Orion revisited

About a century ago Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, in his book named Orion, tried to date Rigveda and other Vedic scriptures, by using positions of the sun against star asterisms, at a given season. He understood these sun positions keep changing all the time because of the precession motion of the earth around its axis. I feel that the time has come to revisit this topic, primarily because of one reason.

The reason for this re-look is the successful decipherment of the ancient Indus script in 2024 by a person, who calls himself as Yajnadevam. He is an IT specialist and has great proficiency in Sanskrit and Mathematics. According to me, his find should be called the biggest discovery of 2024, in the Indian context. We can certainly presume his decipherment to be correct, as no one so far has been able to falsify it.

Yajnadevam's major finding is that the IVC language is none other than Vedic Sanskrit and IVC script is the great grandmother of Bramhi, our ancient script. What Yajnadevam has found further, is equally breathtaking. In many cases the texts found on IVC seals and tablets include quotes and words from our oldest scripture, Rigveda.

Yajnadevam's discovery has one major implication for ancient Indian history. It pushes back the Vedic period by an unknown interval of time. Now the question before us is whether we can corroborate this possibility by any other evidence or method? 

Before we start our study and go back to the Vedic period, let me first clarify an important and confusing concept of ‘Rashis’ or ‘Signs of Zodiac’. For more details, I request you, my readers, to refer to my blogpost on this subject, ‘Who introduced Signs of The Zodiac to India?’.  It should suffice to mention here, that the concept of ‘Rashis’ is a much later concept introduced in India, after arrival of Greeks, most probably by ‘King Menander’. Prior to that, we find no references in the scriptures to ‘Rashis”. There are references only to star asterisms, known in our scripturesas ‘Nakshatra’,  that are positioned near ecliptic or path of the sun in the sky round a year. If we refer to any Hindu calendar or ‘Panchang’ today. We can easily find a list of 27 ‘Nakshatras’ or star asterisms. The first star asterism that is mentioned in this list today is ‘Ashvini’ (अश्विनी) or Aries, comprising of three stars, alpha, beta and gamma Ariets. 

Let us turn our attention now, to Two of our ancient scriptures, ‘Taittariya Sanhita of Krlshna Yajurveda’ and ‘Atharva Veda’, believed to be from Vedic period. Both have a ‘sukta’ or Hymn, known as ‘Nakshatra Sukta,’ which lists names of all the ‘Nakshatras’ or star asterisms that are seen along the Zodiac, or ecliptic. This list consists of 28 names instead of 27 mentioned intoday’s ‘Panchang’. The last star asterism mentioned in this list is that of‘Abhijit”.

What is surprising here is that in both these ‘suktas’, thefirst star asterism mentioned is ‘Krittika’ (कृत्तिका)or Pleiades instead of ‘Ashvini’ (अश्विनी), as is done today. A question arises naturally, as to Why does this list begin with Pleiades, instead of Aries, as it is done today?  Obviously, there must be a reason. A simplistic reason for that could probably be  that, when this Hymn was composed, Pleiades was the first asterism, the sun crossed, when the new crop cycle or a solar year began. But things may not be that simple.

Here we come across our first difficulty.  As we just saw above, the Vedic calendar system depended on the sidereal year, linking sun’s position against star asterisms, whereas a crop cycle depended on three principal seasons observed in semi tropical India. Namely Summer, Rains and Winter. To align these two cycles, the Vedic calendar had to begin near about one of the four marker days of a solar year. Any school going lad would tell us that these marker days are obviously Spring equinox, summer solstice, Autumn equinox and winter solstice. If we agree with that, we need to find answers to a further question. Which of these solar markers was used by our ancestors to calculate the beginning day of a solar year? And how could our forefathers exactly mark out the marker days, with only their eyesight or crude primitive instruments, to assist?

To find answer to the latter of these questions, we need to travel to India’s Gujarat state and to ‘Rann of Kutch (officially spelled Kachchh)’, therein, a barren marshy tract of land that gets filled with sea water during rains and remains a marshy wasteland for rest of the year with surface covered with salt. More precisely we need to go to ‘Khadir Island’, a scarcely populated island in this wet salty desert, not very far from India’s border with Pakistan.  

On this desolate island, India’s archeologists led by Mr. Jagat Pati Joshi, made one of the significant discoveries of India’s ancient past, when in 1968, they discovered a city from the Vedic period here, located exactly on the tropic of cancer, consisting of a citadel, bailey and township. The site was near a small village known as ‘Dholavira’. Consequently, the ancient city itself started being called by that name.  What perhaps can be called a unique feature of this sight, was the fact that a huge signboard was found lying near one of the gates, displaying most probably the name of the city itself. There was a small difficulty however, as the signboard was in IVC script, and the language also was unknown. Dholavira’s ancient name remained a mystery until last year. Despite the signboard being discovered.  

In 2024, Yajndevam’s decipherment of IVC script made it possible to read Dholavira’s signboard for the first time. The language used here is classical Vedic Sanskrit and the words are “raka-vararaka-araras” (रक-वरारक-अररस). Yajnadevam translates this as “Gem of chosen gems,entrance”

Let us now return to our subject proper. During my visit to Dholavira, our guide gave us some information about the way basic calendrical information was maintained by the Dholavira people. According to him, certain staircases in the Citadel ruins were found to have 15 and 30 steps. It was easily possible, by using markers, which probably were shifted every day, to know what day of the fortnight or month that day was. By using similar methods, it was possible to know the month. This information is quite useful yet fails to provide any answer to the problem of how Dholavira people managed to align their sidereal Vedic calendar with seasonal calendar. Or in other words, how did they find the marker days mentioned above? How they did it, probably would have remained a mystery forever, but for a chance discovery of two circular structures, by two scientists: Mr. M N Vahia from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai and Mr. Srikumar Menon from Manipal School of Architecture and Planning (Karnataka). 

A group of scientists now say that this discovery is the first identification of a structure used for observational astronomy during the Harappan Civilization or in other words, these two circular structures were parts of a functional astronomical observatory. With help of which, Dholavira people were able to identify marker days of solar calendar such as summer and winter solstices or spring and autumn equinoxes and use that information to conduct business, farming and other activities. My readers, who wish to find out more information about this topic may visit my blogpost “Amazing Dholavira part III”.

There is one more issue, which has much relevance and must be considered first. This is the concept of “Uttarayana” (उत्तरायण). Readers may be well aware, that sun’s position at Zenith above equator, keeps changing all year long from 24.5 degrees south of zenith point to 24.5 degrees to north of zenith point. In fact, the marker points mentioned above are all caused by this traverse.  The period (six months or half year) for which the sun traverses in northern half is called as “Uttarayan” in Hindu Panchang system and was once considered as a suitable time for carrying religious functions like Yajnas etc. Some confusion exists regarding exact period of “Uttarayana”, whether from Winter solstice to summer solstice or from Spring equinox to Autumnal equinox?   Lokamanya gets rid of this confusion by quoting from another scripture, “Shatpath Bramhana”, which says that seasons of Spring, summer and rains comprise of “Uttarayana”, a period when the sun protectsthe Devas. Original quotation has been mentioned below.

With this information in our bag, we can now turn our attention to Lokamanya’s brilliant treatise “Orion” and straight jump to the chapter, which he names as ‘Krittikas’.  Lokamanya quotes here a few important hymns from the ancient scriptures, ‘Taittariya Samhita’ alongwith “Taittariya Bramhana’ and ‘Shatapatha Bramhana’. Some of which I have listed below.

·    “Nakshatras are the houses of Gods…. The Nakhatras of the Devas begin with the Krittikas and end with Vishakha, whereas the Nakshatras of Yama begin with the Anuradhas and end with the apaBharanis” (दे॒व॒गृ॒हा वै नक्ष॑त्त्राणि (………) कृत्ति॑काः प्रथ॒मम् । विशा॑खे उत्त॒मम् । तानि॑ देवनक्ष॒त्त्राणि॑ । अ॒नू॒रा॒धाः प्र॑थ॒मम् । अ॒प॒भर॑णीरुत्त॒मम्तानि॑ यमनक्ष॒त्त्राणि॑ । यानि॑ देवनक्ष॒त्त्राणि॑ । तानि॒ दक्षि॑णेन॒ परि॑यन्ति ।यानि॑ यमनक्ष॒त्त्राणि॑ तान्युत्त॑रेण।) Taittariya Bramhana (1.5.2.7) 

·       Krittikas are the mouth of Nakshatras (कृत्ति॑कास्व॒ग्निमाद॑धीत। (…….) मुखं॒ वा ए॒तन्नक्ष॑त्राणाम्। यत्कृत्ति॑काः।} Taittariya Bramhana (1.1.2.1)

·       Vasanta (spring) is the mouth of seasons (मुखं॒ वा मुखं॒ वा ए॒तदृ॑तू॒नाम् यद्व॑स॒न्तः।) Taittariya Bramhana (1.1.2.6)

·       Phalguni full moon is the mouth of the year.(सं॑वथ्स॒रस्य॒ यत्फ॑ल्गु सं॑वथ्स॒रस्य॒ यत्फ॑ल्गुनीपूर्णमा॒सो मु॑ख॒त) Taittariya Samhita (7.4.10)

·       The sun was to be considered as moving amongst and protecting the Devas, when he turned to the north, in the three seasons of spring, summer and rains. (वसन्तो ग्रीष्मो वर्षाः ते देवा ऋतवः शरद्धेमन्तः शिशिरस्ते पितरो य एवापूर्यतेऽर्धमासः स देवा योऽपक्षीयते स पितरोऽहरेव देवा रात्रिः पितरः अथ यत्र दक्षिणावर्त्तते, पितृषु तर्हि भवति) Shatpath Bramhana (2.1.3, 1-3)

Deducing from this and several other sources, Lokmanya rightly concludes that  when manuscripts of scriptures such as “Taittariya Samhita”, “Taittariya Bramhana”  in our hand were written, the sun must be crossing the asterism of “Krittikas” or Pleiades on the day of spring equinox and a new “Samvatsara’ or year began from full moon day of month of “Falgun”, when the Sun crossed the star asterism of “Purva Bhadrapada”.  Since “Atharva Veda” also puts “Krittika Nakshatra” as first “Nakshatra” in the “Nakshatra Sukta”, obviously it was also manuscripted in that period.

Let me do some quick calculations to find number of years it must have taken the spring equinox to move to  today’s “Uttar Bhadrapada” from period of scripting “Taittariya Samhita”, when spring equinox was in “Krittika Nakshatra”. Principal star of “Uttar Bhadrapada Nakshatra” is “Algenib” or Gamma Pegasus. Its right ascension is 00h13m14s or 3.29 degrees. Whereas principal star of “Krittika Nakshatra” is “Alcyone” or Eta Tauri. Its right ascension is 03h47m29s or 56.8708 degrees. Hence the total shift in position of Spring equinox is  56,8708-3.29= 53.58 degrees. Assuming a time lapse of 72 years for shift of 1 degree, in location of an asterism due to precession, the time lapse works out to about 3858 years. This means that the manuscripts in our hands of scriptures such as Taittariya Samhita” or “Atharva Veda” were written down sometime before 1850 BCE.

It should be interesting now to find out how far back we can go, by making another quick calculation. The “Nakshatra”, which the sun had crossed before Pleiades on spring equinox, would have to be “Mrigashirsh” or Orion. The principal star of this “Nakshatra” is Lambda Orionis. Its right ascension is 05h35m08s or 83.78 degrees. Hence the total shift in this case  would be 83.78-3.29= 80.5 degrees, which works out to 5796 years from today or approximately 3300BCE. This enables us  to say  positively  that these scriptures were certainly composed, sometime afterwards of 3300BCE but not later than 1850 BCE.

It so happens that Lokamanya did not stop here and continued his quest further in past or when the sun crossed Orion on day of spring equinox and arrives at a period of 4000BCE  as the period when earliest of the scriptures must have been composed. However, I would not go to those details, as we already have enough information in our bag.

Indian archaeologists now assign following time periods to major excavations done in Indus and Sarswati Valley civilizations.

·       Mohenjo-daro 2600 to 1900 BCE

·       Harrapa                 3300 to 1600 BCE

·       Rakhigarhi            3300 to 2000 BCE

·       Banavali                2500 to 1750 BCE

·       Chanhudaro 3300 to 1300 BCE

·       Dholavira               3500 to 1800 BCE

·       Sinauli                     2100 to 1800 BCE

It can be seen from this archaeological data, that in all these major sites, the learned people or Rishis should have been well conversant with the scriptures and Yajnadevam’s finding that tabs and seals found in all such places mostly bear words from Rigveda is certainly in the realm of truth.

On broader terms, this dating effort by Lokamanya also confirms the continuity of Indian civilization from 4000 BCE to today and the idea of a dark age before birth of Buddha can be just scrapped forever.

12th March 2025

 

A death knell for Moenjo-daro?

(Laser lights flash on pre-historic metropolis of Moenjo-daro)

In the year 1922, Late Mr.P.D.Banerji, archaeologist in charge of the western circle of the Archeology department of Government of India, began investigations at a site, where he expected to find the remains of a Buddhist establishment in a somewhat forbidding and out of the way corner of the Sindh in the Indus valley. The place was about 425 Km north of the port city of Karachi. He actually commenced to dig around the remains of the stupa in 1923, whose mud brick core stood at a height of about seventy feet from the surrounding plains. His expectations were realised when he had discovered some thirty cells ranged on the four sides of the quadrangular courtyard and evidence of their date was forthcoming in the shape of some coins of the Kushan (1^st or 2^nd century CE) period found in one of the cells, which was identified as belonging to King Vasudeva. Not being satisfied with this, he penetrated deeper down and in the trench, which was sunk at the foot of the mound, he came upon a seal which at once brought to his mind the well known seals of Harappa, which had pictographic writing. In his further diggings he found two more seals but even then, the prehistoric character of his finds was not fully apparent to him.

Sir John Marshall, the Director-General of Archaeology in India, then perceived a striking resemblance between the finds made at this site with already discovered pre-historic site at Harappa and came to conclusion that both ruins belong to an unknown civilization which has been found for the first time. He immediately published the results in the Illustrated London News and the world came to know about an ancient civilization in India that was at least 4000 year old. Subsequent excavations revealed a large metropolis, now popularly known as Mohenjo-daro or Moenjo-daro (Mound of death.) After India's partition, the historic site went to Pakistan and is now looked after Pakistan's archeology department. The site is under UNESCO’s World Heritage List and is considered to be of ‘outstanding universal value.'

Unfortunately, the foundations of the site are threatened by saline action due to a rise of the water table of the Indus River. This was the subject of a UNESCO international campaign in the 1970s, which partially mitigated the attack on the prehistoric mud-brick buildings. A UNESCO website says and I quote:

“This huge cultural heritage site, became increasingly threatened with decay by exposure to harsh climatic conditions, floods from the Indus River, deterioration due to salts rising from the high water-table, and water-logging. In 1974, after an appeal from the Pakistani Government, UNESCO launched the International Safeguarding Campaign for Moenjodaro. It lasted until 1997 and mobilized around US $ 23 million for large scale conservation measures which aimed at protecting the site from flooding, control of the ground-water table, implementation of national capacity building activities and for the installation of a conservation and monitoring laboratory.

After the closure of the UNESCO International Safeguarding Campaign for Mohenjodaro in 1997, the UNESCO Division for Cultural Heritage and World Heritage Centre reinitiated their collaboration and developed a post campaign strategy in 2004, which identified further areas of interventions such as: management structure, conservation and stabilization, training and capacity building, site and tourism development. To date, the majority of activities have focused on and greatly improved the overall management, conservation and stabilization of the walls and structures and reinforced national training and capacities of site managers and workers. ”

This report very well highlights the fragile state of the ruins and unless continuous efforts are made, people of Indian subcontinent, may loose their biggest cultural heritage forever. Dr Asma Ibrahim, a leading Pakistani archaeologist, says that the way things are going, this heritage site will completely disappear in 20 years due to decay. Unfortunately, Pakistan's politicians appear to be quite unaware of the fragile state of the ruins, as they launched a two week festival to commemorate Pakistan's cultural heritage at the ancient ruined city of Moenjo- daro on last Saturday, 1^st February 2014. Pakistan Peoples Party organised a lavish opening ceremony, spearheaded by Pakistan Peoples Party patron in chief, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari. 

 

 (Wooden scafolding platforms being made for the festival)

The organizers had claimed that the festival wanted to show to the world, rich Sindhi culture and conserve the heritage of Sindh. However the opening ceremony was dominated by laser shows, fashion shows, and music from Pop singer Ainee Khalid, that was a far cry from the culture of traditional Sindh. This was done evev when, State of Pakistan has on its statute book, a number of legislation for protecting such archaeological treasures, including the Antiquities Act of 1975. As per law, a detailed impact assessment, whenever such activities are undertaken at protected heritage sites, is called far. It appears that no such assessment was undertaken by the organisers. The festival therefore is a bad omen for Moenjo-daro without any doubt.

Two of the most famous objects excavated from Moenjo-daro, The 10.8-cm bronze statue, of a 'Dancing Girl,' made in 2500 BC, and that of a priest king, are on display at the National Museum in New Delhi. These are considered as the two most famous artefacts from Moenjo-daro. According to Pakistani officials, these were transported by British archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler to Delhi in 1946 for an exhibition. After the Partition, Pakistan had sought the return of both these relics. However as I see it, there are two reasons for which India is unlikely to respond favourably to the request.

India may not be under any obligation to return the artefacts. In the first place, Sir Mortimer Wheeler, taking the artefacts to Delhi could be hardly called as moving looted property from Sindh to Delhi as both these places then were parts of the same country or nation. Secondly since it has been established that the artefacts had moved only in 1946, which is much before the 1970 UNESCO convention period, the year after which it is obligatory for the holding state to return the artifacts, India is unlikely to return these two artefacts to Pakistan.

Leaving that controversey aside, let us hope that Pakistan Government acts and shifts this festival to a venue, which is some distance away from Moenjo-daro and saves Moenjo-daro, greatest cultural heritage of the Indian subcontinent. 

(Image source The express Tribune)

Images may be copyrighted 

3^rd February 2014

Solving the riddle of the Indus valley civilization!

Traces of the most ancient civilization in the Indian peninsula, were first found in 1920's, in the Indus valley. Since then, a vast amount archeological research has been carried out along with excavations in the Indus valley as well as in the basins of the tributary rivers of Punjab. It has been more or less confirmed now that the earliest village like human settlements were first established in this area around 4500-5000 BCE, near Mehrgarh in present day Pakistan. These settlements later morphed in the Indus valley urban centers and settlements like Mohenjodaro or Harrapa around 3900 BCE and continued to flourish till about 1500 BCE. 

 

It has been always a mystery and a riddle to the scientists, that this flourishing civilization suddenly collapsed around this time and disappeared from the history. Over the decades, many theories like Aryan invasions, huge earthquakes and shifting of riverbeds, have been put forward, explaining demise of the Indus civilizations. None of these theories have been proved in scientific investigations, carried out.

The ancient Indian scriptures known as the Vedas, composed over 3000 years ago, describe this region of the Indian peninsula, west of the Ganga basin as “Saptasindhu” or the land of seven rivers. Out of these 7 rivers, Indus and its five tributaries are easily recognizable. But the 7^th river known as Sarasvati and described in the Vedas as "surpassing in majesty and might all other waters" and "pure in her course from mountains to the ocean,” has not been discovered in known history. Scriptures describe that Sarswati river was fed by perennial glaciers in the Himalayas. The Ghaggar river in Punjab flows only in monsoons and dissipates into the desert along the dried course of Hakra valley, is today considered as the best approximate successor to Sarswati from the locations given in the scriptures. But its Himalayan origin still remains a controversy. The sudden demise of Indus civilization and disappearance of Sarswati river remain the biggest mysteries of the ancient history of the Indian Peninsula as yet.

A report of a study, published on 28^th May 2012 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and lead authored by Liviu Giosan, a geologist with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) claims that they have found the answers to both these riddles. The study was done from 2003 to 2008 from the Arabian Sea coast to the fertile valleys of Punjab and the northern Thar Desert in Pakistan. Over this period, Liviu Giosan's team of 15 international experts, which Included Prof Ronojoy Adhikari of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, studied satellite photos and topographic data collected by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. From this data the team created digital maps of landforms in the basins of Indus and other rivers. This analytical work was then confirmed with help of field work in the area, consisting of drilling, taking core samples and digging deep trenches to study cross-sectional views.

With this data, it was possible for Giosan's team to reconstruct the landscape of the plains habitated by Indus civilization 5200 years ago (3100 BCE), how the great cities like Harrapa were built and the gradual disintegration of the plains that took place in a period 3900 to 3000 years ago (1800 BCE- 900 BCE). Armed with this information, Giosan's team was able to draw following conclusions.

Spread over 1 million square Km. From Arabian sea coast to Ganges, the Indus civilization was the largest but least known civilization of the first urban cultures of the world. This civilization, like other great civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia also flourished next to some great rivers. However, remains of this vast human settlement are found even in vast desert areas far from any rivers today. This south Asian culture, which might have contained one tenths of world's population in those days, was all forgotten till 1920. Subsequent archeological research has unearthed a sophisticated urban culture with myriad internal trade routes and well-established sea links with Mesopotamia, standards for building construction, sanitation systems, arts and crafts, and a yet-to-be deciphered writing system.

 

One of the co-authors of the report, Dorian Fuller, an archaeologist with University College London, says "Once we had this new information on the geological history, we could re-examine what we know about settlements, what crops people were planting and when, and how both agriculture and settlement patterns changed, This brought new insights into the process of eastward population shift, the change towards many more small farming communities, and the decline of cities during late Harappan times."

Before this massive human habitation had settled in, for previous ten thousand years, wildly flowing river Indus and its tributaries had deposited rich soil sediments on stretches between them. The research team led by Giosan has been able to discover a massive mega-ridge 10 to 20 meters high, over 100 kilometers wide, and running almost 1000 kilometers along the Indus, in this mounded plains. It has been named as "Indus mega-ridge," as it was constructed by the river itself with sediments deposited along it's entire lower course. Remains of Harappan settlements, which are found today are not buried underground in this ridge but rather lie at the surface of the ridge.

The monsoon rains that brought floods to the rivers, actually started declining with time. Weakened monsoon rains and reduced run-off from the mountains, helped in taming the wild Indus and its Himalayan tributaries, so that agriculture along their banks became possible. As a result, human settlements bloomed along the Indus and its tributaries from the coast to the foothills of the Himalayas. The weakened monsoon rains created a window of about 2000 years in which Harappans took advantage of the opportunity and a great civilization arose on the banks of Indus and tributaries. Indus civilization, was built on bumper crop surpluses along the Indus and the Ghaggar-Hakra rivers from this earlier wetter era and required a huge concentration of workforce. This workforce requirement developed into great urban centers like Mohenjodaro and Harrapa.

As monsoon weakened progressively, this window of prosperity began closing and widespread aridification of the lands, where plenty of water was available earlier, drove the Harappans eastwards east or towards Ganga river by 1500 BCE, where monsoon rains remained reliable. The economic structure in the east with local rain-fed farming and dwindling streams could only support smaller agricultural surpluses and could not support large cities of Indus civilization. The cities collapsed and with them the urban arts such as writing. The population in Ganga basin now dispersed in small agricultural communities, survived and even diversified.

The study also reports another major finding, which solves the riddle of Sarswati river. Archeological evidence suggests very intensive human settlements during Harappan times in the basin of Ghaggar-Hakra river, which is believed to be the long lost Sarswati of the Vedas. The geological evidence like presence of sediments, topography discovered in this study shows that these rivers were indeed sizable and highly active in this region, most likely due to strong monsoons, during Harappan period. However these rivers were not Himalaya fed rivers. There is no evidence of waters of nearby Himalayn rivers like Satlaj or Yamuna flowing in this river. The study therefore suggests that Sarswati or Ghaggar-Hakra river was a monsoon fed perennial watercourse and the aridification reduced it to short seasonal flows like at present. 

However some Indian scientists do not agree with this analysis. They feel that the Sarasvati river system can be considered as a separate entity and not as a part of the Indus basin. It dried up a few thousand years back, due to tectonic movements, tributary diversions and climate changes. This thesis is now well documented and accepted by almost all, barring a few skeptics. The dry courses of the main river and its tributaries are at present covered with sand, loam and silt, deposited by wind over last few thousand years. They could be discerned only after the advent of remote sensing techniques. (Sankaran, A.V., 1999; Roy and Jakhar, 2001). 

I would only like to add that whatever may be the actual reason, end result happens to be the same.  

This study also raises an issue of concern for the present day Indus river system in lower reaches. Giosan says that "Today the Indus system feeds the largest irrigation scheme in the world, immobilizing the river in channels and behind dams. If the monsoon were to increase in a warming world, as some predict, catastrophic floods such as the humanitarian disaster of 2010, would turn the current irrigation system, designed for a tamer river, obsolete." This is a warning for Pakistan.

5 June 2012