Can Saraswati river be revived?

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

Amazing Dholavira; Part I

I came to know about Dholavira for the first time, about 2 years back, during a visit to New Delhi's National Museum. This museum has a large wing devoted to artifacts and other items retrieved from the Indus civilization habitats. My school history books of 1950's vintage, had described Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, from far away Pakistan, as the main centers, around which, this civilization had bloomed. Yet, in the national museum, there were hundreds of exhibits from new and 'never heard before' places like Dholavira, Rakhigarhi and Kalibangan, which were being claimed as part of Indus civilization by the museum.

I had a good look at a map displayed in the museum, which showed all the important places connected with Indus civilizations. I discovered that my ideas, mostly learned in school history classes, were all wrong and things have now radically changed. Indus valley civilization is now known as Indus-Sarswati (Ghaggar) civilization and its extent was now spread from west bank of Indus to east bank of Ghaggar river to nearabouts of Delhi, and to the Kathiawar peninsula in the south. Out of the three new places, that I have mentioned above, Rakhigarhi and Kalibangan are up in north, not very far from Harappa. The third place, known as Dholavira, however is located very much to the south, located in the middle of the white desert of Rann of Kutch.

Ever since that day, Dholavira was firmly in my mind and I had decided to visit it some day in future. An opportunity came up in January 2013 and I visited the place. I have already described details of my visit to Dholavira, in a separate article. Based on whatever information I could gather during my visit to Dholavira as well as some research later on the internet, I can say that Dholavira's ancient habitat is absolutely amazing. In this series of articles, I want to present to readers, what I have learned about this habitat from an ancient civilization that had flourished in Indian subcontinent 4000 years ago.

Dholavira was a metropolis or a city. Archaeologists estimate it's population between 15000 to 20000 humans. Now, that is a very large number of mouths to feed and sustain living in just one place, for a civilization that had just developed from hunter gatherers only 2 Millennium before. It was a wonder. Still, Dholavira was a successful city, because it sustained itself from 2650 BCE to 1450 BCE; a span of over 1200 years.

I found it very difficult to imagine existence of such a large city in the middle of no-where. There are no great rivers around Dholavira. It is surrounded today by salty plains of Rann, which get filled with sea water only few feet deep during Monsoon months and for the rest of the year, remains either as marshlands or parched desert lands. Dholavira is located on an island known as 'Khadir bet' in the middle of this wilderness, which does not appear very fertile or having substantial water sources year round, to sustain concentration of such a large number of people in a city ranked as the fourth largest habitat of Indus-Saraswati civilization. Today, the landscape around Dholavira, mostly consists of Gum Arabic trees with some grasslands.

Plenty of evidence is available on site, which suggests that the geography of Dholavira was grossly and completely different, 4000 years ago, from that of today. In the 'Dholavira Archaeological museum,' a small but very informative museum, I saw large sized conch shells excavated from this ancient habitat. These conch shells indicated presence of a sea coast not very far from this site. Our guide had also shown us a piece of a rock used in the construction of a wall, bearing clear fossilized marks of seashells. Museum displays broken pieces of bangles or wrist rings and beads made from shells in large numbers and finally a fossilized rock formed by a cluster of hundreds of sea shells. The evidence clearly indicates that Dholavira was a port city or a port was located nearby, from where, ships sailed regularly. This also means that Dholavira was a trading hub, which explains the large population of the city.

Rock showing fossilized marks of sea shells

 Fossile rock formed from cluster of sea shells

 

Having attributed Dholavira with a port is done easily, but the fact is that 'Khadir Bet' is located at a distance of more than 150 Km from nearest known port of 'Lakhpat' in the Kori Creek on Arabian sea and there is no body of water between these two. Let us first try to understand the present geography of this area. As it is now, the Rann of Kutch is divided into two unequal halves known as Greater and Little Rann. Rann is an unique kind of landmass and today its mean height is roughly equal to the mean sea level. During summer period, south-westerly wind pushes the waters of Arabian sea through Kori creek and submerges the Rann for few months. During Monsoon, the seasonal rivers like 'Luni' from surrounding areas empty into the Rann. But after Monsson months are over, the water starts to recede and Rann dries up converting the area as a flat ground, impregnated with salt. During submergence period the water column height over the Rann varies between 3 to 6 feet, but it remains a seasonal phenomenon. It is obvious that under these kind of situations, no port could possibly exist near about Dholavira and if there was a port here, the geographical situation had to be much different then. 

 

About two hundred years ago, or before year 1819, the geographical situation in the western mouth of the Rann was radically different. A river known as Kori river flowed from Umarkot, Ali Bandar areas of Pakistan into the Rann and emptied in the Arabian sea through Kori creek. This waterway was completely navigable and as reported in the 'Bombay Gazetteer', boats with 100 tonne loads could navigate through this river. The earth quake in 1819 changed the situation and the river changed its course. I also found an interesting reference in the Gazetteer about Kori river that says;

“ At the time of Alexander (325 BC) and Ptolemy (150 AD), under the name of Lonibare it was one of the chief mouth of the Indus. It seems to have continued of equal importance with the more western mouths until about 1000, the main stream of the river seems to have turned towards the west.”

The significance is of this geographical change is important for us. It simply says that up to year 1000 CE, the waters of Indus were chiefly emptying into Arabian sea through the western mouth of the Rann or Kori creek. 

 

I also found another interesting map displayed at a place near Bhuj city in Kutch. This map showed another mighty river almost parallel to the Indus river flowing from Punjab and emptying into the Great Rann. I was curious and found out that this river shown in the map was none other than the Ghaggar-Hakra river known as Sarswati. Excavations by Indian Archaeologists along the banks of this river have brought to light, great habitats of Banawali, Kalibangan and Ganweriwala, all parts of the great Indus-Sarswati civilization. This mighty Monsoon fed river emptying itself in the Greater Rann, is also of great significance from the point of view of Dholavira. A regular flow of water through this mighty river must have kept the entire Rann under a costant sheet of water, all through the seasons, and the 'Khadir bet,' the landmass where Dholavira is situated, must have been a true island.

After this, I could see that the town of Dholavira located on the 'Khadir bet' was an excellent strategic location for trade and commerce as well as communication for the entire Indus civilization. The various waterways converging near Dholavira meant that ships plying in the Rann could connect Dholavira to Cholistan and Bhawalpur areas of present day Pakistan, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab through Ghaggar-Hakra river, to Indus valley cities like Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa and above all manage to carry out international trade through Kori creek and Arabian sea with civilizations of the middle east. In fact, Dholavira must have exercised great control over international and domestic trade of those times. This explains very well, the prosperity of the city and the fact that it existed for as long as 1400 years.

Archaeologists, investigating Dholavira, were still puzzled about absence of any signs that would indicate the existence of a well developed harbour or port on the 'Khadir bet.' However, a likely spot emerged soon, about 3 Km northeast of Dholavira, at place locally known as 'Saran.' This spot is situated on the northern foot of low lying hill ranges, occupying the southern shoreline of the great Rann. A seepage water reservoir is found in this desert like area, indicating availability of drinking water. During monsoon a small brook known as 'Saran Gangaji' carries excess rainwater from the pond to the Rann at a distance of few hundred meters. At the confluence of the brook with the Rann, Harappa period structures have been observed, lying partially buried under debris. The architectural style of these structures is identical with the citadel at Dholavira. This spot is believed to be the the site of the ancient harbour of Dholavira.

I am amazed at the great foresight and strategic consideration shown by people from Indus civilization in selecting the site for this great city. Its location on an island was also best suited from security considerations.

In the next part of this series let us examine another wonder from Dholavira, it's water management system.

(To be concluded)

24 February 2013

The Surkotada horse, Part III

(continued from )

With the theory of Aryan invasion to the Indian sub continent in the pre-historic times no longer being acceptable, the reasons for demise of the Indus-Ghaggar civilizations after flourishing over several millennia remained a great puzzle for the historians and the archaeologists till now. 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 answer to this riddle. I have described in details, the findings of this research team in an earlier article, which anyone interested can go through. However, for sense of continuity, I am repeating here, some of the main observations from this report.

Before massive human habitation of Indus-Ghaggar civilizations 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. but most likely due to strong monsoons. 

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.   

In addition to shifting of monsoons, Harappan cities in the south like Dholavira faced another natural calamity. The archaeologists excavating Dholavira have already found out the damages caused by a massive earth quake. Similar earthquakes must have changed the entire geographical structure here and a region once extremely fertile became an arid and marshy zone. As Giosan suggests, the populations of the Indus civilizations of the south must have simply dispersed to further south (Gujarat) and the east (Rajasthan), where better weather conditions must have prevailed.

Some of the archaeologists suggest that the Saraswati or Ghaggar river, once emptied itself into Arabian sea just, north of Rann of Kutch, what is called as Kori creek today. If this was the case indeed, one can imagine, how fertile and prosperous the region around Dholavira and Surkotada must have been.

Two years before, I paid a visit to the National Museum in New Delhi. This museum has a great collection of many items and artifacts from Indus civilizations. I found that a number of things like bullock cart designs, kitchen utensils, toys were very similar to what was in use even about 50 years before, in India. To me, Indus civilization legacy to Indians is not lost but continues even today.

The then director general of the Archarological survey of India, Mr. Braj Basi Lal had addressed a gathering in the Indian city of Bhopal, arranged by National Council for Education, Research and Training (NCERT) in November 2002. In his speech, Mr.Lal had highlighted the similarities between Harappa culture and The present Indian culture. I quote: 

" whichever walk of life you talk about, you will find in it the reflection of the Harappa Culture: be it agriculture, cooking habits, personal make-up, ornaments, objects of toiletry, games played by children or adults, transport by road or river, folk tales, religious practices and so on. Here we give just a few examples. The excavation at Kalibangan has brought to light an agricultural field dating back to circa 2800 BC. It is characterised by a criss-cross pattern of the furrows. Exactly the same pattern of ploughing the fields is followed even today in northern Rajasthan, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. Today mustard is grown in the widely-distanced furrows and chickpea in the narrower ones and it is most likely that these very crops were grown in a similar manner during the Harappan times; we do have evidence of both these items from the Harappan levels. Kalibangan has also yielded a linga-cum-yoni of the same type as is worshipped now. This very site, along with Banawali, Rakhigarhi and Lothal, has brought to light 'fire-altars', indicating rituals associated with fire. ”
Some other parts of Mr. Lal predicts a totally different course of history, but is is better to leave it to the experts. What I find important here is the thought that Indus-Sarswati civilizations never really were wiped out but rather continued in other parts of India with blooming of the Vedic culture.

I have mentioned above that the inhabitants of the southern habitats of Indus civilization migrated towards Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. It is natural to question existence of any evidence to support this claim. Luckily extensive excavations carried out by archaeologists from Deccan College, Pune in the basin of Pravara river (a tributary of the giant Godavari river) have brought up such conclusive evidence. The Archaeologists call the Chalcolithic culture of the people of peninsular India in the time period between 1700 to 1400 BCE as 'Malwa Culture.' Great similarities are observed between this culture and Mature Harappan culture from places like Dholavira and Surkotada. In a place called as Daimabad a local farmer, Chhabu Laxman Bhil , found a hoard of four bronze objects  in 1974. One of the objects is a sculpture of a chariot, 45 cm long and 16 cm wide, yoked to two oxen, driven by a man 16 cm high standing in it. This chariot along with other sculptures of animals are so exquisite that they have completely baffled the Archaeologists.

 Oxen pulled  Bronze chariot found at Daimabad in Maharshtra

Figurines of mother Goddess with a bull, found at Inamgaon

 

Inamgaon is a small village south of the Pravara basin, on the banks of River 'Ghod.' The excavations carried out here have revealed human settlements here that lasted for an extended period starting from 1700 BCE to 800 BCE. In this period, three independent cultures with their own differentiable and exquisite features were found to exist here. These are known to Archaeologists as Malwa, early Jorwe and late Jorwe cultures. Inamgaon habitat more or less proves the spread of Sindhu civilzation to east and south, where it got mixed and assimilated with other Indian neolithic cultures from India. Another important finding of Inamgaon excavation is continuing worship of mother goddess or Goddess of fertility from the Indus civilization. 

 

Now we come to the last point regarding adoption of Vedic religion by India somewhere in second millennium BC. There are serious differences of opinion between historians about exact plave of origin of the Vedic culture. Historian Romila Thapar along with others believe that Vedic religion originated in Marginia/Bactria region of northern Afghanistan, whereas Mr. B.B. Lal, whom I have mentioned above believes that Vedic culture originated on the banks of Sarswati river. Whatever may be the place of origin, the real point of interest is how this new religion managed to uproot the Lingam and fertility idol worship of the Harrapans with a vedic religion, which had no idols. I want to compare this to more modern adoption of Buddhism by many countries in Asia such as China, Japan, Korea and Thailand. Around 300 BCE, Indian emperor Ashoka sent Buddhist monks all over Asia to spread this new religion. There was no question of forcing anyone or no coercion. Yet we find that these countries adopted Buddhism. I feel that Indians must have adopted Vedic culture in this fashion, still keeping some elements of Indus religions and cultures in the new religion. The best examples of this could be the retaining of Durga or the mother goddess and Lingam, now associated with Rudra (an original Vedic God) in the new culture.

A recent genetic study by India's Council of Scientific research suggests that modern humans have migrated to India from three origins: the central Asia, Malaysia and Andaman islands. It is quite likely that the Indus civilization people came there from central Asia, settled down there for 2 or 3 millenniums and later, when things became tough, again moved eastwards and southwards. Indus civilization never really saw it's demise. It just moved eastwards and southwards.

(Concluded)

15 January 2013

Relevance of Sir Creek

India and Pakistan share an international boundary stretching over 3000 Km length. Most of this border is well defined, except for Kashmir and a small part of the border, where it joins the Arabian sea. This small part of the border, which is only 96 Km long has been a long dispute between India and Pakistan. What is surprising is that this disputed part of the border is not even an arbitrary line drawn by some mediator or an arbitrator but lies along a definite geographical feature: a creek that opens into Arabian sea. This creek divides the Kutch region of the Indian state of Gujarat with the Sindh province of Pakistan. It is located at approximately 23°58′N 68°48′E. Wikipedia says that it is known locally as 'Baan Ganga'. However I failed to find any corroborations for the name.

In 1924, the then British Government installed mid channel markers along entire Sir Creek as boundary markers between Sindh region under Bombay presidency and princely state of Kutch ruled by Prince Rao Maharaj. Pakistan does not recognize these mid channel markers and says that the border should be along the east or Indian side bank of the creek, whereas India wants the original 1924 markers as International boundary.

Many people wonder as to why such a small waterway has gained so much of importance and why no one wants to budge from their positions. To find answers to these questions, we need to go into little bit of history and find out exactly the reasons for fixing the boundary at Sir Creek in the first place. Let us first begin with the eastern part of the boundary between Kutch and Sindh. A look at the map and the terrain makes it clear that the this entire boundary runs along the shore line of a vast inland lake of marshy land and salty water known as Rann. Even an 1878 map shows this boundary very clearly and without any ambiguity.

Towards the western part, a town called “Lakhapat” is located on the Kutch side of this Rann. Just north of this town, a river known as “Kori” continued to flow as late as 1875, though intermittently going through cycles of fresh water flows and marshlands. Ali Bandar town (In Pakistan now) was situated on the bank of this river and from here, the river flowed southwards towards Lakhpat.

This Kori river is of great historic significance as it was known as east mouth of Indus. In fact, during times of Alexander the great (325 BC) and Ptolemy (150 AD), it was called “Lonibare” and was one of the main mouths of the Indus river. Water wars began between people of Kutch and Sindh over sharing the Kori water as early as 1764, when Kutch army was defeated. In 1764 and again in 1802 great dams were built on Kori making the downwards river bed completely dry. This converted the once fertile rice fields of Lakhpat into grazing grounds.

In 1819 a huge earthquake struck Lakhpat. This completely destroyed the so called eastern mouth of the Indus or the Kori river into marshy land filled with ups and downs. As an aftermath, a Tsunami wave struck Kori creek. 

 

Quarterly journal of Geological society 2, 103, (1846 ) mentions a letter by one Mrs. Derinzy sent to one Captain Nelson. This letter describes the Tsunami in Kori river.

"One of Capt. McMurdo's guides was travelling on foot to him from Bhooj. The day he reached Luckput there were shocks of an earthquake, which shook down part of the walls of the fort and some lives were lost. At the same time as the shock the sea rolled up the Koree (the eastern) mouth of the Indus, overflowing the country as far westward as the Goongra river (a distance of twenty English miles), northward as far as a little north of Veyre (forty miles from the mouth of the Koree), and eastward to the Sindree Lake. The guide was detained six days (from June 19th to 25th during which time sixty-six shocks were counted. He then got across to Kotree, of which only a few small buildings on a bit of ground remain. Most of the habitations throughout the district must have been swept away, the best houses in Scinde being built of sun-dried bricks, and whole villages consisting only of huts made of a few crooked poles and reed mats. The guide travelled twenty miles through water on a camel, the water up to the beasts body. Of Lak nothing was above water but a Fakeer's pole (the flagstaff always erected by the tomb of some holy man); and of Veyre (Location of this place is unknown now) and other villages only the remains of a few houses were to be seen. There are said to be generally two earthquakes every year at Luckput. The Sindree Lake has of late years become a salt marsh."

As a result of earthquake, entire Sindh shoreline north of Rann also rose up like a bund. This is known as “Allah's Bund” or God's Bund. This God's bund effectively diverted the eastern mouth of the Indus forever.

Ever since then, depending upon the floods in Indus basin, the Kori basin gets filled with sea water and fresh water or remains marshy and dry and has almost become a part of Rann, uncertain and undefinable.

History of Kori river, since earth quake of 1819 makes a fascinating reading. I quote from Imperial Gazetteer ( with places of names changed)

“ After 1819, at Lakhpat, where it used to be fordable, the river bed became eighteen feet deep. About sixteen miles further up, from two to six miles of the bed was raised and beyond that the level of Rann fell forming a basin of twelve feet deep. Beyond that bed of river rose up to Ali Bandar (What is named as Allah's Bund). At the same time a great wave (a Tsunami) rushed up the river and filled the basin with salt water. For eight years the channel of the river was closed except during season of floods its bed was nearly dry. In 1826, upper Indus burst its banks, overspread the desert, and clearing every dam before it, burst through Ali Bandar, filled the Shakoor lake with fresh water and sweeping the silt, so cleared the Kori bed that boats of 100 tons could pass from sea to Lakhpat town. For three years, the Kori continued to come down in so large a stream that it was open for trading as far as Amirkot. Meanwhile, Sindhi's were building their dams and in 1834 the Kori stream was almost stopped. In 1838, except during rains, the channel was dry. For next 36 years (1839-1874) silt kept gathering in the bed of the river below Ali Bandar. In 1856, there was water enough for boats to go up to Shakoor lake from mouth of river. In 1868, a boat could not pass further up than Lakhpat. In 1874 there was another flood on the Indus, a large body of water run through the Ali Bandar and filled Shakoor lake.”

Readers may be wondering as to why I have been talking about Kori river at such a great length, when the subject of this article was the Sir Creek. For that, let us now turn to a map published in 1908 by Imperial Gazetteer. This map outlines the borders of Kutch state and Sindh Province. This border runs from east to west more or less along the present international boundary between India and Pakistan and then turns down sharply south along the shores of Rann or the salt water lake to Kori creek just north of Lakhpat town. This map confirms the old traditional boundary between Kutch and Sindh, but does not take into consideration the changes that took place in the geography after 1819. The new border alignment was finalized between Government of Kutch and Sindh, first in 1914 and again in 1924-25. These new agreements, took into consideration the geography of the region, which had changed completely. The entire area west of Kori river bed had since changed into uninhabited marshlands without any geographical features. During the monsoon season between June and September, the creek flooded its banks and enveloped the low-lying salty mudflats around it. Later it would again become large tracts of Marshy lands or mudflats.

I think, that it would be obvious to readers, that in such kind of geographical landscape, which keeps changing all the time, how can a border be fixed? The only recourse was to fix it along the nearest geographical feature that was stable and this feature was a large body of water now known as Sir Creek.

Sir Creek is navigable in high tide, and fishing trawlers use it to go out to sea. In such a case it would be obvious that, placing mid channel markers to mark the boundary between Princely state of Kutch and British controlled Sindh province was a well thought out and the correct approach, which was implemented in 1924.

Pakistan perhaps have their own reasons like control over the exclusive economic zone in the Arabian sea that can extend up to 200 Nautical miles and possibility of finding Hydrocarbons and their commercial exploitation, for not to agree to mid channel markers. However one thing remains clear to me, Sir Creek is the only stable and recognizable water body in that area and it should be shared by both countries by treating mid channel markers as international boundary.

14 December 2012