The indomitable Saraswati: From a river to a strong willed independent woman, the evolution of a Rigveda deity.

Moulded out of a mixture of rich earth procured from the banks of the Ganges and endowed with unmistakable feminine grace, an unfinished sculpture of Saraswati awaits a final touch of adornment inside the makeshift studio of Ajoy Pal, in Ranchi, Jharkhand. The sculpture, at the time ,was being readied for the Bengali festival of Saraswati Puja.

Saraswati in India.

In 21st century India, Saraswati is venerated as the Hindu goddess of learning and wisdom. She is typically portrayed as an ageless beautiful young woman with fair complexion and four arms, holding a manuscript of the Vedas, a rosary, a water pot and the Veena – a stringed musical instrument that is believed to have originated in the subcontinent.

Her physiognomy mirrors the appearance of modern day Indian women, and she is almost always depicted in a white garment, usually the Indian drape style dress known as the Sari. Her paintings at religious places and sculptures in temples further endow her with a cone shaped golden crown.

Her seat is the seedpot of a Lotus and her mascot is the white swan, one that she shares with her creator and husband, Brahma – at other times it is a white goose.

Saraswati in the near and far East.

Elsewhere in the world, Saraswati acquires the lineaments of the people who adopted her and the concept she embodies, and altered it, to better represent their cultures.

In Thailand, Saraswati is Suratsawadi, the deity of learning and wisdom. In Japan, she is worshiped as Benzaiten, the deity of water, wisdom and wealth, and portrayed holding a Japanese lute. In Tibet, she is Yangchenma (to some Yang Chen Drolma), a deity of music, song and poetry. While in China, she is Biancaitian, the deity of eloquence, wisdom and flowing water.

But before all this, before Vedic and later Buddhist monks had spread her essence in the near and far east, she was known as Haruvati in Iran, and was a celestial river goddess of water, fertility, wisdom and healing, and who later transformed into Anahita, a Zoroastrian deity.

This later metamorphosis of Saraswati, however, didn’t begin with Vedic and Buddhist monks venturing eastwards. This deity, whose name literally means the ‘one who flows, or is filled, with water’ has been portrayed and reportrayed in various forms and with various legends since the time of her mention in the Sanskrit Rigveda and the Avestan Aban Yasht.

Once described with the complexion of a Caucasian white, perhaps a passing reference to the Indo-Aryan’s Indo-European roots, and later with a complexion as white as snow, the colour that represented the Vedic’s notion of purity, Saraswati evolution begins in that murky part of history that is explained with hypothesis and theories, supported by archeological finds and linguistics.

However, if we are to strap ourselves into the confines of a Time Machine and go right back to the source, one thing we can be sure to find is that Saraswati was once simply a river, albeit a mighty river with crystal clear waters.

Mention of Saraswati in the Rig Veda.

The Rigveda is a voluminous collection of canonical text from the early Vedic period. A coined Sanskrit term, the name is a combination of two separate words. ‘Rg’, which stands for Praise and ‘Veda’, which means knowledge. Together, the words stand as ‘Praise Knowledge’ or ‘Praise be to Knowledge’.

It is universally believed to be oldest Vedic texts in existence and was broadly composed between 1500 and 1000 Bce, although some scholars have suggested an alternate time span of 3000-6000 Bce.

This ancient literature was orally composed, memorized by rote and transmitted down generations for thousands of years before it was finally put on birch barks and palm leaves that served as paper in the 11th century. The earliest surviving manuscript of the Rigveda has been dated back to 1040 Ce, and which is not even a fraction of the entire span the Rigveda has been in existence.

In its most complete form, the Rigveda comprises of approximately 1,028 suktas (hymns), 10,600 verses, 10, 000 stanzas and is organized into 10 Mandalas (or books).

It is considered to be an important historical document because its vast volumes of hymns quintessentially contain the thoughts and beliefs of the Vedics, their history, their life and times, and the record of their migration from a distant homeland to the subcontinent.

Within its hymns, one finds the mention of the people the Vedics encountered, the lands they settled in or traveled through, and of course their gods and goddesses.

Saraswati in the Rigveda: A River and a River Goddess.

In the Rigveda, Saraswati called Sarasvati, is a uncontrollable mighty river roaring its way into a Samudra, a Sanskrit word that literally means a gathering of waters such as a lake, a pool or the sea itself.

Her augmented description as given in the hymns, praise and celebrate her as Sindhumatre (mother of all rivers), Saptasvasa (the seventh sister) and Sapta Sindhava (one of the seven rivers). This ‘seven’, being the number of her tributaries.

Two of her sisters are the Drsavdati and the Apaya, and her source is at an unreachable place known as Plaksaprasravana (mentioned in the Srautasutras Asvalayana, late Rigveda hymns, composed 500 Bce).

All three rivers, the Rigveda tells us, flows to the Samudra independently, but she is the most revered among them all.

Most other passages of the Rigveda, elevate Sarasvati to the status of a mother goddess and venerate her as Ambitame (best among all mothers), Naditame (best among rivers) and Devitame (best among all goddesses).

As a mighty river, she is the swiftest of the swift, the shatterer of forts, a destroyer of mountains and the slayer of Virtra (demon of drought). As a celestial deity, she is a companion of the Maruts (storm deities), and a divine healer, nourisher and purifier whose clear water is like an affectionate mother’s milk that nourishes and replenishes.

Her celestial domain is the Apas (Sanskrit for water) and she descended to earth from the heavens or the star filled milky way. Her male counterpart is Sarasvant, a deity with similar virtues, although who is not her consort, and who she overshadows.

In the Rigveda, Sarasvati is mentioned over seventy times, and it is through the hymns of the Rigveda again that we come to know that on her banks had dwelled five Vedic tribes and several kings.

Saraswati in the Rigveda: A deity who inspires the flow of Intellect.

The Rigveda, does not categorically describe Sarasvati as the deity of knowledge. She is simply venerated as the bestower of ‘dhi’ and who feeds the wise (the holy sages) with a steady flow of the milk of ‘dhi’ (a Sanskrit word that means inspired thought or intellect). Implying, that besides her role as a river goddess, Sarasvati was the flow of intellect.

On the contrary, it is the deity Bharati who is venerated as the deity of knowledge. This deity was invoked to bring delight to sacrifices and was the primary deity of infinite knowledge and eloquent speech. Bharati, has been further described as the patron deity of the Bharata race.

In the Rigveda too, Sarasvati is also not the ‘Mother of the Vedas’ as in latter Vedic texts. This honour is bestowed to ‘Vac’ who is both the deity of speech and sound, and speech and sound itself.

This deity is described in the Rigveda, as an omnipresent being who lives among both mortals and gods. She is one, who grants all things in nature with the ability to express themselves with sound and in the case of wise men, to express visions and ideas with words.

Vac is a central and major concept in the Rigveda. The name is Sanskrit in origin and often said to mean, ‘the spoken word’.

Saraswati in the Rigveda: The relation between Saraswati, Bharati and Vac.

The deities Sarasvati, Bharati and Vac in the Rigveda are described as different female deities but who are linked together when it comes to the assimilation and transmission of knowledge.

Bharati is infinite knowledge, Sarasvati is the flow of this knowledge and the inspiration to acquire this knowledge, and Vac (Mother of Vedas) is the final spoken word containing the knowledge – since at this time the Vedas were orally composed, and paramount importance was put on spoken words and the way the words were uttered.

Saraswati in the Rigveda: A celibate goddess.

It is interesting to note, that the Rigveda without spelling it out, portrays Sarasvati as a celibate goddess. In the Rigveda, Sarasvati has no husband. She is neither the consort of Brahama nor is she one of the many forms of the female Shakti, as one finds later during the Puranic period.

She is also not the manifestation of Brahma’s other wife Gayatri or is Savitri. In the Rigveda, Gayatri is a 24 syllable mantra dedicated to Savitr (also called Savitar, Savitri and Savita). Savitr is the sun and a male deity.

Furthermore, in the Rigveda her qualities as a mother are anthropomorphic, and though she is personified to an extent, she is specifically not presented in human form.

Saraswati in the Rigveda: Location of the River.

In the India of the 21st Century, there are rivers and lesser streams that bear the name of Saraswati. Some were named by the Vedics of the Rigveda period and some were named in recent times.

In West Bengal there is a tributary of the Hooglie that is known as the Saraswati. In Gujrat, there is a Saraswati river that originates in the Aravali mountain range and disappears in the desert of Kutch. In Uttrakhand, there is a tributary of the Alaknanda river named Saraswati, that originates near Baidrinath. Then there is the Sarsuti that flows from the Shivalik hills and the Gaggar-Hakkra.

Among all these river to bear the name of Saraswati, there are two candidates often identified as the Saraswati river of the Rigveda.

The first is the seasonal Sarsuti river that originates in the Shivalik range in south-eastern Himachal Pradesh and later merges with the waters of the Gaggar-Hakkra as a tributary, and the latter is the Gaggar-Hakkra itself.

Saraswati in the Rigveda: The Gaggar-Hakkra river system.

A more popular candidate, the Gaggar-Hakkra is not a single river but a river system with five tributaries. Namely, the Chautang, the Markanda, the Kaushalya and of course the Sarusti. It is some 460 km in length and at the end of its journey disappears into the dry sands of the Thar.

Sometimes also referred to as the Sarasvati river system, the Gaggar-Hakkra flows through the states of Punjab and Haryana and via two canals into Rajasthan on the Indian side of the border, and exists as a dried up channel at Bahawalpur in Pakistan. The waterway is known as Gaggar till the Ottu Barrage at Sirsa in Haryana, India, and as Hakkra in Pakistan.

While since the 2nd Millennium Bce, the Gaggar-Hakkra has been a seasonal monsoon fed waterway, in the 3rd Millennium Bce, it was a perennial and major river system, that had brimmed with the collective waters of its tributaries as well as that of the Sutlej and the Yamuna, and flowed into the Nara river, a major delta of the Indus and thereafter into the sea.

The late Braj Basi Lal, a prominent Indian Archeologist and a former Director General of the Archeological Survey of India (1968 -1972) was one among a group of scholars who believed the Gaggar Hakkra was indeed the Sarasvati river of the Rigveda.

During his tenure as an archeologist, Lal had conducted extensive excavations of various cultures to have grown roots in the country of India. His research papers related to the Copper Hoard and the Painted Grey Ware cultures, and analysis of the Harappan script continues to be of great value and is often cited by scholars and researchers.

His excavations of Harappan sites refuted the theory of a violent Aryan conquest of the Harappan civilization, and which is now widely accepted.

In Lal’s opinion, explicit description provided in the Rigveda regarding the location of the Sarasvati river between the Sutlej and the Yamuna, its drying up and disappearance, all implied the Gaggar-Hakkra was indeed the river Sarasvati.

Supported by satellite images produced by Landsat and the SRTM program, Lal had further pointed out that the Gaggar-Hakkra was a perennial river in the ancient past, and thus was the ideal candidate to qualify as the mighty Sarasvati.

However, it is to be noted here, Lal, in later life, was an ardent advocate of ‘Cultural Continuity’ and strongly opposed the mainstream ‘Indo-Aryan Migration’ theory. In his view the Vedics of the Rigveda and the Harappans were one and the same people.

The geographical area covered by the Rigvedic people, as given in the Rigveda 10:75 (hymn to the rivers), lay from the Ganga-Yamuna on the east to the Indus on the west. A simple question may now be posed: which archeological culture occupied the above region during the period prior to 2000 Bce, when the Saraswati dried up? The inescapable answer is: it was the Harappan civilization.

Braj Basi Lal, Indian Archeologist (2nd May, 1921 – 10th Sep, 2011)

According to Lal, there was hardly any archeological evidence that proved an Indo-Aryan migration had taken place, and cultural traits to be found in modern Indian societies, especially in the region of Punjab, was rooted in the Harappan past.

In India, at the time, Lal was criticized by historian Ram Sharan Sharma, Romila Thapar and Dwijendra Narayan Jha for historical revisionism, deviation from objective and scientific criteria, and promoting a pro Hinduvata narrative.

Although, it needs to be pointed out, Lal isn’t the only one to oppose the widely accepted mainstream theory of ‘Indo-Aryan’ migrations. In this camp one can also find the British anthropologist Edmund Leach, the American bioanthropologist Kenneth Kennedy, the archeologist Jim Shaffer and a host of other Indian and International Indigenists (people who oppose the Indo-Aryan migration). There numbers, though, are exceptionally few when compared to mainstream scholars.

His hypothesis while popular within the framework of nationalistic discourses and narratives, is not seen as conclusive evidence by main stream scholars for its geological, chronological and textual discrepancies, not to mention absence of linguistic support.

From the geological point of view, while surveys have indeed confirmed the Gaggar Hakkra was a formidable river system in the 3rd millennium Bce, it has also revealed that the tectonic events that altered the course of the Sutlej and left the Gaggar-Hakkra to dry up, occurred in the 2nd Millennium Bce, prior to the advent of the Vedics in India.

Then, there is also Lal’s ‘Indigenous Evolution’ aspect, that is considered flawed.

Alternately, it was been suggested the Sarasvati river of the early Rigveda period was the Avestan Haetuman, known in present times as the Hemland.

Saraswati in the Rigveda: The Hemland river.

The Helmand is approximately, 1150 kms in length and is the longest river in Afghanistan. It originates near Kabul in the Hindukush mountains and its largest tributary is the Arghandab. The Hemland flows primarily through the southern parts of Afghanistan and deposits into a large inland lake known as Hamun.

One important evidence, proponents of the Hemland put forward in support is the analysis of ancient languages. According to these scholars, Sanskrit and Avestan, an ancient language of the Iranian people share many similarities, for the Vedics of the Rigveda and the ancient Iranians, were once the same Indo-Iranian people, a subgroup of the larger Indo-European people.

Saraswati in the Rigveda: The Indo-European language.

It is widely believed among mainstream scholars the language of the Indo-Europeans of which Sanskrit and Avestan is a part, evolved in the prehistoric Indo-European homeland of the European steppes, and was in use by 4500 Bce. The Kurgan hypothesis by archeologist Marija Gimbutas in 1956, identifies this prehistoric homeland as the Pontic steppes, north of the Blacksea.

The Kurgan hypothesis is a widely accepted hypothesis and posits the Kurgan people as semi nomadic pastoralists and who having learned to use the wheel and raise livestock had migrated in small numbers into Europe and Central Asia when environmental changes had made the Pontic steppes colder and drier.

Saraswati in the Rigveda: The Indo-Iranians and their language.

The Indo-Iranians were the easternmost tribes of these Indo-European speaking people. They are believed to have come into power as the Sintashta culture on the southern steppes of the Urals and in northern Kazakhistan.

In archeology, the Sintashta culture is identified with Indo-Iranians, separated from other Indo-European branches for their invention and use of the horse drawn spoked wheel chariot. Later migrations into Siberia and Central Asia had led to its evolution into the larger Andronova culture.

The language of these Indo-Iranians was basically the Indo-European language but differentiated by phonological shifts in pronunciation and possibly a sprinkling of non-European words they adopted during their assimilation of other culturally different people. Simply put, these people spoke the same language but with an accent.

Saraswati in the Rigveda: The Iranians, Indo-Aryans and their languages.

The Iranians and Indo-Aryans were two branches of the Indo-Iranians. The language they spoke was the Indo-Iranian language but differentiated by further phonological alterations, expression of consonants and in the way they used vowels.

These differences are believed to have emerged because these two groups were geographically divided and had migrated via different routes at different points of time.

There is, however, no clear consensus on when these two groups had specifically diverged in the 2nd Millennium Bce and which out of these two was the first to arrive in the Oxus basin where at the time had dwelled the settled farmers of the Bactria Margiana culture, and who had profoundly influenced their later identities and languages.

Saraswati in the Rigveda: Emergence of the Iranians and Indo-Aryans.

Viktor Sarianidi, a Soviet era Russian archeologist, believed the original builders of the Bactria Margiana culture were early Iranians from south west Asia. He believed these people were essentially farmers pushed into finding suitable agricultural land due to the effects of the 4.2 kiloyear event that had ushered in wide spread aridization and cooling and led to water shortages and ecological challenges in their homeland.

Sarianidi was the archeologist who discovered the Bactria Margiana Archeological Culture in 1976.

He had conducted extensive excavations in the region, and findings had led him to postulate that the original settlers were from the Syria and Anatolia region, and who had reached Central Asia via Iran and Afghanistan.

These people, in Sarianidi’s view, had brought along with them the architecture of their homeland, which they had modified to suit their new geographical locale, and the hallucinogenic Soma/ Haoma drink.

According to Sarianidi, these early Iranians from Syria and Anatolia were later joined by a branch of Indo-Iranians from the Andronovo culture, in the 2nd millennium Bce. These two branches had initially coexisted peacefully since they were related. The hostilities that one finds mentioned in the Avesta and the Rigveda had only emerged during a later phase.

In Sarianidi’s opinion the early Iranians of the Bactria Margiana Culture were the Indo-Aryans, and who had lived in the proximity of the Harappan civilization for a long time. However, it is to be noted, in Sarianidi’s view, both the early Iranians of the Bactria Margiana culture and the Andronovo Iranians, were from the Syria-Anatolia region.

In line with Sarianidi’s hypothesis, it is thus not wrong to assume the Indo-Iranians had effectively separated into the two separate branches of Iranians and the Indo-Aryans in Afghanistan, where the Bactria Margiana settlements were located. Possibly over, later theological differences and tribal rivalries.

The Andronovo culture can be looked upon as an ancient Iranian one but not as Indo-Aryan. Since until now no signs of the Andronovo tribes is found on the Indian Subcontinent. Only the tribes of the BMCA can claim the role of Indo-Aryans, this being materially proved by the corresponding sites of Baluchistan, Quetta, Merhgarh-Sibri and others, that are located on the borders of the Harappan Civilization in the direct vicinity of the Indus Valley cities.

Viktor Sarianidi, a Soviet era, Russian archeologist, who discovered the Bactria Margiana culture ((22nd September, 1932 – 22nd December, 2013)

The Finnish Indologist, Asok Parpola, on the other hand believes the split between the Iranians and Indo-Aryans had occurred during the Poltavka / Sintashta period. In his view, it was the Indo-Aryans from this period who had arrived first at the Oxus basin, merged with the people there and taken over leadership by aligning themselves with the local elites.

Interaction with the existing trans-Elamite people of the Bactria Margiana culture had evolved the beliefs and practices of these Indo-Aryans, and from these Oxus people of the Bactria Margiana culture, they had picked up the practice of fire rituals and the art of making the intoxicating Soma/Haoma drink – which features explicitly in both the Rigveda and the Avesta.

Asok Parpola further states, that at this time the mixed population of the Bactria Margiana culture may have probably spoken both the old Elamite language and Indo-Aryan, with the former greatly influencing the latter.

Furthermore, a sub branch of these Indo-Aryans from the Oxus had then migrated to Syria where they had established the Mitanni kingdom, whose ethnic composition was found to contain a large population of the earlier Hurrian people ruled by an elite group of Indo-Arayans, and who had worshiped the Indo-Aryan deities of Mitra, Varuna, Indra and Nasatya.

Those Indo-Aryans who were still in the Oxus basin were later joined by Iranian tribes from the Andronovo culture. These new arrivals had settled in next to the Indo-Aryans and in the initial days were heavily influenced by the latter, evident by several loanwords that were discovered to have appeared in the Iranian language during this time.

The Iranians had remained behind in Central Asia and Afghanistan, when the majority of the Indo-Aryans tribes (and there were a total of 30), had descended onto the plains of Punjab in India. The Iranians had later displaced any Indo-Aryan tribe that existed in Central Asia and Afghanistan and expanded towards the Iranian plateau. Parpolo, identifies these Iranians as the horse riding Sakas.

Iranian and Indo-Aryan are anachronistic terms for groups of languages spoken in the Eurasian steppes and the forest steppes. These terms simply reflect the fact that these languages were ancestral to the two chief branches of the Aryan languages nowadays spoken mainly in Iran and India.

Asok Parpola, professor emeritus of Indology at the University of Helsinki.

Here it is important to note, the migration of the Indo-Aryan tribes into India did not happen at a single moment in time. The migration was very gradual and these people had entered India from Afghanistan over generations. Parpola identifies the earliest Indo-Aryan tribes to have penetrate into India to be the Yadu, the Turvasa, the Anu and the Druhyu. Followed by the Puru and the Bharata at a later date. The Puru and Bharata had overpowered the earlier tribes and asserted their dominance.

Parpola also identified the Saraswati river with the Helmand and which is narrated in a passage below.

The Saraswati in the Rigveda: Appearance of Sanskrit and Avestan.

Sanskrit and Avestan is believed to have been developed between 1500-1200 Bce. Since both these new languages had emerged from the common Indo-Iranian tongue, similar words and descriptions are to be found in both, and which doesn’t just reveal shared terminology but also a shared history and culture.

The difference between the two languages are mostly phonetic and in their use of cognates. For instance ‘Sindhu’ in Sanskrit is ‘Hindu’ in Avestan; ‘Soma’ in Sanskrit is ‘Haoma’ in Avestan; ‘Deva’ in Sanskrit is ‘Daeva’ in Avestan; ‘Asura’ in Sanskrit is ‘Ahura’ in Avestan; and ‘Araiya’ in Sanskrit is ‘Haraiva’ in Avestan.

Thus to indologists Avestan and Sanskrit is of great importance for a study of these ancient texts help correlate events and understand history better.

Like the Rigveda that is divided into Mandalas (books or chapters), the Iranian Avesta comprises of the Yasna, Gathas; the Visperade; the Videvdat (Vendidad); Yashts; and the Khordeh Avesta.

Saraswati in the Rigveda and Avesta: Mentions of the River.

In regard to the Sarasvati of the Rigveda, mainstream scholars, believe that this mighty river was the Avestian ‘Haetumant’ and which in Sanskrit was known as the ‘Setumant’. One among these scholars is Professor Rajesh Kochhar, an astrophysicist and historian of science. In fact, in Kochhar’s opinion the Rigveda is not describing a single river but two, and to prove this point, Kochhar presents several bits of evidence.

This includes among other things, a geological history of the Gaggar Hakkra, the geographical locales of rivers and their tributaries, the natural habitat of the Soma plant, chronology of Rigveda hymns, and like all modern historians, he supports his argument with archeological and linguistic evidence.

His approach is methodical and he does not limit his study to within the present day borders of modern India, popular opinions and nationalistic discourse.

Kochhar begins his explanation by first dividing the timeline of the Sarasvati. He associates the oldest descriptions of the river in the Rigveda with the ‘Naditame Sarasvati’ and the youngest descriptions of her with the ‘Vinasana Sarasvati’ (from the Nadisukta hymn of the Rigveda).

According to Kochhar, the description of the Naditame Sarasvati, as given in the oldest hymns of the Rigveda, was that of a majestic and lengthy river on the banks of which had dwelled five tribes and several kings.

This river had gushed forth with great power from its source and coursed its way to the Samudra (gathering of waters). Its seven tributaries had brimmed with water and it was flanked by the Drsavdati and the Apaya, two independent rivers that made their own way to the Samudra.

This description, however, Kochhar points out, does not correspondence to the Sarasvati river in India for even if the snow fed waters of the Sutlej and the Yamunna had once made the lower part of the Gaggar-Hakkra a roaring river in the ancient past, the upper part would have still have remained a seasonal rivulet, as it is today.

Moreover, the tributaries of the Gaggar-Hakkra are themselves all seasonal rivulets.

This aside, in the Rigveda there is also no mention of the Sutudri (Sutlej) flowing into the Naditame Saraswati or the Nadisukta Saraswati. On the contrary, the Rigveda explicitly relates the Sutudri (Sutlej) with the Vipasa (Beas).

Furthermore, mentions Kochhar, the locale of Naditame Sarasvati was vast and contained many hills and lakes. In comparison the hilly region of the Gaggar-Hakkra is small and devoid of lakes.

Additionally, Kochhar brings to attention the intoxicating juice of the Soma plant that was so vital for the early Vedic’s fire rituals and again points out, that while from the Rigveda we know the Soma plant was to be found on the banks of the Saraswati and the Indus, it is not to be found in the hilly banks of the Gaggar-Hakkra, and if it was, there would never have arisen the need to find a substitute during the Brahmana period.

On the other hand, reveals Kochhar, there is a striking similarity between the Avestan river Haetumant and the Rigveda’s Saraswati. Both the Avesta (Yasht) and the Rigveda speak of the Saraswati as a mighty river that swiftly moved from its source in the snowclad Hindukush mountains to its mouth, the Hamun lake (known as the Haravatti basin in ancient times) – and an area that is a marshland with pools and small lakes.

The upper Hemland has seven tributaries and in ancient times when there were no dams the Hemland had burst out and flooded its banks in Spring when the snow melted. It is also flanked by the Arghandab which joins it at Qala Bist, the Tarnak, Farah-rud and the Fradath-rud.

The Naditama Sarasvati is, thus, the Hemland for not only does it match its Avestan description but also all the attributes given in the Rigveda.

It is noteworthy that there is an uncanny similarity between the Rigvedic description of Sarasvati and Avestan description of Helmand (old name Haetumant=Setumant). Rigveda (6.61.8) talks of Sarasvati ‘whose limitless unbroken flood, swiftly moving with a rapid rush, comes onward with a tempestuous roar’, while Yasht (10.67) refers to ‘the bountiful, glorious Haetumant swelling its white waves rolling down its copious floods’. This suggests that the same river is meant in both cases.

Rajesh Kochhar, Astrophysicist and Historian of Science (26th October, 1946 – 13th March, 2022)

Kochhar then tackles the Vinasana Sarasvati, which he believes is the Gaggar-Hakkra and which the Rigveda places between the Sutlej and the Yammuna. He tells us, that the Nadisukta is a hymn on rivers and is to be found only in the tenth mandala (book or chapter) of the Rigveda, and which is its youngest portion.

This hymn in essence praises the river Indus with all the qualities that was once attributed to Sarasvati, and all other rivers are just mentioned in passing.

Kochhar’s assessment corresponds to the widely accepted view that in this phase of history, the early Indo-Aryans were settled in India and to preserve the memory of the original river on the banks of which their forefathers had begun compiling the Vedas, they had simply named the Gaggar Hakkra as the Sarasvati.

In an interview with Newsgram, a public supported digital first media organization, Kochhar expressed the view, that conducting extensive archeological excavation in Southern Afghanistan could reveal valuable clues on India. He believes a rigorous, objective, open-ended, multi-national investigation into the hydrological history of the Ghaggar-Hakra system, would settle the question of the identity of the Naditama Sarasvati once and for all (see the interview on the Newsgram website: Rigveda people not Harappans. Naditame Saraswati is Hemland in Afghnaistan.)

Kochhar, is among a few to hold the opinion even the Kurukshetra was originally a place in Afghanistan and all names and events to have occurred in the Rigveda were later transferred to places and locales in India.

Sarasvati of the Rigveda: Divodasa and his enemies, the horse mounted Dasas (Sakas/ Dahae).

Asok Parpola, a Finnish Indologist, is another scholar who supports the Hemland. Parpola extensively relies on linguistics and archeology to solve historical mysteries and his research into the Vedas (including the Rigveda) has yielded crucial insights into the prehistoric development of Indo-Aryans and their relation with the Iranians. He is considered to be an eminent scholar of Vedic Sanskrit and the Samaveda.

He is also, and perhaps, the only scholar to propose, the split between the Iranians and Indo-Aryans occurred at a much earlier date than is general believed. Parpola believes the Indo-Aryans migrated to the Oxus basin (Bactria Margiana Archeological Culture) in two waves. The first to arrive where from the Poltavka / Sintashta period and the latter from the Andronova period.

In the Rigveda, Parpola identifies the Dasa, Dasyu and Pani, enemies of the Rigveda Aryans, with the Saka Iranians of the Yaz I culture. His study of the Rigveda reveals, the battle mentioned in the texts, were neither waged with the inhabitants of the Indus civilization, nor where they fought in India.

These battles, Parpola believes took place in the mountainous region of Afghanistan, where the Hemland flows and which the Rigveda Aryans knew as the Sarasvati. Specifically, they took place in the Indo-Iranian borderlands enroute to the Indus valley.

Parpola supports his view with architectural evidence and draws a comparison between the ‘Dasa’ fortified settlements mentioned in the Rigveda with the architecture of the Indus valley to reveal that the ‘Dasa’ fortifications were designed with many concentric and circular walls, a type of architecture absent in the Indus valley.

Furthermore, Parpola crosschecks with the Avesta’s Videvdad, which contains a description of Ahura Mazda ordering the first Iranian king Yima to build a fortress in the Aryan expanse, which contained plenty of grass for cattle but offered no shelter during the long winter. Parpola underlines, a section that describes king Yima having to crush earth and knead it with his fingers to built the fortress – a construction method, Parpola explains, matches the current Afghan qala with its thick pakhsa walls.

Parpola also notes the Rigveda’s description of the battle fought between a Dasa named Sambara and Divodasa are realistic depictions and not hyperbolic.

In Rigveda (hymn 6.61.1 -3), Parpola points out, the Indo-Aryan king Vadhryasva worships Sarasvati with offerings for a mighty son, and pleased with his devotion the celestial river goddess grants him his wish and thus is born the mighty Divodasa in the land of Arachosia. In the same hymn Sarasvati is praised for taking away the nourishment (pastures and cattle) of king Divodasa’s enemies, the Pani.

Likewise in Rigveda (hymn 6.61.2) Sarasvati is invoked for divine help with praises and prayers. She is described as the one whose gushing and powerful waves crushes the ridge of the mountains, breaks river banks like a man who digs for lotus roots; and one who slays strangers/foreigners.

In Rigveda (hymn 6.61.3) Sarasvati is called upon to throw down the deva revilers, the descendant of every Brsya- a name that according to Parpola was a hereditary royal title associated with the Iranians.

It is widely accepted that the Sarasvati mentioned here (Rigveda hymn 6.61.1 to 6.61.3) is the river that gave the name Haraxvaiti (in Avestan) or Harahuvati (in Old Persian) or Arachosia (in Greek) to the province of the Persian empire in southeastern Afghanistan that is chiefly watered by this river. It is generally identified with the Arghandab that descends from a height of nearly four kilometers down to about 700 meters, when it joins the Helmand River, which eventually forms shallow lakes; and the name Sarasvati means having ponds or lakes. The Helmand’s present Pashto name comes from Avestan Haetumant (having dams). In the dry season the Arghandab, too, may become a series of lakes.

Asok Parpola, professor emeritus of Indology at the University of Helsinki.

Parpola believes this Divodasa of the Rigveda was the father or grandfather of Sudas, who fought in the famous battle of the ten kings in the region of Punjab. According to Parpola, Divodasa was likely to have crossed the Afghan highlands from Kandahar to Kabul and from there entered Swat. The battles he fought against the fortified settlements of the Dasa was possibly in Waziristan.

In the Rigveda, Divodasa and Purukutsa, are described as having vanquished black-skinned enemies called Dasa, Dasyu and Paṇi, who neither worshiped Indra nor sacrificed Soma but had their own observances and were rich in cattle.

Purukutsa, was a king/chief of the Puru clan while Divodasa (born in Arachosia/Afghanistan) was a king/chief of the Bharata clan. In Parpola’s opinion it was these two who had led the immigration over the Hindukush mountains to the Indus Valley, around 1400-1200 Bce.

Regarding the name Dasa (in Avestan, Danha / in old Persian, Daha), Parpola is of the mind, that although in the Rigveda it refers to a ‘member of an enemy tribe’ the name originally meant ‘Man’. Later as the Indo-Aryans took ‘Dasas’ as war captives, the name changed in meaning to slave or servant.

Here, Parpola draws a comparison with the Finnish word for war captive / slave ‘Orja’ which in Sanskrit / Iranian is ‘Arya’. The word appeared after the Fins had conquered their neighbours, the ‘Aryas’.

The Saraswati of the Rigveda: The river Harut.

Charles Allen, a British historian and writer, specifically identifies the Sarasvati of the Rigveda with the Avestan Haraxvatti (Harauvati in Persian), and which is the river Harut.

The Harut also known as the Adraskan is a 395 km long river. Its source lies in three streams in the mountains located on the southeast of Herat and it flows in the Sistan basin. Like the more majestic Helmand, the Harut also deposits its waters in the Hamun lake.

Allen explains, the Sanskrit word, Sarasvati, is in essence a linguistic derivation of the Avestan Haraxvatti (pronounced by the later Persians as Harauvati), and was the ancient name of the river that is today known as the Harut.

This Harauvati river, was scared to the Zoroastrians as the home of the river goddess Surta Aanahitya, the mighty and pure one. She was a divinity of the water who nurtured cattle and crops and was associated with fertility, healing and wisdom. This Surta Aanahitya, says Allen, was not the twin sister of Sarasvati but another name of Sarasvati.

The Harauvati river, was scared to the Zoroastrians as the home of the river goddess Surta Aanahitya, ‘the mighty and pure one’ the divinity of the water who nurtured cattle and crops and was associated with fertility, healing and wisdom. Surta Aanahitya is not so much the goddess Saraswati’s twin sister as herself by another name. Here then is the original Saraswati river and the Arya homeland.

Charles Allen, Historian and Writer.

The faith of Zoroastrian, that Allen mentions, was introduced by the prophet Zarathustra (Zoroaster) between 1500-1000 Bce. He was a descendant of the Indo-Iranian people from whom had emerged the Iranians and the Indo-Aryans.

Many scholars hold the opinion, Zarathustra spoke the old Avestan language and was a member of the Iranians who had migrated to Afghanistan and later ventured into Iran. Furthermore, it has been discovered the Gathas (oldest portions of the Avesta) he composed, shares many similarities with the hymns of the Rigveda.

The Saraswati of the Rigveda: A river theory that makes sense.

Kochhar’s proposition, that the Sarasvati river of the Rigveda is essentially two rivers is perhaps the most convincing and logical. It makes it easier to understand the passages of the Rigveda that associates two widely different descriptions of the same river without offering any explanations, and which has often confused people in the past.

The Indo-Aryans, who begun to migrate into India in 1400 Bce, were settled many years in the region of what is today the country of Afghanistan and their neighbours were the Iranians, and who had eventually displaced them.

Upon migrating into India, and fully aware there would be going back, they had begun allotting old names to rivers and places, wherever it was applicable. As a mark of reverence and to preserve the memory of the original, they had named several streams and rivers they found in their new home as the Sarasvati, the mighty river that had nourished and sustained their ancestors.

Both the Iranians and the Indo-Aryans had used the self-appellation ‘Arya’ and which according to scholars stand for ‘Nobles or Lords’. In the Rigveda ‘Arya’ is also used to describe the followers of Indra.

As to why they decided to name the upper reaches of the Gaggar-Hakkra as the Sarasvati is not clear. But there are possible explanations.

When the Rigveda Aryans had discovered and named the mountain streams of the Gaggar Hakkra that flows in the Shivalik hills, these streams had marked the border of the land they claimed and called Arayavarta. Beyond had lain the unknown lands of Sudras, Abhiras and Nisadas (according to Kochhar).

Perhaps for a superstitious people it was divine protection, or perhaps like these streams, the Hemland had once served as a boundary. Perhaps it was just a matter of asserting their identity through their favourite deity. Renaming was a common practice among the Vedic people of the Rig Veda period. In fact, a total of seven rivers in India have been found to be named Sarasvati by the early Vedics.

What can be understood is that this was their way to feel more at home in a new land. Thus they had selectively renamed rivers and places with the names of treasured things they could not bring along in their wagons.

It may also have been the only way to bring along their gods and goddesses, since at this time there were no sculptures of Sarasvati to carry around. In fact, it’s highly doubtful, Sarasvati at this stage in history was even given a human form.

Some readers, especially those who have grown up with the knowledge that Kurukshetra, Sarasvati and other Sanskrit names from the Rigveda period are Indian in origin and solely to be found in India, may find Kochhar’s interpretations odd or maybe completely weird.

Nevertheless, it is important to keep in mind, modern day historical findings are based on evidence produced by several streams of science working in tandem. Kochhar’s hypothesis may turn out to be wrong one day, but there is a much higher probability they will be proved correct in days to come.

History, as the saying goes, can sometimes be stranger than fiction.

I F I This is an independent story highlighting the evolution of the Hindu deity Saraswati from her riverine origin in the Rigveda. The story at this stage sheds light on her portrayal in the Rigveda, the location of the Sarasvati river, and how eminent scholars approach the topic. Additionally, the story is intended to acquaint one with related topics such as the evolution of the Indo-European languages and the Indo-Aryans. It has been created out of facts curated from literary and historical sources. In future this story shall be extended to include the evolution of the deity from the Brahmana period to the present day. I take this opportunity to extend my heartfelt gratitude to sculptor Ajoy Pal for allowing me to take a photo of this unfinished yet beautiful sculpture of Saraswati that was in his studio, when others had refused permission I