‡‡ But I will always use the spelling ‘Sarsuti’ when referring to today’s stream above its confluence with the Markanda.
§§ The Rann of Kachchh (older spellings include Kach, Kutch, Cutch, etc.) is a vast marshy and salty expanse in Gujarat, north of the island of Kachchh and south of the Indo-Pakistan border (see maps in Figs 1.5, 1.7 and 4.2).
¶¶ ‘Kurukshetra’ was originally the name of a region, not just a town as it is today.
** The average gradient is roughly 300 m over 1000 km, that is, an imperceptible 30 cm/km or 0.03 per cent. (300 m is the average altitude of the plain below the Shivalik Hills, and 1000 km the approximate distance to the Rann of Kachchh.)
†† Bikaner, a city of northern Rajasthan, was then the capital of a Rajput princely state of the same name. In 1949, it was integrated into Rajasthan.
{2}
The Mighty Sarasvatī
* The Brāhmanas are long commentaries on the Vedas that include detailed instructions for conducting rituals, apart from important legends. (Brāhmana derives from the word brahman, whose primary meaning, in the Rig Veda, is ‘prayer’ or ‘inspired hymn’.) Several centuries at least separate the Vedas (the samhitās or collections of hymns) from the Brāhmanas.
† What is today Thanesar or Thaneswar, near Kurukshetra.
‡ The Drishadvatī is no longer associated with the Ghaggar, but with the Chautang, whose existence Wilson was unaware of. The Ghaggar flows north of the Sarsuti, the Chautang south of it (see Fig. 1.1).
{3}
New Light on an Ancient River
* By ‘defunct river’, the authors do not mean the Hakra but one of the palaeochannels visible in Fig. 3.5, which correspond to course no. 2 in the preceding study by ISRO scientists (Figs 3.6 and 3.7).
† Wilhelmy prefers this palaeochannel of the Sutlej (which corresponds to the Central Naiwal) to that identified by Yash Pal, et al. (see Fig. 3.5), which meets the Ghaggar upstream, near Shatrana. Of course, both channels are valid (and so are several more), and could have been in use at different times, or even simultaneously.
{4}
A Great Leap Backward
* Alternative spellings include Mohenjodaro, Mohenjo Daro and Moenjo-daro. ‘Daro’ means ‘mound’ in Sindhi.
† Which explains that the term ‘Harappans’ does not mean inhabitants of Harappa, but the inhabitants of any site of the civilization.
‡ We will come to it in Chapter 6, and will see that geographically distinct sites (that is, those appearing as separate dots on a map) probably number 2000 to 2500.
§ Chalcolithic, meaning copper (‘chalco’) with stone (‘lithic’), refers to the prehistoric period that saw the introduction of copper metallurgy in a Neolithic background.
¶ I will not trouble the reader with the complex debates among archaeologists on questions of terminology. For them, terms such as ‘civilization’, ‘culture’, ‘tradition’, ‘city’, ‘era’, ‘phase’, ‘age’, etc., have specialized meanings, though unanimity on their usage is rare. I use those terms in accordance with their common acceptance, which is enough for our limited purpose.
** Also spelt ‘peepal’ or ‘peepul’. It is Ficus religiosa, India’s sacred fig tree, commonly found in temples or near shrines.
†† See p. 96 for Kenoyer’s initial date for the Early Harappan phase
{6}
From the Indus to the Sarasvatī
* Tessitori made it a habit to Sanskritize the spellings of the places he visited; Kalibangan, for instance, would become ‚Kala Vangu’.
† Theri or ther is the local word for ‘mound’.
‡ Formerly spelt ‘Sinkiang’ and earlier known as ‘Chinese Turkestan’.
§ See extracts from the Nadīstuti Sūkta in Chapter 2, pp. 37-38.
¶ Those western parts include, from north to south, the Swat Valley, the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), Waziristan, Zhob, Baluchistan and the Makran coast.
¶ ‘Early Post-urban’ is the beginning of what most archaeologists have called the Late Harappan phase.
{8}
When Rivers Go Haywire
* Palynology is the study of pollen, often (as here) of fossilized pollen, a good marker of ancient climate and environment.
† Ka = kilo-annum, or 1000 years.
‡ Avulsion occurs when a meandering river cuts through the base of a loop, resulting in a straighter course and leaving behind a lake in the place of the old meander.
{9}
The Tangible Heritage
* This ochre-coloured pottery (OCW or OCP) is now often regarded as a degenerate form of Late Harappan pottery.
† Dholavira’s dimensions are 771 x 617 m, while Kampilya’s are 780 x 660 m (respectively 1 per cent and 7 per cent greater).
‡ The symbols on punch-marked coins do not constitute a writing system based on a language; I am only looking here at the survival of Indus symbols in themselves, irrespective of whether or not something of their meaning was preserved.
{10}
The Intangible Heritage
* I was intrigued by the frequent depiction of two antelopes under the throne of the Buddha (at Ajanta, for instance), just as in the ‘Pashupati’ seal (often two lions take the place of the antelopes). But the art historians I consulted were sceptical of a possible Harappan connection.
† It is plain that the concept of a ‘lord of cattle’ is to be understood at a symbolic level: pashu also means the ‘soul’, and Pashupati, therefore, means ‘lord of the souls’. This is the same symbolism as the later image of Krishna with the cows.
‡ Here, as in a few of the above cases, the Sanskrit word shringa appears in the singular.
§ Such passages use words like yuga, yukta and yoga, derived from the Sanskrit root yuj, which expresses the idea of joining or uniting (it is cognate with the English ‘yoke’ or the French ‘joug’).
{11}
The Sarasvatī’s Testimony
* Avestan is the ancient Iranian language of the Avesta, the sacred book of Zoroastrianism.
† Not to be confused with the city of Sirsa cited earlier (and again in later paragraphs).
‡ Nadt = ‘river’ in Sanskrit.
THE BEGINNING
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The Lost River: On The Trail of Saraswati Page 33
