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Source: The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com)

 

Ancient river

 

 

 

 

 

THE RIVER SARASWATI Legend, Myth and Reality: Dr. S. Kalyanaraman;

All-India Saraswat Cultural Organisation (AISCO) and All-India Saraswat

Foundation (AISF), Sitladevi Temple Road, Mahim, Mumbai-400016. Rs. 100.

 

THIS SLENDER volume is written by Dr. S. Kalyanaraman, a celebrated indologist

with professional experience as a senior executive. It adds weight to the

findings of his painstaking research, recorded in this book, making smooth

reading, so rare for a work of this kind.

 

The now non-existent Saraswati river originated from the Banderpunch (monkey's

tail) in the Garhwal Himalayas. Beyond the Indian Himalayas in Tibet near the

holy lake, Manasarovar, is Kapalshikhar, the other source of the Saraswati. The

river is still there, known locally as the MangNang Tsangpo; further downstream

a Survey of India map actually calls it the Saraswati!

 

River Saraswati is adored in the Rig Veda as the best of all mothers, best of

all rivers and best of all goddesses. She is a mother because she nourished a

civilisation on her banks. She was once flowing from the Himalayas to the

Arabian Sea carrying the glacier waters, which are carried by the Sutlej and

Yamuna rivers. Over 1200 of the 1600 archaeological sites of the civilisation

unearthed during the last 75 years have been found on the Saraswati river basin

where the typical civilisation artefacts such as seals with inscriptions, bronze

age medals, weapons and tools, beads, jewellery, weights and measures, and even

water management systems have been found! The river was desiccated due to a

number of geological reasons dealt extensively as well as interestingly in this

research work. Hence, says the writer, the cherished memories of our people of

the Triveni Sangamam at Prayag (Allahabad).

 

The available evidence from archaeology firmly establishes the continuity and

indigenous evolution of the civilisation from 3300 B.C. to-date. A recent

finding of Prof. Meadow (Feb. 1999, Harappa) suggests the possibility about the

script of this civilisation being the earliest writing system of the world! With

the Saraswati's desiccation, its place in the nation's psychology was taken over

by the Ganges.

 

But this indologist is sure that the Saraswati will flow again and its spiritual

form will regain its Vedic glory, because the entire course of the river of the

Vedic age has now been defined through scientific discoveries of an unparalleled

excellence and projects attesting to the technological brilliance of Indian

scientists and engineers have been started to revive the Saraswati river over a

stretch of 1600 km from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea.

 

The Saraswat Brahmins, tracing their legacy to the sacred river, have

contributed significantly to the development of modern India as have the

enlightened Parsis of Western India done and they are therefore entitled to

celebrate the comeback of that glorious river in the map of India in the

not-so-distant future!

 

 

K. VEDAMURTHY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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