16 Facts About Sarasvati River

Sarasvati River is a deified river first mentioned in the Rig Veda and later in Vedic and post-Vedic texts.

The Sarasvati is considered by Hindus to exist in a metaphysical form, in which it formed a confluence with the sacred rivers Ganges and Yamuna, at the Triveni Sangam.

Sarasvati River is mentioned in all but the fourth book of the Vedas Macdonell and Keith provided a comprehensive survey of Vedic references to the Sarasvati River in their Vedic Index.

Sarasvati River is mentioned some fifty times in the hymns of the Rig Veda.

Sarasvati River is described to flow in the underworld and rise to the surface at some places.

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For centuries, the Sarasvati river existed in a "subtle or mythic" form, since it corresponds with none of the major rivers of present-day South Asia.

The belief of Sarasvati joining at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna originates from the Puranic scriptures and denotes the "powerful legacy" the Vedic river left after her disappearance.

In lesser known configuration, Sarasvati is said to form the Triveni confluence with rivers Hiranya and Kapila at Somnath.

Several scholars have identified the river with the present-day Ghaggar-Hakra Sarasvati River or dried up part of it, which is located in Northwestern India and Pakistan.

Rig Veda contains several hymns which give an indication of the flow of the geography of the river, and an identification of the Sarasvati as described in the later books of the Rig Veda with the Ghaggra-Hakra:.

Present Ghaggar-Hakra Sarasvati River is a seasonal river in India and Pakistan that flows only during the monsoon season, but satellite images in possession of the ISRO and ONGC have confirmed that the major course of a river ran through the present-day Ghaggar Sarasvati River.

Sarasvati River suggests that in the post-Vedic and Puranic tradition the "disappearance" of Sarasvati, which to refers to "[going] under [the] ground in the sands", was created as a complementary myth to explain the visible non-existence of the river.

Romila Thapar terms the identification controversial and dismisses it, noticing that the descriptions of Sarasvati River flowing through the high mountains does not tally with Ghaggar's course and suggests that Sarasvati River is Haraxvati of Afghanistan.

An alternative suggestion for the identity of the early Rigvedic Sarasvati River is the Helmand River and its tributary Arghandab in the Arachosia region in Afghanistan, separated from the watershed of the Indus by the Sanglakh Range.

The later Rigvedic Sarasvati River is only in the post-Rig Vedic Brahmanas said to disappear in the sands.

The identification with the Ghaggar is problematic, as the Sarasvati River is said to cut its way through high mountains, which is not the landscape of the Ghaggar.