Rigvedic Rivers

"The Ganga is the symbol of India's culture, the source of our legend and poetry, the sustainer of millions. Today it is one of the most polluted rivers. We will restore the pristine purity of the Ganga. A Central Ganga Authority will be set up to implement an action plan to prevent the pollution of the Ganga and its tributaries."

"I will lay my bones by the Ganges that India might know there is one who cares."

"The stream merged in Ganga it became Ganga itself."

"I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the banks of the Ganges, – astronomy, astrology, metempsychosis, etc."

"For India's devout Hindus, the sacred River Ganges is always clean and always pure -- even if its waters are a toxic mix of human sewage, discarded garbage and factory waste. ... Ganges water is well known for its extraordinary resilience and recuperative capacity."

"My desire to have handful of my ashes thrown into the Ganga at Allahabad has no religious significance so far as I am concerned. I have no religious sentiments in the matter. I have been attached to the Ganga and the Jumna rivers since my childhood. As I have grown older, this attachment has also grown. I have watched their varying moods as the seasons changed, and have been though of the history and myth and tradition and song and story that have become attached to them through long ages and become part of their flowing waters. The Ganga, especially, is the river of India, beloved of her people, round which are intertwined her memories, her hopes and fears, her songs of triumph, her victories and her defeats. She has been a symbol of India's age long culture and civilization, ever changing, ever flowing, and yet ever the same Ganga. She reminds of the snow-covered peaks and deep valleys of the Himalayas, which I have loved so much, and of the rich and vast plains below, where my life and work have been cast."

"“Soma, may we, with thee as Pavamana, pile up together all our spoil in battle. This boon vouchsafe us Varuṇa and Mitra, and Aditi and Sindhu, Earth and Heaven.”"

"“And may the Sindhu of the floods, the Maruts, and the ASvin Pair, Boon Indra, and boon Viṣṇu have one mind with us.”"

"“Maruts, who rest on fair trimmed grass, what balm soever Sindhu or Asikni hath, Or mountains or the seas contain.”"

"“Haters of those who serve you not, bliss-bringers, bring us bliss with those auspicious aids Wherewith ye are victorious and guard Sindhu well, and succour Krivi in his need.”"

"“Wherewith thou dravest forth like cars Sindhu and all the mighty floods To go the way ordained by Law, for that we long.”"

"“Let not the Rasā {River}, the Anitabhā, the Kubhā, the Krumu, let not the Sindhu bring you to a halt. Let not the overflowing Sarayu hem you around. On us alone let your favour be.”"

"“So let not Rasā, Krumu, or Anitabhā, Kubhā, or Sindhu hold you back. Let not the watery Sarayu obstruct your way. With us be all the bliss ye give.”"

"“The Housewife Goddess, Aditi, and Sindhu, the Goddess Svasti I implore for friendship: And may the unobstructed Night and Morning both, day and night, provide for our protection.”"

"“May the libations poured to thee thrice daily, day after day, O Savitar, bring us blessing. May Indra, Heaven, Earth, Sindhu with the Waters, Aditi with Ādityas, give us shelter.”"

"“Let Sindhu with his wave bedew your horses: in fiery glow have the red birds come hither. Observed of all was that your rapid going, whereby ye were the Lords of Sūrya’s Daughter.”"

"May the great Dragon of the Deep rejoice us: as one who nourishes her young comes Sindhu, With whom we will incite the Child of Waters whom vigorous course swift as thought bring hither."

"With wisdom I present these lively praises of Bhāvya dweller on the bank of Sindhu; For he, unconquered King, desiring glory, hath furnished me a thousand sacrifices."

"Hear, Mitra-Varuṇa, these mine invocations, hear them from all men in the hall of worship. Giver of famous gifts, kind hearer, Sindhu who gives fair fields, listen with all his waters!"

"Indra, the mortal man well guarded by thine aid goes foremost in the wealth of horses and of kine. With amplest wealth thou fillest him, as round about the waters clearly seen afar fill Sindhu full."

"This river with his lucid flow attracts you, more than all the streams,— Even Sindhu with his path of gold."

"Strabo’s Geography XV.1.19 says that Aristobulus of Cassandreia who accompanied Alexander the Great over a thousand years later saw thousands of towns and villages deserted on the Indus, so it too must have been diverted. He reported ‘a deserted zone which contained more than 100 towns with villages dependent on them. The Indus having quit its bed, had moved across to another bed on its left bank, a deeper one…the region formerly inundated on its right bank whose bed it had left, now found itself high and dry above the level of the annual floods.’"

"Thus the Sindhu, Nahr-i-Sind, Ab-i-Sind, or Indus, from the time that we possess any authentic records respecting it, was a tributary, along with the other rivers now forming the Panch Nad, or Panj Ab, of the Накта, or Wahindab, which having all united into one great river at the Dosh-i-Ab, as related by the old 'Arab and Sindí writers, formed the Mihrán of Sind, or Sind-Ságar. Lower down than this point of junction it sent off a brauch to the westwards which passed Aror, the ancient capital of Sind, on the east, which again united with the main channel above Mansüriyah, and entered the ocean sometimes by one, and sometimes by two principal mouths."

"(It has been assumed that) the part of the Sutlej that flowed into the Sarasvati shifted to the Beas, eventually swelling the Indus’s waters: “An increase in water and sediment discharge of that magnitude [provoked by the westward shift of the Sutlej] would have had dramatic effects downstream in the Lower Indus Basin,” according to Louis Flam. This might help explain the near complete absence of Late Harappan sites in this region: they may have been either washed away or buried under sediments."

"The RV hymn X, 75, however, gives a list of names of rivers where Sarasvati is merely mentioned (verse 5) while Sindhu receives all the praise (verses 2-4 and 7-9). This may well indicate a period after the first drying up of Sarasvati (c. 3500 ) when the river lost its preeminence. It is agreed that the tenth Book of the RV is later than the others."

"He [Aristobulus] says that when he was sent on some business, he saw a tract of land deserted which contained more than a thousand cities with their villages, for the Indus, having forsaken its proper channel, turned itself into another on the left much deeper, into which it burst like a cataract, so that it no longer watered the country on the right, from which it receded, for this had been raised by the inundations not only above the level of the new channel but even above that of the new inundations... ‘India is liable to earthquakes as it becomes porous from the excess of moisture and opens into fissures, whence even the course of rivers is altered’."

"“Sindhu, the sea, the region, and the firmament, the thunder, and the ocean, Aja-Ekapād, The Dragon of the Deep, shall listen to my words, and all the Deities and Princes shall give ear.”"

"The Northwest has always had a negative connotation in the Vedic tradition. Thus, R. Siddhantashastree writes: “The valley of the five tributaries of the Indus had always been held as an unholy region because of its occupation by a non-Aryan tribe antagonistic to the civilized Aryans until the time of Sambarana, (...) the king of Hastinapura belonging to the Lunar dynasty. He was the first Aryan to settle in the valley after driving away the aboriginal non-Aryans to a considerable distance.”"

"Everything is numbered east of the Indus River."

"“The singer, O ye Waters in Vivasvān’s place, shall tell your grandeur forth that is beyond compare. The Rivers have come forward triply, seven and seven. Sindhu in might surpasses all the streams that flow.”"

"And here comes, between verses 825 and 835, a puzzle to all the European interpreters. Says the Titan: -- "To these (Arimaspi and Grypes) approach not; a far border land Thou next wilt reach, where dwells a swarthy race Near the Sun's founts, where is the AEthiop "river"; Along its banks proceed till thou attain The mighty rapids, where from Bybline heights Pure draughts of sacred water Neilos sends . . . " There Io was ordained to found a colony for herself and sons. Now we must see how the passage is interpreted. As Io is told that she has to travel eastward till she comes to the river Ethiops, which she is to follow till it falls into the Nile -- hence the perplexity. "According to the geographical theories of the earliest Greeks" we are informed by the author of the version on "Prometheus Bound" -- "This condition was fulfilled by the river Indus. Arrian (vi. i.) mentions that Alexander the Great, when preparing to sail down the Indus (having seen crocodiles in the river Indus, and in no other river except the Nile . . . ), seemed to himself to have discovered the sources of the Nile, as though the Nile, rising from some place in India, and flowing through much desert land, and thereby losing its name Indus, next . . . flowed through inhabited land, being now called the Nile by the Ethiopians of those parts and afterwards by the Egyptians. Virgil in the 4th Georgic echoes the absolute error" (p. 197, Vol. II.). Both Alexander and Virgil may have erred considerably in their geographical notions; but the prophecy of Prometheus has not so sinned, in the least -- not, at any rate, in its esoteric spirit. When a certain race is symbolised, and events pertaining to its history are rendered allegorically, no topographical accuracy ought to be expected in the itinerary traced for its personification. Yet it so happens, that the river "Ethiops" is certainly the Indus, and it is also the Nil or Nila. It is the river born on the Kailas (heaven) mountain, the mansion of the gods -- 22,000 feet above the level of the sea. It was the Ethiops river -- and was so called by the Greeks, long before the days of Alexander, because its banks, from Attock down to Sind, were peopled by tribes generally referred to as the Eastern Ethiopians. India and Egypt were two kindred nations, and the Eastern Ethiopians -- the mighty builders -- have come from India, as is pretty well proved, it is hoped, in "ISIS UNVEILED."."

"“Sindhu hath yoked her car, light-rolling, drawn by steeds, and with that car shall she win booty in this fight. So have I praised its power, mighty and unrestrained, of independent glory, roaring as it runs.”"

"“Rich in good steeds is Sindhu, rich in cars and robes, rich in gold, nobly-fashioned, rich in ample wealth. Blest Silamavati and young Urnavati invest themselves with raiment rich in store of sweets.”"

"“Flashing and whitely-gleaming in her mightiness, she moves along her ample volumes through the realms, Most active of the active, Sindhu unrestrained, like to a dappled mare, beautiful, fair to see.”"

"“To travel first joined with the Tr̥ṣṭāmā, {then} with the Susartū, the Rasā, and this Śvetyā, you, o Sindhu, {come} with the Kubhā to the Gomatī, with the Mehatnū to the Krumu, on the same chariot {with all these}, with which you go speeding.”"

"“First with Tr̥ṣṭāmā thou art eager to flow forth, with Rasā, and Susartu, and with Śvetyā here, With Kubhā; and with these, Sindhu and Mehatnū, thou seekest in thy course Krumu and Gomatī.”"

"“Like mothers to their calves, like milch kine with their milk, so, Sindhu, unto thee the roaring rivers run. Thou leadest as a warrior king thine army’s wings what time thou comest in the van of these swift streams.”"

"“His roar is lifted up to heaven above the earth: he puts forth endless vigour with a flash of light. Like floods of rain that fall in thunder from the cloud, so Sindhu rushes on bellowing like a bull.”"

"“Thunder, the lightning’s daughter, Aja-Ekapād, heaven’s bearer, Sindhu, and the waters of the sea: Hear all the Gods my words, Sarasvatī give ear together with Purandhi and with Holy Thoughts.”"

"“Let the great Streams come hither with their mighty help, Sindhu, Sarasvatī, and Sarayu with waves. Ye Goddess Floods, ye Mothers, animating all, promise us water rich in fatness and in balm.”"

"On the Sarasvatī there are ruined sites called Naitandhava; Vyarna is one of these."

"When the [Rig Vedic] hymns were written the focus of Āryan culture was the region between the Jamnā (Sanskrit Yamunā) and Satlaj (Shutudrī), south of the modern Ambālā, and along the upper course of the river Sarasvatī. The latter river is now an insignificant stream, losing itself in the desert of Rajasthan, but it then [in Rig Vedic times] flowed broad and strong..."

"Sarasvati's rediscovery, although arguably suggestive of considerable Vedic antiquity, cannot be used to prove absolute synonymity of the Indus Valley residents and the Vedic Aryans."

"Likewise for the interminable discussion on the Sarasvati, although I will note, here, that proposals correlating her with other rivers in Afghanistan or elsewhere are unconvincing to my mind, as are attempts to argue that she ended in a terminal lake rather than the ocean. Kazanas has provided additional philological arguments to support the least complicated opinion, that Sarasvati as known in the Rgveda was a mighty river that flowed to the sea. One can always engage in special pleading to avoid this conclusion..."

"In any case, the Sarasvati-phobia of this group of scholars is inexplicable. If they are upset by the density of distribution of Harappan sites in the region drained by the Sarasvati and get alarmed by the prospect of the Indus civilization being associated with ancient Brahmavarta, basically the land between the Sarasvati and the Drishadvati, that is their problem."

"The Ghaghar river . . . does not in the heaviest season pass in force beyond Bhatnir . . . and the period when this river ceased to flow as one is far beyond record, and belongs to the fabulous periods of which even tradition is scanty... When the depopulation took place, I am not prepared to say; it must have been long since, as none of the village sites present[s] one brick standing on another, above ground,—though, in digging beneath it, very frequent specimens of an old brick are met with, about 16 inches by 10 inches, and 3 inches thick, of most excellent quality: buildings erected of such materials could not have passed away in any short period. The evident cause of this depopulation of the country is the absolute absence of water."

"The most sacred and eastern source of the Sarasvatī is said to be Adi-Badri Kunda north of Katgadh [Kathgarh], while the latter is still remembered to be the place where the sacred stream came out of the hills."

"As for Burrow‘s thesis that some place names reflect the names of geographical features to the west, and thus preserve an ancestral home, they once again rather rely on an assumption of Arya migrations than prove it. [...] His cited equivalence of Sanskrit Saraswati and Avestan Haraxvaiti is a case in point. Burrow accepts that it is the latter term that is borrowed, undergoing the usual change of s- > h in the process, but suggests that Saraswati was a proto-Indoaryan term, originally applied to the present Haraxvaiti when the proto-Indoaryans still lived in northeastern Iran, then it was brought into India at the time of the migrations, while its original bearer had its name modified by the speakers of Avestan who assumed control of the areas vacated by proto-Indoaryans. 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."

"The treatment of the Saraswati evidence forms an interesting case study in the stonewalling of putative pro-OIT evidence by AIT militants, typically outsiders to Indo-European studies such as comparative historian Steve Farmer: they lambast the equating of the Vedic Saraswati with today’s Ghaggar as a paranoid Hindu-nationalist concoction, when actually it was established by a string of Western scholars since the 1850s, in tempore non suspecto. A case study of how this debate has been poisoned by endless political imputations."

"Often enough it seemed as though, like the river Sarasvatī, the lost stream of the old Sapta-sindhavas, the river of Indian thought had disappeared beneath the surface or had become lost in shallow marshes and morasses . . . But, sooner or later, we see the stream reappear, and then old ideas resume their way."