17 Saraswati River Facts: Learn About This Mythical River!

The Saraswati River is one of the main rivers in the Rig Veda mentioned in Sanskrit texts, and also later Vedic and post-Vedic texts.

The Saraswati River played a very important role in the Vedic religion as it appeared in all the books of the Rig Veda, only excluding the fourth. The goddess Saraswati is prayed upon by all Hindus and was earlier the personification of the River Saraswati itself, but later developed into an independent entity.

The Saraswati River is considered by Hindus to exist in the world in a metaphysical form where it joins at the Triveni Sangam with the sacred Yamuna and Ganga. It is said the Vedic Saraswati River is superimposed with the heavenly river Milky Way.

This is seen as a way to immortality and heavenly after-life. The present-day rivers in India are given an identification using Rigvedic and later Vedic texts.

Even ancient riverbeds are named using these sacred texts. The Saraswati River between the Yamuna in the East and Sutlej in the west is mentioned in the Nadistuti hymn in the Rigveda (10.75).

Some texts even say that the river Saraswati dried up in a desert. These texts that mention this phenomenon are Vedic texts like the Tandya and Jaiminiya Brahmanas, and even the Mahabharata.

The ancient River Saraswati has been identified by scholars as the Ghaggar-Hakra river system since the late 19th century. The river is known to flow between the Yamuna River and the Sutlej River through northwestern India and also eastern Pakistan.

The course of the river Saraswati also included Indus Valley Civilization sites like Banawali and Rakhigarhi in Haryana, Kalibangan in Rajasthan, and Dholavira and Lothal in Gujrat.

This theory is considered to be problematic as Ghaggar-Hakra is mentioned separately in the Rig Veda river and is also known to be dried up by the time Vedas and the Hindu epics were made. By the time the Vedic people migrated to northwest India, the Ghaggar-Hakra was already a desert.

The river Saraswati is also sometimes identified with the Haraxvati River or Helmand in Afghanistan. The name may have been taken in the Sanskrit form for the Ghaggar-Hakra River when the Vedic tribes moved to Punjab.

Saraswati may also have referred to two distinct rivers in the Rig Veda. The family books describe the name with the Helmand river, while the recent 10th mandala refers to the Ghaggar-Hakra.

The Indus Valley Civilization is also renamed the Saraswati Civilization, the Saraswati Culture, the Sindhu-Saraswati Civilization, or Indus-Saraswati Civilization. Indus Valley and Vedic cultures can actually be equated and that is seen in the early 21st century. The Indus civilization was located near the bank of Saraswati.

The Story Behind The Mythical Saraswati River

The sacred river is one of the major rivers in Rig Veda and is found in many Sanskrit texts.

Since the beginning of time, the Saraswati River has been a legend. Thousands of years old, the Vedas are full of tantalizing hymns stating the importance of this river and how it was the life-stream of the people.

It was said that the mighty great river of India had flowed from the Himalayas and into the Arabian sea. At the time, the river nourished all of the lands it touched and became a significant river for the civilization.

People have not seen this river in life and consider it mythical.

Many people even believe that the lost river is still alive and is actually invisible now. It flows below the land according to these people.

Many people also believe that the Saraswati River flowed through Allahabad, the city in northern India, and met two other sacred rivers there - the Yamuna and the Ganga. The area where these three holy rivers meet is still considered to be one of India's holiest spots.

The Rig Vedas also have dual impressions of Saraswati. One of the perceptions is Saraswati as a holy river, while the other is as a deity pervading in all three different worlds. However, scholars believe that Rig Vega only says that the goddess is a river and the other deity is another celestial being.

It has been argued by many that the word Saraswati is broken up into two parts, where sara or svara means to go and wati means inclining or tending. So the meaning of the name of the river is said to be one that has the tendency to move or go.

Scholars believe that the Rig Veda denotes a river that has moving characteristics by the name Saraswati.

In the Vedas, Saraswati is the most sung about the river and is also called Ambitame - the best of mothers, Naditame - the best of rivers, and Devitame - the best of goddesses.

Mythological characters like Kartikeya was made the commander of the Deva forces on the bank of the river, Pururava met Urvashi (his wife-to-be) while moving along the river, the war of Mahabharata was fought along the banks of the holy river, and Parshuram took bath in the purifying waters of the Saraswati River after ridding the world of tyranny.

There is a legend that says that humans, demons, and gods earlier interacted transparently with each other. Sages and Rishis created a tangible link between gods and earth and had even the powers to travel between heaven and the earth.

These humans who had attained special powers believed that the only way to gain this for all mankind was through knowledge. They tried to create a link for the transfer of knowledge from heaven to earth.

Thet requested Lord Vishnu to send the Holy Fire of Knowledge from heaven. Lord Vishnu gave the responsibility to Lord Brahma (the keeper of all eternal knowledge).

Brahma agreed and the knowledge when created to a physical form became fire which would engulf all of heaven and earth. The fire was named Badabhaagni – The Monumental Fire of Destiny.

Brahma asked Saraswati to transport this fire to the earth as only she could contain Badabhaagni. She is also symbolically the goddess of knowledge.

Saraswati needed fluid to carry the fire and took the form of the river. More on this later in the article.

The Geographical Location Of The Saraswati River

In the present day, there are various rivers named Saraswati. One such river is known to originate in Rajasthan's Aravalli Mountain range and passes through Sidhpur and Patan. It then submerges in the Rann of Kutch. Another river in Uttarakhand is also known to be a tributary of the Alaknanda River that originates near Badrinath.

Many centuries passed but people could not find the exact path of the mighty River Vedic. Many said it is still an invisible river that meets Ganga and Yamuna in Allahabad.

Scientists later mapped the course of the dried river below the sands of the Thar Desert. The approximately 3500-year-old palaeochannel was found which was believed to be the Saraswati River.

Hindu mythology is intertwined with the geological existence of the river. Right from the journey down the Himalayas, over the plains, and then towards the ancient Arabian Sea (or Sindhu Sagara) are mentioned in the religious texts.

There have been many references to the river Saraswati in the Vedic and post-Vedic periods. Rig Veda says that Saraswati had many recognized tributaries. Rig Veda calls the river the seventh river of the Sindhu-Saraswati River system.

This is why the region bounded by the rivers is known by the name of Saptsindhu. Saraswati is known to be in the east and Sindhu (the current Indus river) in the west. Saraswati was known to be quite larger than the Indus river.

Some of the tributaries of the now lost river like Tangri and Markanda have the name of the Vedic sages. Saraswati when it was still on earth, was known to be the greatest of the rivers that nurtured all living on the banks like a mother.

The river is believed to have descended to the plains of Adi Badri through the Shivalik foothills and from the Himalayas and then join the Arabian Sea at the Rann of Kutch.

The Reason How The Saraswati River Dried Up

According to various theories, the Saraswati River system included Ghaggar River, Markanda River, Chautang River, Sutlej River, and Yamuna River.

Reports say that Yamuna and Sutlej were tributaries of the Saraswati River, but tectonic disturbances in the area in 3700 BCE made the Yamuna move to its present position and Sutlej was diverted to the west. It led to the disappearance of the Saraswati River. All this information is still disputed.

Massive drought and climate change could also have caused the river to dry up.

Hindu Mythology says different. After Brahma asked the fire of knowledge to be delivered to the sages by Saraswati, she agreed to do it.

As Saraswati carried the fire to Earth according to legend, she began to evaporate and had to make the earth on time to hand over the fire of knowledge to the sages.

She plunged into the Himalayas, handed over the fire pot to the rishis and sages, and rushed through the glaciers to cool herself as her body was burning.

She continued to flow until she submerged herself in the ocean.

The heat was still retained in her waters. Thousands of years later, slowly the river evaporated completely from the Earth, but still, flowed below the surface.

Geologically too, astonishingly, the Saraswati River was known to have warm waters.

Who discovered the Saraswati River and when?

A mention of the river is also found in the ancient Vedas of Hindu culture.

The Vedic Saraswati River was identified with the Ghaggar-Hakra River by a number of scholars, archaeologists, and geologists in the 19th and early 20th centuries. These archaeologists and geologists included Christian Lassen (1800-1876), Max Müller (1823-1900), Marc Aurel Stein (1862-1943), C.F. Oldham, and Jane Macintosh.