సరస్వతీ నది

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సరస్వతి నది హిందూ పురాణములలో చెప్పబడిన ఓ పురాతన నది. ఋగ్వేదమునందలి నదిస్తుతినందు చెప్పబడిన సరస్వతి నదికి, యమునా నది తూర్పున సట్లేజ్ నది పశ్చిమాన కలది. ఆ తరువాత మహాభారతములో ఈ నది ఎండిపొయినట్లు చెప్పబడినది. సింధూ లోయా నాగరికథకాలంనాటి అవశేషాలు ఎక్కువగా సింధూ నదికి తూర్పున, గఘ్ఘర్-హక్ర నది ప్రాంతములలో లభించినాయి. ప్రస్తుతము సరస్వతి అనే పేరుమీద ఓ చిన్న నది కలదు, ఇది గఘ్ఘర్ నదికి ఉపనది. బహుశా పురాతన సరస్వతీ నదికి ఓ శాఖ అయి ఉండవచ్చు.

విషయ సూచిక

[మార్చు] హిందూ పురాణములలో సరస్వతీ నది

[మార్చు] ఋగ్వేదము

ఋగ్వేదములో సరస్వతీ నది ప్రముఖముగా చెప్పబడినది. మొత్తం అరవై పర్యాయములు (ఉదాహరణకు: 2.41.16; 6.61.8-13; 1.3.12.) ఈ సరస్వతీ నది ప్రస్తావనకు వస్తుంది. ఈ నది ఏడు పుణ్య నదులలో ఒకటి. భాషా పరంగా సరస్వతి అనగా అనేక పాయలతో ప్రవహించు నది అని అర్థము. ప్రస్తుతము చాలామంది పండితులు, గఘ్ఘర్-హక్రా నదే సరస్వతీ నదిగానో, లేదా కనీసం ఓ పాయగానో ఒప్పుకుంటారు, కానీ ఈ పేరు ఆఫ్ఘనిస్తాను నుండి పంజాబుకు వెళ్ళినదో లేదా పంజాబునుండి ఆఫ్ఘనిస్తానుకు వెళ్ళినదో అనే విషయముపై భిన్నాభిప్రాయములు ఉన్నాయి. ఋగ్వేదములో సరస్వతీ నదిని అన్నింటికంటే ఉత్తమమైన నదిగా కీర్తించినారు. దీనిని ఏడవ నదిగా, వరదలకు తల్లిగా, ఉత్తమ తల్లిగా, ఉత్తమ దేవతగా, ఉత్తమ నదిగా కీర్తించినారు. (ఋగ్వేదము 2.41.16-18; మరియు 6.61.13; 7.95.2) (ఋగ్వేదము: 7.36.6. సరస్వతి సప్తః సింధుం", 2.41.16 లో ఆంబితమే నాదీతమే దేవితమే సారస్వతి" ॥ దీనిని బట్తి సరస్వతీనదీ ప్రాముఖ్యత అర్థము అవుతుంది. ఋగ్వేదము 7.95.1-2 నందు సరస్వతీ నదిని సముద్రమువైపు ప్రయాణము చేయు నదిగా కీర్తించినారు.

This stream Sarasvati with fostering current comes forth, our sure defence, our fort of iron.
"ఈ సరస్వతీనది మా ఇనుప కోటకు రక్షణ"
As on a car [= chariot], the flood flows on, surpassing in majesty and might all other waters.
"రథములో వలే సరస్వతీనది ప్రవహిస్తూ మిగిలిన నదులు ఔన్నత్యమునూ, గొప్పతనాన్ని కనుమరుగు చేస్తుంది"
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.

The Rig Veda also describes the Sarasvati as a river that flows from the mountains to the Samudra, ocean (see RV 2.41.16-18; 7.95.2). Samudra is usually translated as "ocean" (e.g. Griffith, Macdonnel and Keith) and the word "samudra" means "with waves". But a minority of scholars (e.g. Madhav Deshpande) translate the term Samudra as "river". And some Rig-vedic verses (6.61.2) indicate that the Sarasvati river originated in the high Himalayas like the ancient "Sarasvati-Sutlej" river where she could "burst with her strong waves the ridges of the hills", and not merely in the Himalayan foothills like the present-day Sarasvati-Ghaggar river.

Rig Veda 7.95.2. and other verses (e.g. 8.21.18) also tell that the Sarasvati region poured milk and "fatness" (ghee), indicating that cattle were herded in the region.

In the enumeration of the rivers in Rigveda 10.75.05, the order is Ganga, Yamuna, Sarasvati, Shutudri (= Sutlej). This verse enumerates all important rivers from the Ganges in the east to the Punjab in the west in a strict geographical order. The position of the Sarasvati between the Yamuna and the Sutlej in this Rigvedic verse is the same as that of the Ghaggar-Hakra river. Hence it is quite clear that one of the rivers given the name 'Sarasvati' flowed through Haryana and Rajasthan. The question is whether this is the primal 'Sarasvati'.

There are Indus Valley Civilization archaeological sites on the Ghaggar and its continuation, but not further downstream than Bahawalpur province of Pakistan, as if the water could not be relied on for irrigation any further downstream. The Mahabharata says that the River Sarasvati ended in a desert, and that each year there was a religious ceremony at the confluence of Sutlej and Yamuna (probably in what is now Bahawalpur province) if either river flowed so far without drying up.

The water that got into the Sarasvati would tend to get less over time due to:-

  • Erosion of glacier which must be feeding Saraswati (Like Gangotri glacier feeds River Ganga, and Gangotri glacier is getting eroded slowly)
  • Loss of rain caused by deforestation and overgrazing in its headwaters area.
  • Loss of rain caused by deforestation and overgrazing generally, causing climate change.
  • Large amounts of its water being led off to irrigate fields.

The Sarasvati may have routinely flowed much further before agriculture and livestock domestication started, and the Rann of Kutch is likely the remains of its delta.

The Vedic Sarasvati river finally stopped flowing when the Sutlej and the upper Yamuna changed their courses. Some scholars believe that a great earthquake in plains of punjab must have resulted in changing the course of Sutlej and Yamuna. Today, we find that river Sutlej has a sharp turn in her course near Ropar in Haryana.

A river flowing into an aggrading flood plain tends to gradually build up with silt the land round its course, until at the next big flood the river finds it easier to flow into lower land further away from its old course. See Hwang Ho for a river known for spectacular destructive changes of course.

The Rigveda says that this Sarasvati rises in the mountains and ends up in the sea (e.g. RV 7.95.2 quoted above); it describes a man sailing up the Sarasvati from the sea to the mountains; but that may have been an unusual feat when one year's very heavy monsoon rains filled the Sarasvati so full that it flooded normally dry channels and reached the sea.

It is thought that the main feeders of the River Sarasvati were:-

  • The upper Yamuna, which then turned west near Paonta Saheb where it leaves the hills.
  • The Sutlej, which then flowed further east.

Sometimes Sarasvati also means the heavenly 'river' - i.e. the Milky Way - and it is also personified as a goddess.

[మార్చు] The seven rivers

The Rig Veda refers to seven sacred or important rivers (Sapta Sindhu). In RV 10.64.8. and 6.61.2. three groups of seven sacred rivers are refered to (maybe the Indus-system, the Sarasvati-system and the Ganga-system).

[మార్చు] Other Hindu texts

Later texts like the Mahabharata narrate that the Sarasvati dried up in a desert.

The Brahmanas, which are considered later texts than the Rig Veda, mention that the Sarasvati flowed through a desert; the Puranas like Bhagavata Purana mention her too and the Mahabharata says that the Sarasvati dried up in a desert, possibly the Thar Desert (Mhb. 3.130.3; 6.7.47; 6.37.1-4., 9.34.81, 9.36.1-2.).

In the Manu Samhita (II.17-18), the sage Manu, escaping from a flood, founded the Vedic culture between the Sarasvati and Drishadvati rivers. In the Shatapatha Brahmana there is a description of the God Agni burning out rivers, which may be a reference to the drying up of rivers.

The Mahabharata states that Vasishtha committed suicide by throwing himself into the Sutlej and that the Sutlej then broke up in a 100 channels (Yash Pal in S.P. Gupta 1995: 175). This myth seems to be related with the changing of the course of the Sutlej river. Recent research indicates that the Sutlej flowed into the Ghaggar-Hakra river in ancient times. According to Hindu mythology, the Sarasvati flows in a subterranenan channel and joins the Yamuna and the Ganga in the "Triveni Sangam" at Prayag (Allahabad).

When the Mahabharata War began, Saraswati was already becoming dry. That is why when Balaram, elder brother of Krishna, decided to remain neutral and refused to participate in the war, took a journey along the banks of Saraswati and visited a number of holy places during the wartime.


The goddess Sarasvati was originally a personification of this river, and later developed an identity and meaning independently from the river.

[మార్చు] The present-day Sarasvati

The present-day Sarasvati originates in a submontane region (Ambala district) and joins 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.

[మార్చు] Helmand river

ప్రధాన వ్యాసం: Helmand River

The Sarasvati river has been identified with various present-day or historical rivers, particularly the Ghaggar Hakra River in India and Pakistan; this course continues into the Raini Nala riverbed. Other suggestions include the Helmand River in Afghanistan, which historically bore the name Harahvaiti, which is the Avestan form for "Sarasvati". However, this Afghan river flows into a small lake in the Iranian plateau, which does not match the Rig Vedic description of a "sea going" river. It is disputed if the river name was transferred from the Punjab to Afghanistan or the other way round. According to George Erdosy (1989) and other scholars, "it would be just as plausible to assume that Saraswati was a Sanskrit term indigenous to India and was later imported by the speakers of Avestan into Iran. The fact that the Zend Avesta is aware of areas outside the Iranian plateau while the Rigveda is ignorant of anything west of the Indus basin would certainly support such an assertion." (Bryant 2001: 133). And according to Bryant (2001: 133), "any transfer from Iran to India must have occurred before Iranian developed the h phoneme, since s can become h but never vice versa." (The Sanskrit "s" is replaced with a "h" in Iranian, as in Asura --> Ahura, Sarasvati --> Harahvaiti or Sindhu --> Hindu.)

The Helmand historically bore the name Harahvaiti, which is the Avestan form correspondign to Sanskrit Sarasvati, both descended from Proto-Indo-Iranian saras-vnt-ī, meaning "she with many pools". The Old Persian form is Harachuwati, in Achaemenid times the name of the Arghandab River, the chief tributary of the Helmand. This name was in turn hellenized to Arachosia. The distance between the Harahvaiti and the Ghaggar (and its tributary, still called Sarasvati today) is some 600 km, and it was suggested that the name was reassigned after the Indo-Aryans had reached the Punjab, thus tracing the route of the Indo-Aryan migration.

There is also a river in Iran which has been given this name.

[మార్చు] Bibliography

  • మూస:Book reference
  • Frawley David: The Rig Veda and the History of India, 2001.(Aditya Prakashan), ISBN 81-7742-039-9
  • Gupta, S.P. (ed.). 1995. The lost Sarasvati and the Indus Civilization. Kusumanjali Prakashan, Jodhpur.
  • Keith and Macdonell. 1912. Vedic Index of Names and Subjects.
  • Oldham, R.D. 1893. The Sarsawati and the Lost River of the Indian Desert. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 1893. 49-76.
  • మూస:Book reference

[మార్చు] See also

  • Ghaggar-Hakra River
  • Sutlej
  • Yamuna
  • Ganga
  • Indus
  • Samudra

[మార్చు] External links

More Vedic discoveries http://www.gosai.com/chaitanya/saranagati/html/vedic-age_fs.html

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