveda and their Archaeological Implication’, in Puratattva, no. 28, 1997-98, pp. 26-36; Chauhan, D.S., ‘Mythical Observations and Scientific Evaluation of the Lost Sarasvatī River’, in Vedic Sarasvati°; and Talageri, Shrikant G., The Rigveda: A Historical Analysis°, ch. 4. For O.P. Bharadwaj’s important papers, see note 26 below.

  2 Rig Veda, 1.3.12. (Unless otherwise specified, renderings from the Rig Veda are my own arrangements from several available translations, such as the two integral translations into English by H.H. Wilson and R.T.H. Griffith—see his Hymns of the Rig Veda°—and partial translations by Max Müller, Sri Aurobindo, Louis Renou, Jan Gonda, Jean Varenne, among others.)

  3 Rig Veda, 6.61.13.

  4 Ibid., 7.95.1.

  5 Ibid., 6.61.8.

  6 Ibid., 7.36.6.

  7 Ibid., 7.96.2.

  8 Aurobindo, Sri, The Secret of the Veda°, p. 88.

  9 Rig Veda, 1.3.11-12 (adapted from Sri Aurobindo’s translation).

  10 Ibid., 2.41.16.

  11 Ibid., 6.61.4. See Ludvik, Catherine, ‘Sarasvatī-Vāc: The Identification of the River with Speech’, Asiatische Studien / Études Asiatiques, vol. 54, no. 1, 2000, p. 120.

  12 Ludvik, Catherine, Sarasvatī: Riverine Goddess of Knowledge°. See also her important paper mentioned in the preceding note.

  13 Müller, F. Max, in India—What Can It Teach Us?, first edn 1883, sec. edn 1892; republ. Penguin Books, New Delhi, 2000, p. 149.

  14 Rig Veda, 6.61.10, 12.

  15 Ibid., 7.36.6.

  16 Ibid., 3.23.4.

  17 Ibid., 6.61.2.

  18 Ibid., 7.95.2.

  19 Vājasaneyī Samhitā (White Yajur Veda), 34.11.

  20 Pañcavimsha Brāhmana, 25.10.6 and Jaiminya Upanishad Brāhmana, 4.26. See Macdonell, A.A. & A.B. Keith, Vedic Index°, vol. 2, p. 300.

  21 Ibid., p. 55.

  22 ‘Plaksha’ is the name of the waved-leaf fig tree (ficus infectoria). See ibid., p. 54.

  23 The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, tr. Kisari Mohan Ganguli, vol. III, Salya Parva, IX.54, first edn in the 1890s; republ. Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 2000, pp. 149-150. See also, below, Epilogue.

  24 Pañchavimsha Brāhmana, 25.10.16.

  25 See references in Bharadwaj, O.P., ‘Vinashana’, Journal of the Oriental Institute of Baroda, vol. 33, nos 1-2, 1983, p. 70.

  26 Apart from the paper in the preceding note (pp. 69-88), see Bharadwaj, O.P., ‘The Vedic Sarasvatī’, in Haryana Sahitya Akademi Journal of Indological Studies, vol. 2, nos 1-2, 1987, pp. 38-58; ‘The Rigvedic Sarasvatī’, ch. 3, in In Search of Vedic-Harappan Relationship°; and several chapters in his Ancient Kurukshetra : Studies, Harman Publishing House, New Delhi, 1991 and Studies in the Historical Geography of Ancient India, Sundeep Prakashan, New Delhi, 1986.

  27 Bharadwaj, O.P., Historical Geography of Ancient India, op. cit., ch. 9: ‘Ganga to Ghaggar with Valmiki’.

  28 The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, op. cit., vol. I, Vana Parva, III.5, p. 15. (I have modernized spelling in this and the following quotations; Ganguli’s numbering of the verses do not always coincide with that of the critical edition, which was prepared years later.)

  29 Ibid., vol. III, Salya Parva, IX.42, p. 116.

  30 Ibid., IX.38, p. 108.

  31 Ibid., pp. 108-09.

  32 Ibid., vol. I, Vana Parva, III.83, p. 173.

  33 Ibid., vol. IV, Anusasana Parva, XIII.146, p. 315.

  34 Ibid., vol. I, Vana Parva, III.82, pp. 170 & 173.

  35 Ibid., vol. II, Bhisma Parva, VI.6, p. 16.

  36 Ibid., vol. I, Vana Parva, III.130, p. 270; see also III.82, p. 172.

  37 Ibid., vol. III, Salya Parva, IX.37, p. 104.

  38 Ibid., vol. IV, Anusasana Parva, XIII.154, p. 361.

  39 Barmer district (western part only): Balasar, Alamsar, Punjasar, Rabbasar, Rattasar, Ramsar, Ranasar, Lilsar, Gangasar, Bakhasar. Jaisalmer district : Ajasar, Dhaisar, Bhadasar, Baramsar. Bikaner district: Lunkaransar, Hathusar, Jaswantsar, Kapuris
ar, Kamisar, Napasar, Mundsar, Jasrasar, Desilsar, Somalsar, Barsisar, Udramsar, Gersar, Naurangdesar Hanumangarh district: Rawatsar, Lakhasar, Baramsar, Kansar Pandusar, Dhannasar, Malsisar. Churu district: Hardesar, Rattusar, Patamdesar, Binjasar, Jodhasar, Bhadasar, Mummasar, Lachharsar, Malasar, Rajaldesar, Gundusar, Kanwarpalsar, Tahindesar, Jaitasar. Jodhpur district (northern part only) : Kanasar Bhojasar, Narsar . . .

  40 The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, op. cit., vol. III, Salya Parva, IX.37, p. 105.

  41 Ibid., IX.54, p. 150.

  42 Ibid., IX.37, p. 106.

  43 Ibid., IX.35, p. 101.

  44 Ibid., vol. III, Salya Parva, IX.48 & 51.

  45 Baudhāyana Dharmasūtra, 1.2.9; Vasishtha Dharmasūtra, 1.8; Patañjali’s Mahābhāshya, 2.4.10 & 6.3.109. For a translation of the first two, see Olivelle, Patrick, Dharmasūras : The Law Codes of Āpastamba, Gautama, Baudhāyana, and Vasistha, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 2000, pp. 199 & 351.

  46 Macdonell, A.A. & A.B. Keith, Vedic Index°, vol. 2, pp. 125-26.

  47 Manusmriti, II.17, tr. George Bühler, The Laws of Manu, Sacred Books of the East, Oxford, 1886, vol. 25.

  48 Mārkandeya Purāna, tr. F.E. Pargiter, vol. LVII, The Asiatic Society, Calcutta, 1904; republ. Indological Book House, Varanasi, 1969, pp. 290-306.

  49 Kālidāsa, The Loom of Time: A Selection of His Plays and Poems, tr. Chandra Rajan, Penguin Books, New Delhi, 1989, p. 149.

  50 Ibid., p. 261.