Rigvedic Rivers

"In view of Stein’s statement which had led us to believe that nothing very ancient would be found in the region, it was a great thrill for us when even on the first and second days of our exploration we found sites with unmistakable affinities with the culture of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. And a few subsequent days’ work convinced us that the Sarasvatī valley had been really a commingling of many rivers, not only geographically, but culturally... ‘the valleys of the Sarasvatī and the Drishadvatī must be regarded as very rich indeed in archaeological remains’."

"Some of the earliest Aryan settlements in India were on the banks of the Saraswati, and the surrounding country has from almost Vedic times been held in high veneration. The Hindus identify the river with Saraswati, the Sanskrit Goddess of Speech and Learning."

"It is certain... that the Rigveda offers no assistance in determining the mode in which the Vedic Áryans entered India... the bulk at least [of the R V] seems to have been composed rather in the country round the Sarasvati river."

"Now, it would be ludicrous to claim that the IAs left the common Indo-Iranian habitat, as per the AIT, moved into Saptasindhu and turning the Haraχvaiti name into Sarasvatī gave it to a river there to remember their past while they proceeded to generate the root sṛ and its derivatives to accord with other IE languages. Occam’s razor, which here is conveniently ignored by AIT adherents, commands the opposite: that the Iranians moved away, lost the root sṛ and the name Sarasvatī in its devolved form Haraxvaiti was given to a river in their new habitat."

"The country bears traces of having once been well inhabited. At no very distant period, the waters of the Guggur [Ghaggar] river reached as far as Sooratgurh, and old wells are numerous as far as Bhatner [Hanumangarh]’..."

"[It] revealed an incredibly dense concentration of sites, along the dried-up course of a river that could be identified as the ‘Saraswati’. . . Suddenly it became apparent that the ‘Indus’ Civilization was a misnomer—although the Indus had played a major role in the rise and development of the civilization, the ‘lost Saraswati’ River, judging by the density of settlement along its banks, had contributed an equal or greater part to its prosperity...Many people today refer to this Early state as the ‘Indus-Saraswati Civilization’ and continuing references [in her book] to the ‘Indus Civilization’ should be seen as an abbreviation in which the ‘Saraswati’ is implied."

"It can be stated with certainty that the present Ghaggar-Hakra is nothing but a remnant of the RgVedic Sarasvati which was the lifeline of the Indus Civilization."

"The Sarasvatī comes between the Jumna and the Sutlej, the position of the modern Sarsūti . . . There are strong reasons to accept the identification of the later and the earlier Sarasvatī throughout [the Rig Veda]."

"Here we see samudra used clearly in the sense of sea, the Indian sea, and we have at the same time a new indication of the distance which separates the Vedic age from that of the later Sanskrit literature. Though it may not be possible to determine by geological evidence the time of the changes which modified the southern area of the Penjāb and caused the Sarasvatī to disappear in the desert, still the fact remains that the loss of the Sarasvatī is later than the Vedic age, and that at that time the waters of the Sarasvatī reached the sea."

"The waters of the Sarasvati [are] continuous with the dry bed of a great river [Hakra], which, as local legends assert, once flowed through the desert to the sea."

"Although the river below the confluence [with the Ghaggar] is marked in our maps as Gaggar, it was formerly the Saraswatī; that name is still known amongst the people."

"We have also seen that the Vedic description of the waters of the Saraswatī flowing onward to the ocean, and that given in the Mahabharata, of the sacred river losing itself in the sands, were probably both of them correct at the periods to which they referred."

"[The Hakra’s drying up] reduced a vast extent of once fruitful country to a howling wilderness, and thus several flourishing cities and towns became ruined or deserted by their inhabitants."

"More important is the Sarasvatī, the true lifeline of Vedic geography, whose trace is assumed to be found in the Sarsutī, located between the Satlaj and the Jamnā. With the Indus and its five tributaries, it forms the Veda’s “seven rivers”."

"The trace of the ancient riverbed was recently found, still quite recognizable, and was followed far to the west. [This discovery] confirmed the correctness of the tradition."

"The Ran is the delta of the Hakra, the lost river of Sind."

"Traditional Indian belief recognizes in this well-marked bed the course of the sacred Sarasvatī, once carrying its abundant waters down to the ocean and since antiquity ‘lost’ in desert sands... [The Ghaggar was] still known as the Sarsuti (the Hindi derivative of Sarasvatī) [which] passes the sacred sites of Kurukshetra near Thanesar, a place of Hindu pilgrimage."

"There is now a desperate salvage operation on, in powerful leftist and "secularist" political circles in India, to put a complete full stop to any further official research on the Sarasvatī (including archaeological and geological investigations), and to launch an all-out Goebbelsian campaign through a captive media to deny that there ever was a Vedic Sarasvatī river in existence in India: the river named in the Rigveda was either completely mythical, or it was the river in Afghanistan, but it definitely was not identical with the Ghaggar-Hakra!"

"To the drying up of the Hakra, or Gliaggar, many centuries ago, in conjunction with moral evils, is ascribed the existing desolation... The vestiges of large towns, now buried in the sands, confirm the truth of this tradition, and several of them claim a high antiquity..."

"Many [Rigvedic] verses celebrate the might of the ancient river Sarasvati, nah priyà priyàsu ‘dearest of all our dear ones’. The word priyá... has the sense of ‘one’s own, that one is used to, or attached to’."

"The earliest seat of the Hindus within the confines of Hindusthān was undoubtedly the eastern confines of the Panjab. The holy land of Manu and the Purānas lies between the Drishadwatī and Saraswatī rivers, the Caggar [Ghaggar] and Sursooty [Sarsuti] of our barbarous maps. Various adventures of the first princes and most famous sages occur in this vicinity; and the Āshramas, or religious domiciles, of several of the latter are placed on the banks of the Saraswatī . . . These indications render it certain, that whatever seeds were imported from without, it was in the country adjacent to the Saraswatī river that they were first planted, and cultivated and reared in Hindusthān."

"This dry bed is indeed the holy river ‘Sarasvatī’ . . .; once upon a time, this was a genuine solitary river which reached the ocean without any tributaries on its long way through the desert."

"At a distance of a journey of forty days on horseback from the spot where the Sarasvati is lost (in the sand of the desert), (is situated) Plaksa Prasravaja."

"Sarasvatī’s stream lost in barbarous sandy wastes."

"When Harsha’s father, the king of Sthānvīshvara, passed away, the people ‘bore him to the river Sarasvatī, and there upon a pyre befitting an emperor solemnly consumed all but his glory in the flames’."

"Sarasvati, pure in her course from the mountains to the sea."

"O Sarasvati, lead us on to better, Do not spurn us, do not deprive us of your plenty; Rejoice in our company, and that we’re neighbours, Let us not go away from you to foreign fields."

"O Gangā, Yamunā, Sarasvatī, Shutudrī (Sutlej), Parushnī (Ravi), hear my praise!"

"Your excellent waters fill this whole universe."

"In some parts (of her course) she becomes visible and in some parts not so."

"Although the Sarasvatī seems to be lost, yet persons crowned with ascetic success . . . and owing also to the coolness of the herbs and of the land there, know that the river has an invisible current through the bowels of the earth."

"The sacred Sarasvatī is the foremost river of all rivers. She courses towards the ocean and is truly the first of all streams."

"Where else is such happiness as that in a residence by the Sarasvatī? . . . All should ever remember the Sarasvatī! Sarasvatī is the most sacred of rivers!"

"When flowing down from his head, she branched ofl: into seven rivers, of whom three, viz., Hladini, Pavani and Nahni flowed to the east, three others, viz., Su^akshu, Sita and 8iudhuxo the west, and the seventh followed her leader Bhagiratha*s chariot, purifying all those who bathed in her. She was named as his daughter, Bhagirathi. But on the way she was about to submerge the sacrifleial ground of Jahuu who was performing a sacrifice, and who, in order to save it, drank her away outrigiit to the astonishment of all. But, propitiated by Bhagiratha, Jahnu let the river out from his ears; and by thus issuing out from him she was named as his daughter, Jahnavi."

"When Ganga was brought to Haridwar, then all the Gods asked: ’We wash all sins, but who will wash us?’ Ganga said this to Lord Vishnu:’Lord Vishnu Bhagwan, tell us, what should we do?’ Then the Lord said: ‘As many sadhus and saints are living in this world, every time they will bathe in Ganga, all your sins will be washed away [automatically]."

"Just as Banaras is a prototype for sacred India, her sacred features are prototypes for the divine roles of the city as a whole. Foremost among these features are the Ganga and the two famous cremation grounds (Shmashans) along her banks. Pilgrims commonly say that Banaras is like the Mother Ganga, who accepts and purifies anyone and anything that come to her and transforms them into herself… each of these features, - the Ganga, the Shmashans and the city as a whole – functions as a kind of cosmic sink, a sacred dumping ground…"

"There is a common saying that even a single droplet of Ganges water carried one’s way by the breeze will erase the sins of many life times in an instant."

"The mother keeps the baby in the stomach for nine months and then gives birth. She cleans her excreta and urine, and the child is [always] in this when he is small. Then that is [how] the mother takes care of the baby, doesn’t she? So she is Ganga Ma. All this trash, good things, bad things, everything, is in her. So she will never be impure. The mother is never impure."

"In discussing the unlimited grace of the Ganga, Eck cites a common Indian saying that “no child is too dirty to be embraced by its mother”. Indeed mother Ganga embraces everyone and everything that is put into her (or that she enters)."

"Eck describes the creative power of the Ganga as “liquid Shakti”, evidenced by the fertility of fields along her banks and her position as a second consort and active principle of Shiva."

"One should not be amazed … that this Ganges is really Power, for is she not the Supreme Shakti of the Eternal Shiva, taken in the form of water? This Ganges, filled with the sweet wine of compassion, was sent out for the salvation of the world by Shiva, the Lord of the Lords. Good people should not think this Triple-Pathed River to be like the thousand other earthly rivers, filled with water."

"Although any point along the Ganga can serve as a pilgrimage site, a number of especially powerful thirthas (sacred crossings) along her banks allow pilgrims to cover multiple spiritual bases with a single visit. Banaras is the largest and most visited of these thirthas, presenting itself as Kashi (“the luminous”), an otherworldly abode that rests Shiva’s trident and grants instant liberation to all who die within its boundaries."

"The story of Holy Mother’s decent to earth has been recounted in numerous oral traditions, as well as in the Epic and Puranic literature. Through the single minded austerities of the pious King Bhagiratha, Lord Brahma granted a boon that Ganga Ma would descend upon the earth so she might carry sixty thousand of his cursed ancestors to the netherworld. Her fall was broken by Shiva’s matted locks, which prevented the earth from being destroyed by her impact, and locks channeled her downward flow from the Himalayas. Once upon the plains, Ganga Ma sought out King Bhagiratha in Banaras, who led her to the remains of his ancestors in Bengal, where she swept them along to the other world."

"The Ganga is the foremost of India’s seven sacred rivers, winding fifteen hundred miles from the glaciers of Himalayas through twenty nine cities and seventy towns of the northern Indian plains and exiting into the Indian Ocean through the great delta that feeds into the Bay of Bengal on the eastern coast."

"...it is more than river. She is the Holy Mother. She is Ganga Ma."

"As one of India’s largest and most sacred pilgrimage centers, Benares (Varanasi) has been revered for centuries by Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, and Jains, millions of whom come to visit its innumerable temples and shrines and come to bathe along a three-mile stretch of steps leading to the Holy Ganga (Ganges) River. Whether coming for salvation, prosperity, or healing, most of these pilgrims have sought some form of ritual purification – a means of unloading their troubles and sins upon stars and holy men, the river Ganga, and the many sacred tanks fed by her springs and tributaries."

"As a celestial stream flowing upon the earth she has her mythic origins in the world of the Vedas. As the tradition developed, she wound her way into the myth and ritual of Vaishnavas and Shaivas alike. She is hardly the best known consort of either Vishnu or Shiva, but she has acquired the position of consort to both of them, something no other goddess can claim. Even Brahma keeps close company with her, carrying the river in his water pot."

"This Ganga was sent out for salvation of the world of Sambhu, Lord of lords, filled with the sweet wine of compassion. Shankara, having squeezed out the essence of yoga and the Upanishads, created this excellent river because of his mercy for all creatures."

"I come to you as a child to his mother I come as an orphan to you, moist with love I come without refuge to you, giver of sacred rest. I come a fallen man to you, up lifter of all . I come undone by disease to you, the perfect physician. I come, my heart dry with thirst, to you, ocean of sweet wine Do with me whatever you will."

"Essence of the scriptures and embodied goodness of the gods."