If
there ever was a single entity that could be called as an epitome or
paradigm of the ancient Vedic culture civilization of pre-historic
India, it was surely the mythical river Saraswati. It is now believed
that the entire Vedic culture did blossom and bloom along the banks
of this mythical and grandest of all rivers in India. Since the river
was never seen in the known historical period of India, a legend grew
which said that the river was invisible. Lay people did believe in
this legend but for more scientifically minded souls, some kind of
proof was necessary to accept it's existence.
The
story of the discovery of this once mighty but later thought to be
invisible river is quite fascinating. To begin, let us first move to
the vast marshy land known as Rann, sandwiched between India's Kutch
region and Pakistan's Sind province. Up to 1918, a river known as
Kori river flowed from Sind into the Rann, eventually emptying itself
in Arabian sea through what is known as Kori creek. From the times of
Alexander the great (325 BC) and Ptolemy (150 AD) this Kori river was
always thought to be a subsidiary of the mighty Indus and Kori creek
was called as eastern mouth of the Indus. In 1819, a major earth
quake struck the region. As a result of earthquake, entire Sindh
shoreline north of Rann rose up like a bund known as “Allah's
Bund” or God's Bund. This God's bund effectively closed the eastern
mouth of the Indus or Kori river forever. The lost Kori river is of
special relevance to our story as would be clear later. In 1870, a
geologist Alex Rogers discovered Alluvium or sand, mud, deposits
formed by flowing water in Gulf of Khambat, suggesting a past
presence of a major river system in the area. In 1886, a British
officer, Oldham, reported finding a vast dry bed of a river, through
which a much smaller seasonal monsoon fed river, known as Ghaggar now
flowed. Ghaggar river, originates near Ropar in Punjab and dissipates
itself in the sands of Rajasthan deserts.
In
1921, finding of Mohenjodaro city, on the bank of Indus river, led to
the discovery of the most ancient civilization of Indian sub
continent, known as the Indus civilization, that existed during 5000
to 2500 BCE. European historians came up with many fancy theories
after this discovery, about Aryan invasion of India that was supposed
to have destroyed the newly found Indus civilization and that is what
was generally believed till even three or four decades ago.
Extensive
excavations carried out by the Archaeological survey of India along
the banks of the dry bed of Ghaggar river, has brought to light,
hundreds of places, like Kalibangan, Rakhigarhi and Ganweriwala,
where chalcolithic civilizations thrived once, during 3500 to 2500
BCE. Discovery of the port city of Dholavira further supported the
historical fact that the now marshland of Rann, was once a navigable
channel of water, mainly fed by Sarswati waters.
Mr.
R.N. Athavale, is a former Scientist with National Geophysical
Research Institute, Hyderabad, and Emeritus Scientist, CSIR, India.
He was involved in the research work concerning Saraswati basin. He
says that by 2008, most of the scientists believed that the ancient
Saraswati river was not mythical but originated in Himachal Pradesh,
entered Haryana near Kalka, moved through Punjab and Haryana into
Rajasthan, meandered and wound further downstream, till it debouched
in the Gulf of Katch. The river is currently known as Ghaggar River
in its upper reaches and Hakra and Nara in the lower reaches. The
Ghaggar today is an ephemeral stream fed only by monsoon waters. In
the past, several major and minor tributaries joined the Sarasvati
over its course. The relevance of Kori river would now be clear.
Kori probably was not the mouth of Indus but Saraswati. (Sankaran,
A.V., 1999; Roy and Jakhar, 2001)
Another
report on a study, was published on 28th 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),
that claimed to have found the answer to the Saraswati riddle. 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. The report
says that 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 (Ghaggar-Hakra)were
indeed sizable and highly active in this region, most likely due to
strong monsoons, during Harappan period.
We now
come to the next question. How did the Saraswati river disappear.
Everyone agrees that it disappeared sometime between 5000 and 3000
BCE. However there are tow schools of thought for the reasons behind
this disappearance. Liviu Giosan report assigns gradually weakening
monsoon rains as the main reason for drying up of Sarswati, whereas
CSIR scientists believe that The Sarasvati river system was always a
separate entity and was never part of the Indus basin. It dried up a
few thousand years back, due to tectonic movements, tributary
diversions and climate changes, when it was no longer fed by the
Himalayan snow.
Whatever
may be the reasons, the fact remains that 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 and they could
be discerned only after the advent of satellite remote sensing
techniques.
Readers
might have felt puzzled for my bringing up this subject now, but
there is reason for that. India's federal minister for water
resources and river development minister has just announced that
Government plans to take up the issue very seriously to trace the
route of the river.
I do
not know, what purpose would be served by taking up this study as
everyone in the scientific community knows that the Saraswati river
is not a myth. Satellite images of northwestern India shows presence
of underground channels of water below the river bed and the water
has been found to be at least 3500 years old by scientists. It is
also known that the river passed through plains of Punjab, Haryana,
Rajasthan, Gujarat and finally emptied in the Arabian sea through the
great Rann.
Some
people want the river to be revived. It could be a game changer as
river once flowed through zones that are arid and desert like today.
It can certainly bring riches and wealth to the arid region no doubt.
To do this, we may have to divert the waters of Satlaj and Yamuna
rivers in the bed of Ghaggar. Though technically it is feasible,
there are other difficulties that are of political nature. Satlaj
ultimately meets Indus river, which now is in Pakistan. Satlaj water
is shared by the two countries as per an international agreement.
Pakistan is unlikely to allow diversion of Satlaj water to India.
This means that we can only divert some of the Yamuna water to
Ghaggar, which in any case may not bring back the former glory to
Sarswati.
Another
major difficulty is that the dry bed of Saraswati in the lower
reaches almost entirely falls within political boundaries of
Pakistan. A question naturally arises as to why should we divert
eastwards flowing Yamuna waters to Sarswati bed, if ultimately it
will go to Pakistan. The idea of revival therefore is a non starter
and would work to some extent if Pakistan agrees to diversion of
Satlaj waters because finally it would be going back to that country
only. Without Pakistan's cooperation, any talk of revival of
Saraswati has no meaning at all.
There
is another possibility though, as suggested by Mr. R.N. Athavale.
The states of Punjab and Haryana and to some extent similarly
affected irrigated parts of Rajasthan, are today facing the problem
of disposal of the water drained out from the thousands of hectares
of waterlogged, salinized and erstwhile fertile areas. The problem
is considered as the most difficult aspect of reclamation through man
made sub surface drainage. It is suggested that the presently dry
and pristine sub surface beds of the Sarasvati and its tributaries in
the desert area, can be used to dispose off the water collected
through a network of sub surface drains. This appears to me as the
most practical solution as excess waters would be carried to the arid
region because of the natural slope of the river course. Since this
water flow is not likely to be very large, it need not flow to
Pakistan at all and could be used for agriculture in Rajasthan alone.
I feel
that any other plan for revival of Sarswati would prove to be a non
starter.
14th
August 2014
