Author: Narendra Kaushik from Kurukshetra
Publication: Udayindia.org
Date: August 27, 2011
URL: http://www.udayindia.org/content_27august2011/spotlight.html
From the looks of it, it appears to be one
of those numerous muddy puddles of rain water which sprout out of nowhere
in the lowlands on either side of National highways during every monsoon season
in the country. Located next to a bridge on GT road, near Pipli, a village-pretending-to-be-a-town
on the highway near Kurukshetra, the city, which once hosted the great Mahabharata
war, and surrounded by erect eucalyptuses and overgrowth, the slimy puddle
seems to be unremarkable and undisturbed except by kids who may occasionally
throw lumps of mud into it to enjoy the ripples.
But scout the surface around the puddle and you will get to know that it is
also an appropriate proof of what is wrong with implementation of policies
in the country. A few-hundred-metres-long swamp which has filled up the farmland
in its neighbourhood is evidence of how history gets converted into a four-letter
acronym myth-in modern India. How living and unadulterated chronicles of times
gone by are consigned to dustbin after falsely associating them with Hindutava
revivalism.
Forgotten & Forsaken
The puddle and the two concrete platforms that stand next to it were part
of Saraswati revival project Haryana State Government embarked on a few years
back. The platforms adorned sculptures of Saraswati, the goddess of learning,
and Rantuk Yaksha, one of the godly figures which defined the four corners
of the 20-yojana-long (one yojana equals around 8 miles) Mahabharata battlefield,
when Haryana government launched a project in 2008 to bring the mighty river
back to life again. Today, the platforms stand vandalised and stripped off
the bronze sculptures.
Apparently, the robbers took advantage of
the government neglect and slipped out the idols. Today, the area has turned
into marshy land where cannabis and other wild plants are grown. The 52 kilometre
long channel or course which Haryana government dug up in 2008 to release
water again is dry and layered with weeds.
Haryana government proposal to revive over 75 kilometre long course of the
river is held up because Oil and Natural Gas Limited (ONGC) is sitting on
its request to dig two deep bore wells for supplying fresh water to the river
channel. "Haryana government takes interest in the project. But it is
stuck up with the ONGC for 3 years. People stole the sculptures. The project
is almost defunct for all practical reasons," says Darshan Lal Jain who
has been pursuing the project for several years through an NGO (Non-government
Organization) called Saraswati River Research Organization. Jain who looked
at the project as a panacea for providing drinking water and tourism today
sounds a bit dispirited. His desire to see the river flowing again in his
lifetime is getting diminished by the day.
The ONGC entered into an agreement with Haryana government about half a decade
ago to explore the course of the river which finds a mention in Vedas, Mahabharata
and several other Hindu scriptures. Subsequently, Haryana government convinced
farmers on a 52 kilometre-long stretch to vacate their lands for flow of fresh
water and launched the project near Pipli, a town on National highway-I near
Kurukshetra. The government not only installed bronze sculptures of Saraswati
and Rantuk Yaksha, a godly figure associated with Mahabharata, at the site
but also fixed colour lights, swings and dug up the pond in 2008.
Denials & Admission UPA style
The project is hanging fire despite the UPA having finally admitted in June
this year that there was evidence that the Vedic river once flew through Haryana,
Rajasthan and Gujarat before falling into the Arabian Sea. After having been
in a denial mode for several years, Union Ministry for Water Resources admitted
writing in Rajya Sabha, the upper House of the Parliament that the river's
existence was conclusion of a study jointly conducted by scientists of ISRO,
Jodhpur and Rajasthan Government's Ground Water Department, published in the
Journal of Indian Society of Remote Sensing. The Journal had written on the
basis of interaction with ISRO and the Ground Water Department that there
were "clear signals of Palaeo-channels on the satellite imagery in the
form of a strong and powerful continuous drainage system in the North-West
region and occurrence of archaeological sites of pre-Harappan, Harappan and
post-Harappan ages beyond doubt indicate the existence of a mighty palaeo-drainage
system of the Vedic Saraswati river in this region… The description and
magnanimity of these channels also match with the river Saraswati described
in the Vedic literature."
The UPA was in a denial mode since 2004 when it assumed power at the centre.
Earlier it also scrapped the Saraswati River Heritage Project which was launched
by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) under Atal Behari Vajpayee-led NDA
government. It scrapped the project on the grounds that it was undertaken
to establish that a Vedic civilization preceded Harappa or the Harappan culture
was Vedic. In short, the UPA and its then outside supporter Communists saw
in the excavations a saffron design. It is to be noted that under the then
Culture Minister Jagmohan, the ASI had undertaken excavations at 10 places-Adi
Badri, Thanesar, Sandhauli, Bhirrana, Hansi (all in Haryana), Baror, Tarkhanwala
Dhera, Chak 86 (all in Rajasthan), Dholavira and Juni Karan in Gujarat. The
project's action taken report had then claimed that during the excavation,
remains from the pre-Harappan, Harappan and even medieval times have been
discovered.
Saraswati in Scriptures
More than the archaeological and satellite proof of river's existence, the
UPA and pseudo secularists have refused to accept the evidence stored in the
various ancient scriptures. There are several references to the river in Mahabharata
to the Saraswati River. The epic for instance mentions that Pandavas hid in
Kamyaka forest for some time during initial years of their 14-year-long banishment.
Kamyaka was located on the west of Kurukshetra plain and on the banks of river
Saraswati. They returned to Kamyaka second time from Dwaita woods, a rich
forest again on the bank of the river, which was in full flow this time due
to heavy rains. Sage Markandeya lived next to Markanda river which was supposed
to be tributary of the Saraswati River.
Besides, Nadistuti hymn in Rigveda mentions that Saraswati was located between
Yamuna in the east and Sutlej in the west. Later Vedic scriptures like Tandya
and Jaiminiya Brahmanas mention that Saraswati dried up in the desert. The
river, in fact, had started drying up during Mahabharata (3067 BC) itself
and disappeared completely by 1500 BC. Mahabharata describes Balram's pilgrimage
to the river before the war broke out between the Pandavas and Kurukshetra.
He returned to the battlefield on the day Duryodhana was killed by Bheema.
There are references to the fissures and faults in the dry bed of the river
in the middle ages texts. The invading armies of Islam marching from the Sindh
province to Delhi are said to have a longer mountain route instead of the
dry river bed due to difficulties in crossing the large cracks. More than
this satellite images have confirmed the existence of a large number of ground
faults in the earthquake-prone northwest of India which constituted the Saraswati-Sindhu
valley.
River in Revenue Maps and Satellite imagery
In 1995, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) found water in the Rajasthan
desert at depths of merely 50 to 60 metres, making agriculture possible even
in extreme summer. The Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI), Jodhpur,
mapped the defunct course of a river through satellite and aerial photographs
and field studies. Obviously it was none other than Saraswati.
But none of this can match the hard evidence you come across in the form of
small revenue maps which were traditionally maintained by Patwaris. The maps
covering 38 villages clearly delineate the course of invisible Saraswati.
This means that Saraswati's course has been known to mapmakers from the time
the river flowed from Adi Badri to the Arabian Sea to the time it disappeared
following tectonic disturbances in earth's crust. It was known as Saraswati
in Haryana, Ghaggar in Rajasthan (after its confluence with Ghaggar), Hakra
in Cholistan and Nara in Sindh (Pakistan). It was part of Sapt Sindhu, the
seven rivers, which flew from Himalayas into the plains. Yamuna and Satluj
were then tributaries of Saraswati. Due to tectonic disturbances, Yamuna started
flowing towards East and Satluj started flowing from Southeast (into Saraswati)
to Southwest near Ropar causing final drying up of what Rigveda calls Ambi
tame, nadi tame, devi tame (greatest of mothers, rivers and goddesses).
Evidence on Ground
Even more incontrovertible than this is the proof which exists on the ground
in Bid Pipli, the village on national highway, Kheri Markanda, a village situated
about 2 kilometres from Kurukshetra and Pehowa, a town in Kurukshetra which
is famous for being a Hindu pilgrimage. In Bid Pipli, the course of Saraswati
is still filled up with water. During the monsoon, the river comes alive when
water from upstream Baban flows next to the village and further to Kurukshetra.
It frequently floods the nearby villages and parts of Kurukshetra. In Kheri
Markanda too, the river turns into a drain. Unfortunately, Kurukshetra administration
releases sewerage into the drain now. Pehowa is the place where the river
is said to have converted into a pond where Hindus have performed pind daan
(a ritual for liberation of souls of their dead relatives). Saraswati is worshipped
here as a goddess. There is a big Saraswati temple here and the pundits who
have seats near the pond and the temple claim to have histories of many families.
This site was called 'Prithudaka' in the epics of Mahabharata named after
the King Prithu, a Saraswati tribe king, who prayed for the salvation of his
father's soul here. Sister-in-law of Harshvardhan, who ruled over a large
part of northern India first from Thanesar and then Kannuaj, committed sati
on the bank's river.
Some time back, the geologists and hydrologists found more evidence when subsurface
water gushed out of a pond of the famous Kapil Muni Ashram in Kalayat (Haryana).
A multi-disciplinary scientific team studied the oozing water and the sand
that accompanied it. Dr. A R Chaudhri of Kurukshetra University found a suite
of angular heavy minerals having their source in higher Himalayan region.
Dr. A K Gupta and Dr B K Bhadra of ISRO identified fossil valleys of Vedic
Saraswati in the area from the study of space imageries and concluded that
this water was of the Saraswati River. Rajesh Purohit, then curator of Srikrishna
museum, conducted geomorphologic studies and concluded that this water belonged
to Vedic Saraswati that has been described in Rigveda and other scriptures.
Later on, he along with his team discovered the actual river bed near Jyotisar
(Kurukshetra).
The ONGC, the oil exploration giant which is involved in exploring the river,
has found strong evidence that it once flew next to Jaisalmer, the tourist
town in Rajasthan. The ONGC has dug up over a dozen deep wells there. These
wells have plenty of sweet water. Earlier images taken by an American satellite
clearly showed the presence of underground water in a definitive pattern in
Jaisalmer. The bore wells are said to have been named after the river which
once flowed for 1500 km and was at places around 15 km wide.
Interestingly farmers have voluntarily vacated their farms on a 52 km stretch
when they heard about Haryana Government's project on revival of the river.
Darshan Lal Jain, who has been pursuing the revival project for long through
an NGO called Saraswati Nadi Shodh Sansthan (Saraswati River Research Organization),
wants the government to hurry up the revival. According to him, the revived
river could provide drinking and irrigation water to several districts in
Haryana. Jain demands formation of Saraswati Development Authority or Board
to fast pace the project.
Purohit who recently got transferred to Allahabad begs the detractors to shut
up, have a look at the plethora of evidence available with the ASI, Geological
Survey of India, ONGC, Indian Space Research Organization and other research
groups and stop calling the river mythical or mythological. "Myth won't
be a myth if it is supported by scientific evidence. Saraswati exists now.
It existed in the past," he signs off.
