Panel on Mythical Saraswati River

In News

• The Centre has reconstituted an advisory committee to prepare a plan for studying the mythical Saraswati river for the next two years, earlier the panel’s term ended in 2019.

Background

• The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on March 10 issued a notification for “reconstitution of the Advisory Committee for the Multidisciplinary Study of the River Sarasvati”.
  • The ASI had first set up the committee on December 28, 2017, for a period of two years.
• The committee would continue to be chaired by the Union Minister of  Culture.
• Other members include officials from the Culture, Tourism, Water Resources, Environment and Forest, Housing and Urban Affairs Ministries.
  • Representatives of the Indian Space Research Organisation
  •  Officials from the governments of Gujarat, Haryana and Rajasthan and an ASI official.
  • There is a 27-member panel among the “non-official members”.

About  Saraswati river

• Geographical Origin: It had originated from Kapal tirith in the Himalayas in the west of Kailash, was flowing southward to Mansarovar and then taking a turn towards west.
• The river flowed through Haryana, Rajasthan and North Gujarat. It also flowed through Pakistan before meeting Western Sea through Rann of Kutch and was approximately 4,000 km in length.

Historical Evidence

• The Saraswati, named after the Goddess of Learning.
  • The name `Saraswati’ has been used in most of the ancient literature like Vedas, Manusmriti, Mahabharata and Puranas.

• There are frequent references to River Saraswati in Vedic literature (80 times than that of River Ganges). No other river has received so much importance and respect as Saraswati.

• It is said the river supported the Harappan civilization nearly 4,500 years ago.
• According to the description found in Mahabharata, Saraswati originated from a place called Adi Badri, which is just above Yamunanagar in Haryana and just below the Shivalik hills.
• The ‘Sapta Sindhu’ in Rig Veda refers to the rivers Saraswati, Satadru (Sutlej), Vipasa (Beas), Asikni (Chenab), Purushni (Ravi), Vitasta (Jhelum) and Sindhu (Indus). Among these, the Saraswati and the Sindhu were major rivers that flowed from the mountains right up to the sea.

Various Initiatives for Saraswati River

• At present more than 70 organisations including ISRO, GSI, SOI, ASI, ONGC, NIH Roorkee, BARC and Saraswati River Research Institute are engaged in research work of Saraswati river heritage.

• The Saraswati Heritage Development Board was established in 2015 by the Haryana state government for research and other works on Saraswati.
  • The main function of this board is to revitalise the river and to highlight Indian cultural heritage across the globe.

• Saraswati River Scheme has been finalised according to old maps of the Survey of India. Palaeochannel mapping of the Saraswati river has been prepared by ISRO, HARSAC, CGWB and other scientific organizations.

Source :TH