Sarasvati River - Identification

Identification

The Sarasvati River of late Vedic and post-Vedic times is generally identified with the Ghaggar River. But the implication of a river of substantially greater volume makes the same identification of the early Vedic references problematic: either the Ghaggar was a more powerful river in earlier times, or the early Vedic Sarasvati was located elsewhere. According to Hindu scriptures, a journey was made during the Mahabharata by Balrama along the banks of the Saraswati from Dwarka to Mathura. There were ancient kingdoms too (the era of the Mahajanapads), that lay in parts of north rajasthan; that were named on the saraswati river. This gives some logic to the theory of Ghaggar-Hakkar being the ancient Saraswati. During the Pleistocene period the Himalayan mountains were under glacial cover and climate was fluctuating between glacial and interglacial phases. Around 40,000 yrs BC, the present Thar Desert enjoyed wet climate and greenery. Mythological River Saraswati/Vedic Saraswati (also known as Saraswati Nadi, Saraswati Nala, Sarsuti and Chautang in certain places, variously spelt as Sarasvati) is believed to have flowed during 6000–3000 BC from the melting glaciers of Garhwal Himalaya to Arabian Sea through the Thar Desert1,2. Several researchers agree about the existence of palaeochannels2. According to the Ground Water Cell of Haryana, a large number of water wells fall on these palaeochannels and their lithology is coarse sand/gravel of riverine nature. Now palaeochannels exhibit discontinuous drainage. Geomorphological and tectonic study of drainage of northern Haryana was discussed by Thussu3 and Virdi et al.4. A good compilation of researches covering various aspects of Saraswati is available in Valdiya5 and also posted by him at http://www.omilosmeleton.gr/pdf/en/indology/The_Saraswati_was_a_Major_River.pdf.