Saraswati River

In News

• Recently, the Haryana government proposed to spend Rs 215 crore on the construction of a dam meant for the revival of the Saraswati river.

About the Project

• As proposed by the state government, the dam, with a capacity of 224-hectare metres, will be constructed on Haryana’s border with Himachal Pradesh. 
• A portion of the Som river water would be diverted to the dam from where it would flow into the stream of the Saraswati river starting from Adi Badri (Yamunanagar) to Guhla Cheeka in the Kaithal district.
  • Adi Badri is a place in the foothills of the Shivalik range, 90 km east of Kurukshetra.

Saraswati River

• The river originated from Kapal Tirith in the Himalayas in the west of Kailash, flowed southward to Mansarovar and then turned towards the west.
• The river flowed through Haryana, Rajasthan and North Gujarat. 
• It also flowed through Pakistan before meeting the Western Sea through the Rann of Kutch and was approximately 4,000 km in length.
• The river had two branches: western and eastern. 
  • The Himalayan-born Satluj “of the PAST”, which flowed through the channels of present-day Ghaggar-Patialiwali rivulets, represents the western branch of the ancient river.
  • On the other hand, Markanda and Sarsuti represented the western branch of Saraswati, known as Tons-Yamuna.
• The confluence of the branches was near Shatrana, 25 km south of Patiala. And suddenly, it flows across the desert (Rann of Kutch) and meets the Gulf of the western sea.

Historical Evidence of the Saraswati River

• The Sarasvati River is one of the main Rigvedic rivers mentioned in the scripture Rig Veda and later Vedic and post-Vedic texts.
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Image Courtesy: Hans India

• Book 6 of the Rig Veda includes a hymn called the ‘Nadistuti Sukta’, which sings praises of the Saraswati as being “perfect mother, unsurpassed river, supreme goddess”.
• For 2000 years, between 6000 and 4000 B.C, the Saraswati flowed as a great river.

Source: IE