Sarasvati: The lost river - Part III

This is the concluding part of my summary of the book, The Lost River, On the trail of Sarasvati by Michel Danino. In Part I, we saw the myths and legends surrounding Sarasvati river and research by experts in diverse fields to trace the evolution and disappearance of the river. In Part II, we saw the history of the discovery of Harappan Civilization and some of its defining characteristics. In this final post we will sketch out interesting work linking the two together. We shall also briefly touch upon the hidden agenda of some of the researchers and their reluctance to accept an overwhelming evidence against their preset notions and beliefs.

The contentious issue is how much of the legacy of Harappan Civilization is reflected in the later Ganga Civilization, which is considered as the starting point of Indian History. Was there a complete disconnect between the two ? or Was it a natural continuity of the former to the latter ? or Was the transfer somewhere in between ? An important piece to this puzzle is the Sarasvati river. It provides a copious evidence against a disconnect between the two civilizations. Definitely there has been an influence of the Harappan Civilization on the Ganges Civilization but the crucial question is To what extent are the two connected ?

However, acknowledging this fact of continuity of Harappan into Ganges Civilization will definitely put Aryan Invasion Theory out of commission and cast serious aspersions on the Aryan Migration Theory. This puts a lot of researchers, who have based their life on these theories, in a very difficult position. The Part III of the book gives a detailed summary of the work in this area (links between the Harappan and Ganges Civilizations) and explains how Sarasavati gets entangled in the Aryan debate. It is aptly titled "From Sarasvati to Ganga"

Part 3: Sarasvati : Linking Harappan and Ganges Civilizations

The relationship between the two civilizations can be categorized as "tangible" and  "intangible". I'll highlight a few of each which I found interesting.

Tangible Relationships

• City planning, ratios used in structures, construction techniques are heavily influenced in the later periods. In fact, the material used for flooring can still be found in villages near Kalibangan. The particular material is used since it is resistant to dampness and keeps mosquitoes away. 
• Weights and measures used, distance measures all have a counterpart in later cities and are resonated in ancient texts like Arthashastra, Shulbha Sutras etc. 
• Arts and crafts have a lot of influence. Toys used by children, board games including the dice used and so on. The bronze sculptures were made using the Lost Wax method which is used even to this day to create bronze figurines in Swamimalai in Tamil Nadu (An interesting but long video explaining the method is here for those interested) 
• Everyday items like armlets worn by men currently can be found on statues unearthed. Vermilion (Sindoor) worn by women are seen to  have Harappan roots.
• Agricultural practices been carried forward. An interesting anecdote recounted is that the researchers were wanting to know more about some ploughing practices of Harappans. To their surprise the exact same methods used by villagers nearby after 5 millenia! 

Intangible Relationships

These are related to art and iconography, religious practices, deities worshiped  and so on.

• A lot of symbols and iconography has been carried forward from the Harappan times. The famous Swastika is seen on many tablets found during excavations. Rangoli patterns that adorn the front of houses today can also be found in artifacts recovered. 
• Evidence of fire worship can be found. A lot of deities from the pantheons of Hindu gods and goddesses can be found. Shiva Lingas, worship of female deities is widely seen among the articles recovered from the sites.
• Lots of figurines excavated depict various Yogic postures. So there is evidence of Yoga having been widely in practice.
• A curious detail is that some of the fables like "The Fox and the Crow" have been depicted on clay tablets. 

Sarasvati and the Aryan debate 


The Aryan theory is based on the premise that the Aryans came to the Indian sub-continent and composed the Vedic hymns around 1500 BCE and moved towards the Gangetic plains between 1200 BCE and 1000 BCE. However, if that is the case, we have to accept the fact that Sarasvati had dried up around 1900 BCE, centuries before the Aryans came. So it implies that the Aryans came from Central Asia, crossed five major rivers and settled along the dry Sarasvati and wrote Rig-Vedic hymns extolling the "copious" waters of the dry Sarasvati. Does not make sense right ? This is what I mentioned in the beginning of the post.

So the proponents of these theories provide absurd and vacuous arguments to counter this gaping hole in their theory. Some say that the Aryans were remembering an "Afghan Sarasvati" and were trying to map that to the dry Sarasvati river. Some even say that it was all a grand imagination of a non-existent river and was only allegorical (In spite of having geographical descriptions of the river in the ancient texts).

What is a plausible story ?

Putting all the pieces of evidence from diverse areas together one can come up with a theory that best explains all the facts. The Vedic hymns were indeed written on the banks of the Sarasvati river when it was in full flow. The authors of the Vedas were the Harappans themselves. Something happened around 3000 BCE that caused Sarasvati to lose its major tributaries, Sutlej and Yamuna. So the river progressively dried up.

The people on the banks of the river moved eastwards towards the Gangetic plains in search of greener pastures. So Gangetic Civilization is a continuation of the Indus-Sarasvati Civilization and Ganga incarnated to be the new Sarasvati.  There is an interesting mention of Ganga inheriting many of the properties of Sarasvati, like her sister she is born out of Brahma's Kamandalu, she is the given of boons, is the goddess of speech and so on!

The book ends with a touching note. It talks about the gratitude of the Vedic folks towards Sarasvati that had nurtured them for long. A testimony to this, is the fact that they decided to remember "her" as an invisible river joining the Ganga and Yamuna in the Triveni Sangam.

So we are at the end of my post. It has been an enriching and educational journey for me. Hope I have  been able to provide a birds eye view of this fabulous journey!

Divine Dissatisfaction

Martha Graham was an American dancer. It is opined that she is to modern dance as Pablo Picasso is to modern painting. However, I know Martha Graham by a quote, which has touched my heart deeply. Here it is:

Agnes de Mille, a close associate and friend of Martha once confesses to her:

"I was bewildered and worried that my entire scale of values was untrustworthy. ... I confessed that I had a burning desire to be excellent, but no faith that I could be."

In reply to that Martha says,

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. ... No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."

- Martha: The life and works of Martha Graham,  by Agnes de Mille (1992) 

Sarasvati: The lost river - Part II

In my previous post, we saw the legends tied around the Sarasvati river and its disappearance. In this post, I will try to cover the part two of the book, about the Harappan Civilization.

All of us have studied the Harappan Civilization (or Indus Valley Civilization, as it is often called) as part of our history curriculum in high school. It is common knowledge that Harappa and Mohenjodaro were the first discovered sites of this ancient civilization, discovered in the early part of 20th century by John Marshall. It is called Indus Valley Civilization in popular discourse (which is technically not the right name; We will see why later).

However, in our history books it is treated as a closed chapter and posited that the civilization vanished without a trace (some say it was decimated by the invading Aryans, which is a bunch of hokum). There is a lot more to it than that. A wealth of research that has been carried out in varied disciplines like Archaeology, Remote Sensing, Genetics, Linguistics and even Computer Science is almost unknown to the layperson! It is an active area even to this day and the holy-grail for all code breakers as it is one of the few (and the oldest) writing systems yet to be deciphered.

Part 2: Harappan Civilization

History of Discovery


In late nineteenth century when the British were laying railroads in Punjab and Sindh regions of North-West India, they needed ballast to stabilize the tracks. The northern plains with its alluvial soil is very unlikely place to get raw materials for ballast. However, they came across huge mounds of very high-quality bricks in a village called Harappa and places nearby. Using these bricks they laid ballast for over 160 km on the Lahore-Multan line. These were the bricks from the ancient city of Harappa!

Soon Alexander Cunningham (founder of Archaeological Survery of India (ASI) ) realized the importance of these ancient bricks to study the history of this place tried to put an end to this. He (and others at that time) were of the opinion that this must some ancient Buddhist site which must be explored. (The west had assumed Mauryan empire to be the starting point of Indian history). But Cunnigham retired soon and did not get a chance to investigate this. The task of excavation (and all the glory that followed) came to John Marshall, a young archaeologist newly appointed in the ASI.

Marshall, enthusiastically pursued the task of excavating these sites. He hired local scholars to determine the significance of the artifacts unearthed. Daya Ram Sahni, a Sanskritist and epigraphist, meticulously looked at the bricks discovered, their proportions and other characteristics. He opined that this belonged to a pre-Mauryan era. At the same time the seals were also discovered. However, they could not still establish a plausible date of these pre-Mauryan artifacts and also decipher the writing on the seals. Marshall published the findings, along with the pictures of the seals in Illustrated London News on 20th September 1924. He also requested if any knowledgeable readers can throw some light on the script. A week later, an Assyriologist pointed out that the same kind of objects were found in Mesopotamia which was dated to 3rd millennium BCE. So, in one stroke, the dates of Indian civilization was pushed back to atleast 3000 BCE! Not only was it a contemporary of Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilization but also reached out to them. A fabulous discovery indeed!

Expanse and number of sites discovered

The expanse of this civilization was huge. It roughly covered 800,000 sq. km., about a quarter of India's present size. Comparing it with its contemporaries, it was larger than ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia put together.

Over 3700 sites are identified as belonging to the civilization and the number is increasing over the years as new sites are being discovered every year.

It was mainly a city oriented civilization. Some of the large cities like Mohenjodaro and Kalibangan were over 100 hectares. In fact, it is estimated that Mohenjodaro supported a population of over 50,000 residents making it a New York or Tokyo of the ancient world.  It was a very prosperous civilization and highly advanced technologically. They carried out trade with distant places ranging from Oxus, Bactria, Dilmun, Magan, Elam, Ur, Kish and so on. Their trade was very far-reaching making it the first globalized market!

Curious and Enigmatic facts of the civilization


Apart from the fact that the Indus script is still undeciphered, there are a lot of unanswered questions challenging researchers about this ancient civilization. Perhaps deciphering the script will unlock many secrets and also put an end to a lot of controversial claims about this civilization. Next, I will list a few curious facts and enigmatic features presented in the book.

• The cities were an engineering feat in themselves. Each city had well constructed roads and boulevards, a well maintained drainage system, systematic construction of houses (sometime containing 2-3 storeys). All this give a feeling that they had a very high degree of civic sense. Attention to detail and effective planning is evident from the excavations (Sadly, absent in many modern Indian cities). The common citizens were pampered and much attention was paid to their well being. 
• Evidence of artifacts of Harappan civilization is seen in far off places. However, no ancient artifact of the other civilizations are found in any Harappan sites. Does that mean the trade was one-sided ? Perhaps they traded only perishable goods .. Nobody has a satisfactory answer
• The civilization is marked by the absence of many "common" aspects that we find in other ancient civilizations. 
• Absence of any royal symbols. No palatial buildings in cities, no royal tombs no sign whatsoever of a powerful ruler controlling the "empire" 
• Absence of military artifacts. No weapons or helmets or shields discovered. None whatsoever of any sign of conflict. Was it a Utopian society ?

Indus Civilization and Sarasvati river

A curious fact that is emerging from recent findings is that the Indus Civilization was not just watered by the Indus river-system alone. There had to be another major river-system that supported this. Starting from the work of legendary archaeologist Aurel Stein, this notion of another river system has been investigated. Location and distribution of the various Indus civilization sites suggest that a significant number of sites are distributed along the now dry Ghaggar-Hakra basin (which is shown to be the ancient Saravati). In the light of these facts, one might question the correctness of naming this as Indus Valley Civilization (It is common practice to name a civilization after its first discovered site, so terming it Harappan Civilization is not incorrect). In fact, many researchers now rightly call it the Indus-Sarasvati Civilization. 

In the next part, I will try to elucidate the continuity in the civilization chain from the Indus to the Ganges Civilization which is part 3 of the book. 

Before signing off, I would like to share an interesting TED talk on attempts to decipher the Indus script.