Sarasvati: a book-review

[Guest guest]

A review of the volume, SARASVATI which appeared in THE HINDU of May

1, 2001 is reproduced below; I shall be grateful if members kindly

publicise this to promote further debates on IndianCivilization

studies. Just one comment: the river is no longer a myth; she is

ground-truth. And more, she will flow again over the distance of

1,600 kms. in the next 5 years thanks to the pratibha_ of engineers

and scientists of Bha_rata.

 

The book can also be acquired online through amazon.com

 

Thanks and regards.

 

 

http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/stories/13010179.htm

 

Story of a mystical river

 

SARASVATI: S. Kalyanaraman; Babasaheb (Umakanta

Keshav) Apte Smarak Samiti, Yadava Smruti, 55, First Main,

Seshadripuram,Bangalore-560020. Rs. 1000.

 

ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES combined with literary and

cultural tradition and earth or environmental sciences using modern

satellite imaging technologies, can help present a new perspective in

understanding the locus and focus of ancient history in an integrated

manner.

 

The volume under review presents an encyclopaedic account in 1150

pages and 670 illustrations, the life-history of the River Sarasvati

as the framework to present the ancient history of Indian

civilisation. The volume demonstrates that the history of India's

civilisation is closely intertwined with the life-history of the

river. Out of nearly 2,600 archaeological sites of varying sizes,

over 1500 archaeological settlements were found on the Sarasvati river

basin; there are also major settlements which are larger than the

settlements of Harappa and Mohenjodaro (100 ha. each), Lakhmirwala

(Bhatinda) (225 ha.), Rakhigari (Hissar) (224 ha.), Gurnikalan One

(Bhatinda) (144 ha.), Hasanpur (Bhatinda) (100 ha), Ganweriwala

(Bahawalpur) (81.5 ha), Kotada (Jamnagar) (72 ha.), Nagoor (Sukkur)

(50 ha.), Nindowari (Jhawalan) (50 ha), Tharo Waro Daro (Sukkur) (50

ha.), Mangli Nichi (Ludhiana) (40 ha.)

 

The evidence provided in the Rig Veda is cited extensively in the

volume; it is perhaps the oldest human document dealing with

cosmological issues, points to its compilation on the banks of River

Sarasvati. Over 72 Riks are dedicated to River Sarasvati and only one

Rik or hymn mentions River Ganga.

 

The volume details the exciting discoveries relating to the ancient

courses of the river using satellite images and evidence provided by a

variety of disciplines: glaciology, geology, geomorphology,

environmental sciences, archaeology, inscriptions contained on many

types of objects - weapons, bangles, seals, faience and copper

tablets. Extensive references are cited from ancient texts and the

ancient traditions of many parts of India celebrating the memory of

Sarasvati as river, as mother and as goddess.

 

Section two of the volume is titled ``River Sarasvati - ground truth''

and provides a comprehensive sketch on the scientific findings which

point to the causes for the desiccation of the river in stages.

It is rarely that a historical project directly results in a

developmental project which will benefit the present and future

generations. The discoveries related to Sarasvati have been followed

by the development of watershed management projects over the entire

river basin stretching over a distance of 1,600 kms., from the

Himalayas (Har-ki-dun valley, W. Garhwal, Uttaranchal) through the

States of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan to Gujarat to benefit over 200

million people and provide employment opportunities to millions during

implementation.

 

The first section of the volume outlines the project approved by the

Central Government to inter-link the Himalayan rivers and peninsular

rivers, including the revival of River Sarasvati by extending the

Indira Gandhi (Rajasthan) Canal beyond Jaisalmer in Rajasthan to River

Sabarmati in Gujarat. The project has been developed by the National

Water Development Agency of the Union Ministry of Water Resources

after 18 years of feasibility studies and include the transfer of

surpluses from one river basin to the deficit areas of the country.

 

Section two includes a glaciological map of Asia and is based on a

reconstruction of vegetation cover, 18000 Carbon-14 years ago. Similar

maps are available on the Internet for the periods 1000 and 5000

Carbon-14 years ago. This map is based on the studies of a new

emerging discipline called glaciology.

 

Section 3 deals with culture, art and crafts and presents the nature

of economic activity recorded in ancient settlements, trade as

recorded in Mesopotamian texts with Aratta, Dilmun, Magan and Meluhha

which is often identified with the Harappan civilisation sites),

evidence of workers' quarters, fireplaces, weights, metal and lapidary

workshops, production of bronze tools, bronze statuettes, ornaments of

shell and beads.

 

The next section details the importance of gold and silver-smithy and

advances a hypothesis that Soma (allegorically referred to in the Rig

Veda as a commodity) may be electrum (gold-silver compound) and cites

the evidence from the Khila Sukta of the Rig Veda about Ciklita-Soma,

the Soma purchased for further processing in incessant fire. An

interesting observation relates to an inscription found on a

needle-like gold pendant found in Mohenjodaro; it was discovered only

in 1998 that the pendant contained an inscription containing five

signs. Based on this and other findings of inscriptions on metal

weapons and copper plates, some leads are provided to promote further

studies to decipher the script: the inscriptions were made by

metal-smiths; the inscriptions were lists of personal property or

possessions; some inscriptions served as lists for trade or as bills

of lading; the legacy of recording inscriptions on copper plates

was continued as a tradition in India during the historical periods

to record property transactions. Given the evidence of sealed

impressions with inscriptions the use of writing system in the context

of trade thus gets reinforced in the context of the new technologies

and new products developed during the evolving Bronze Age.

 

This section also points to a change in paradigm in identifying Soma

in the Rig Veda. The suggestion made is that interpreting Soma as a

purchased and processed commodity, it is related to gold and

silver-smithy, a metallurgical process. Bronze constituted a

technological revolution since the concept of alloying copper with tin

resulted in the production of hard metal weapons and tools. The volume

cites a Pali word, Meluhha, as meaning copper. Section five is a

description of the Bronze Age of the civilisation impact area,

exemplified by the pictures of armed warriors found in Mesopotamia,

the emergence of Durga as the armed mother goddess, the celebration of

Jaya (the early version of the great epic Mahabharata) as the creator

of all weapons. It notes further that the ratha, chariot (evidence

of which was found at Daimabad, though dated to a later date of c.

1400 BCE) and horse were found in the civilisation area, that tin was

procured from Meluhha, and that the Sarasvati-Sindhu doab, ancient

Iran and Mesopotamia constituted an actively interacting Bronze Age

triangle.

 

One suggestion regarding the Indus script made is that most of the

signs and pictographs of the script are explainable as metal weapons,

arms and armour using the principle of rebus (that is, similar

sounding words depicting pictographs such as fish, crocodile, animals,

jars which also mean specific names of weapons such as axes, adzes,

swords, knives, daggers, shields etc.). Using this approach, it is

suggested that most of the inscribed objects are either property lists

of weapons possessed by a warrior or bills of lading for trading in

the products made by armourers. This framework is advanced in the

context of fortified citadels found in almost all major archaeological

settlements such as Dholavira, Lothal, Banawali,Kalibangan,

Mohenjodaro and Harappa.

 

Section six underscores that further work needs to be done in

delineating the features of what is called a ``linguistic area.''

 

The next section details the evolution of Sarasvati as a goddess and

relates the finds of peacock imageries on pottery found at Kunal

(Haryana). The funerary practices as found from the archaeological

evidence are related to the Vedic texts and traditions of India. The

references to Sarasvati in Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Atharva Veda, the

Ramayana and the Mahabharata are described with textual quotations

including the description of the pilgrimage undertaken by Balarama

from Dwaraka through Somnath to Mathura along the banks of River

Sarasvati (described in the Salya-Parva of the great epic).

 

Section eight is an attempt at providing some indications of

chronology for the events described in Satapatha Brahmana. The skies

near Delhi are presented using astronomy computer software and related

to the various astronomical data provided in the great epic. The

celebration of Mahavrata on the day of winter solstice as a Vedic

tradition is seen in the context of cyclical time as distinct from the

physical concepts of linear time.

 

The next section continues to deal with the problem of ancient

chronology not in terms of absolute dates, but by postulating the

relative chronologies between the Rig Veda and the Avestan tradition.

It is also intimated that there are parallels between the Vedic

society and Harappan culture in relation to metallurgy and presence of

fortified settlements, citadels and weapons of war. The last section

is titled Bharatam Janam connoting that the concept of the

nation-state had evolved as early as in the days of the Rig Veda. The

genealogy of Bharata is presented in brief together with the

intriguing parallels found between the Pasupati images of the

civilisation and the cauldron found at Gundestrup in northern Europe.

 

The research work on the Sarasvati provides an integrating framework

to evaluate all cultural components of the variegated, vibrant,

cultural and social history of Indian civlisation in its formative and

mature phases.The volume is stated to be the first of a quintet on

Sarasvati and the next four volumes will relate to script, language,

technology (including archaeo-metallurgy, Soma) and the continuing

tradition of the civilisation in India and many other parts of the

world. There is reference to a website containing over 40,000 files at

http://sarasvati.simplenet.com. There are colour frontispieces showing

Sarasvati from a painting in a manuscript found in Jaisalmer,

Svargarohini mountain in the Himalayas, the place of origin of River

Sarasvati, a composite satellite image (IRS 1-C) showing the course of

River Sarasvati in relation to River Sindhu and a map of India

showing the proposed projects for inter- linking Himalayan and

peninsular rivers, including the revival of River Sarasvati. The

quality of production of the volume is notable with an exhaustive

table of contents, an index and bibliography. It will help promote

deeper studies and research on not only India's heritage but also

opportunities for developing projects for better use of the country's

glacial and other fresh- water resources; and thus relevant to

scholars of civilisation studies, arts, culture, archaeology, history,

religion and earth- scientists and hydrology experts.

 

K. V. RAMAN