Flow of water during tube well digging indicated the existence of Saraswati river

A few days ago, a fountain burst during digging of 850 feet tubewell in Mohangarh, Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, once again indicated the existence of Saraswati river channel here. This is the same area where scientists of Central Arid Zone Research Institute (KAZRI) had found Haloxylon Salicornicum bush in 1984 during their research. Actually, at that time scientists had dug this bush up to 5 meters, but its root was even deeper. At that time, due to lack of resources, more digging could not be done. Dr. Suresh Kumar and Vinod Kumar, the then scientists of KAZRI, published a research stating the depth of this bush to be 8 to 10 meters and in this research expressed the possibility of underground flow of Saraswati river in this area.

 According to scientists, this bush is found only where there is a big source of water. This bush hardly grows even half a meter below the ground, but its roots go up to 10 meters in search of water. The way water has flowed from the ground this time, it seems certain that Saraswati river exists and its existence can never be denied, because its existence has been denied by governments many times. Mostly this happened during the tenure of the previous government.

Efforts were also being made to find it under the leadership of the current Modi government. It was hoped that the efforts of the government and the Ministry of Water Resources could bring some positive results and the study plan (report) of the Culture Department of the Central Government a decade ago could be refuted, in which it was said that there is no concrete proof that the Saraswati river ever existed. But whatever form the water has flowed from the same area this time, it proves that the Saraswati river once existed. In this regard, the report of the Culture Department of the former Central Government was not logical in any way. The holy Saraswati river was mentioned in ancient scriptures and many studies have been done in the country on the Saraswati river. In these studies, many scholars from not only India but also from abroad have played an important role. Saraswati river is also mentioned in many ancient scriptures including Rigveda and Mahabharata. Saraswati river has been praised in Rigveda as a big and majestic river. It has even been called the mother of rivers in one source. There is also a mention of mountains scattering like lotus due to the power of its flow. This river is mentioned in more than 60 sources of Rigveda. According to experts, it is also clear that Saraswati river used to originate from the mountain and fall into the sea, but this huge river Saraswati of Rigveda, during the Mahabharata period, did not reach the sea and disappeared in the desert in the middle. The research findings of modern scientists also match the facts given in ancient scriptures. Overall, the facts related to the details given about Saraswati river in ancient scriptures have also come to light in studies. In the Asiatic Society Journal of Bengal (1886), RD Oldham, sub-inspector of Geological Survey, first drew the attention of geologists to the ancient river band of Saraswati and Sutlej and Yamuna being its tributaries. Exactly seven years later, in 1893, another famous geologist CF Oldham gave a detailed explanation on this subject in the same journal and confirmed the old river bed of Saraswati. According to his study, Saraswati river used to flow on the dry river bed of Hakra, another river of Punjab. According to local popular belief, in ancient times, Hakra used to flow to the sea through the desert area. Oldham-1893 also had the same belief that the dry river bed once used to get water from Yamuna river.

According to experts, in the Mahabharata period, Saraswati river had disappeared near Vinasan (presumably present Sirsa) before reaching the sea. Oldham has also said at the end of his article that the Vedas mention that Saraswati fell into the sea and the Mahabharata mentions that this holy river was lost in the desert, both are true descriptions of their respective times, but another scholar Aurel Stein played a major role in drawing the attention of the people towards this. In 1940-41, he conducted a survey tour along the Saraswati, Ghaggar and Hakra rivers in Bikaner (Rajasthan) and Bahawalpur (now in Pakistan). Stein's tour confirmed the traditional belief that Saraswati flowed on the dry riverbed of Hakra and Ghaggar. His study also agreed with Oldham's conclusion that the main reason for the disappearance of the Saraswati river was the change in the course of the Sutlej river, due to which it started joining the Indus river instead of Saraswati. He has cited the change in the course of the Yamuna (from flowing in the west to meeting the Ganga in the east) as another reason for this.

Some time after this, a German scholar also did a deep study on this subject. The conclusion of this study was published in a detailed article in a journal called Z Geo Morphology in 1969. According to geologists, Herbal Wilhelmy has mentioned the Saraswati river and its various stages of development in his study. Referring to studies from 1892 to 1942, his main conclusion is that the part of the Indus river, which flows north-south, an old dry riverbed 40-110 kilometers east of it is actually the riverbed of Saraswati.

It has been known as Hakra, Ghaggar, Sagar, Sankara at various places. In Indus, it was called Vahind, Nara and Hakra. Professor Edwin Bryant of Harvard University's in-depth study of the Aryans has been considered extremely unbiased. It has been said in the study that it is quite clear that the author of the Rigveda was living on the banks of the Saraswati river at that time, it was a huge river at that time and he had no idea that he had come from somewhere else. The Geographic Information System and Remote-sensing Unit of the National Geographic Society of America have also confirmed the description of Saraswati given in the Rigveda through satellite imaging. The three dried up ancient waterways south of Ambala, which are seen flowing towards the west, were certainly the tributaries of Saraswati, Ghaggar and Dwashadvati. The riverbed of Saraswati is clearly visible in the images obtained by the US remote sensing agency through the Indian remote sensing satellite.

 

The country's well-known educationist Professor Yashpal has also done extensive research on this subject. The report of his study was published in the journal of the Indian Academy of Science in 1980. The conclusion of this study is a complete proof that the Saraswati river of the Vedic period originated from the Himalayas and flowed on the riverbeds of Ghaggar and Hakra in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Bahawalpur (Pakistan) and fell in the Rann of Kutch via the riverbed of Nara in Sindhu (Pakistan). It has also been speculated that Yamuna was also a tributary of Saraswati, but over time both Sutlej and Yamuna stopped joining Saraswati. This was also the main reason for the decrease in water in the Saraswati river.

In this direction, the famous archaeologist Rafil Mughal has also done good work in the Cholistan desert of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. According to him, 35-36 excavation sites have been recorded so far in the entire Indus river. In 1993, Rafiq Mughal identified 414 such sites along the Saraswati river, which indicate the existence of this river. The excavation done last year with the efforts of the Haryana and Rajasthan governments confirms the existence of this river. Through remote sensing, ISRO has also confirmed the information that the source of this river is from Adi Badri in Uttarakhand to the area of ​​Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat. In such a situation, the flow of water from the ground in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan is important, which proves the existence of the Saraswati river. Whatever studies will come out in the coming days, these studies will definitely strengthen the old studies, in which the existence of the Saraswati river has been fully accepted.