Unveiling the Mystery of the Saraswati River

Since childhood, we all have heard about sacred rivers of Indian civilisation from our parents and grandparents. Among all the rivers, the Saraswati River is one of the most crucial and holds high importance. Unfortunately, many scholars and historians consider the Saraswati River as a myth; they claim that the river never existed. Even Wikipedia refer to the river as a deified mythological river.  

Today, several beliefs prevail on the Saraswati River. Let us uncover those beliefs and try to understand the river’s existence in modern India. 

1. Vedic References: The mention of the Saraswati river is found in Vedic scriptures. The name has been mentioned in the Vedas, especially the Rig Veda. The Saraswati River was among the few rivers that Hindus used to worship in ancient times. Ancient Hindu Scriptures mention that the Saraswati River was situated between the Yamuna and the Sutlej river.
   
2. 
   Identification with the Ghaggar River: Many claim that the present-day Ghaggar River is the ancient River Saraswati. The Ghaggar River flows out of the Himalayas, through the state of Haryana, through the deserts of Rajasthan, and then finds its way to the Estuary into the sea, that is, Rann of Kaccha. 
3. Scientific Perspectives: Scientists believe that the origins of Indic Civilisation happened on the banks of the River Saraswati. Interestingly, hundreds of sites of Early civilisation have been found along the banks of the river, just as mentioned in the Vedic texts (Sanjeev Sanyal, Indian economist, and historian pointed out on the YouTube channel Lost India, 2024). 
4. Mythological Accounts: Unfortunately, the river dried up with time, and many believe that the reason behind this is a curse given by sage Vyasa. It was at that time Sage Vyasa was reciting Mahabharata to Lord Ganesha on the banks of River Saraswati. The river was flowing with such great strength that it created trouble for Sage; thus, he asked the river to flow gently, but it paid no attention. This caused anger in the sage and thus, he cursed the Saraswati River that it would flow underground, unlike Ganga and Yamuna.
   
5. Other References: After killing tyrant Kshatriyas, Lord Parshuram bathed in the Saraswati river to wash away his sins. Mention of the Saraswati River is also found in the Mahabharata text. Mahabharata war took place near the river. Disappearing of the river in the town of Sirsa in Haryana is mentioned in the text. 

Some people believe that the Saraswati River flows underground for which two reasons have been stated:

• First, as per the report in the Speaking Tree (2014), the Saraswati River came out from the head of Lord Brahma, who was mesmerized by her beauty and filled with desire. Consequently, Goddess Saraswati tried to escape and thus started flowing underground. 
• Second, according to the researchers, the Saraswati River gushed through the north-western terrains of India. After the Ice Age, the marine tectonic activities delinked the Saraswati River from its sources, which caused the river to dry up.

Finally, to revive the Saraswati River, the governments of Himachal Pradesh and Haryana have come together and “signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the construction of a dam in Himachal Pradesh on 77 acres, near the Adi Badri area of Haryana’s Yamuna Nagar district.” (The Hindu, 2022).