Sarasvati river

Also called: Ghaggar-Hakra, Ghaggar-Hakra river · Topic: Harappan (Sindhu-Sarasvati) Civilisation · NCERT: Class 6, Ch 6 "The Beginnings of Indian Civilisation"

Meaning

The Sarasvatī is the river praised as a goddess in the Ṛig Veda. The Ṛig Veda says it flows "from the mountain to the sea". NCERT identifies it with today's seasonal Ghaggar in India, which continues as the Hakra in Pakistan.

It matters because nearly two-thirds of all known Harappan settlements lie along this one channel. Its slow drying up is also linked with the late phase of the Harappan Civilisation.

Explanation

The river and its identification

• Ghaggar (India) and Hakra (Pakistan) are not two rivers. They are one dried or seasonal channel that crosses the border.
• NCERT links this channel with the Ṛig Vedic Sarasvatī.
• In the Ṛig Veda she is both a river and a goddess.

• She is described as flowing giribhyaḥ samudrāt ("from the mountain to the sea"). So she is pictured as a large river that flowed all year round.

• This is a rare case where a real landform on the ground helps explain a river named in an ancient text.

Settlement density in the basin

A basin is all the land drained by a river and its streams.

• Per NCERT, nearly two-thirds of all known Harappan settlements lie in the Sarasvatī (Ghaggar-Hakra) basin. They do not lie in the Indus basin proper, even though the civilisation is called "Indus".
• Two of the five known Harappan cities lie in this basin:
• Rakhigarhi (Haryana). It is only partly excavated, but experts rank it close in size to Harappa, Mohenjodaro and Ganweriwala [3].

• Ganweriwala (Cholistan, Pakistan). It was identified in the late 1980s and is estimated at over 80 hectares, one of the largest Indus sites [3].

• The other three cities, Mohenjodaro, Harappa and Dholavira, lie outside the basin.

• Smaller sites in the basin:
• Kalibangan and Farmana are smaller cities or towns.
• Bhirrana and Banawali are smaller settlements.
• Banawali lies on the left bank of the dried-up Sarasvatī in Fatehabad district, Haryana. It sits inside a single enclosure wall and has winding streets, not a grid. This is unlike planned Kalibangan [3].

Drying up and its results

• Later Vedic and post-Vedic texts describe the river slowly drying up and disappearing.
• Archaeology gives a matching picture. Towards the end of the Mature Harappan phase (c. 1900 BCE), the river seems to have stopped flowing all year round.
• What happened as a result:
• The drying river is counted among the ecological and climate causes of Late Harappan decline. It is one of several causes, not the only one.

• Settlements moved eastward, towards the Ganga-Yamuna doab (the land between the two rivers).

• Some ASI and other material dates a strong river flow in the Ghaggar-Hakra to well before the Harappan period, perhaps around 5,600 years ago or earlier. This is extra detail, not a settled fact. It does not go against the NCERT story of the river drying up in Harappan times.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: Harappan Civilisation, c. 3500–1300 BCE. The mature (city) phase was c. 2600–1900 BCE. The Ṛig Veda is a later text that remembers the river.
• Region: the Ghaggar in Haryana and Rajasthan, which continues as the Hakra in Cholistan, Pakistan.
• Key sites: Rakhigarhi, Ganweriwala, Kalibangan, Banawali, Farmana and Bhirrana.
• Evidence:
• Texts: the Ṛig Veda praises the Sarasvatī. Later Vedic and post-Vedic texts record that it dried up.
• Kalibangan excavation: the site lies on the left bank of the Ghaggar, which local people hold to be the ancient Sarasvatī. The ASI dug there over nine field seasons (1960–69). The mound shows a lower Early Harappan layer (Kalibangan-I) under a Mature Harappan town planned on a grid (Kalibangan-II) [2].
• Ganweriwala was discovered in the late 1980s by Rafique Mughal.

Don't confuse with

• Indus (Sindhu) basin: Mohenjodaro and Harappa lie here. Most Harappan settlements, however, lie in the Sarasvatī (Ghaggar-Hakra) basin.
• Ghaggar vs Hakra: these are the same channel with two names. It is the Ghaggar in India and the Hakra in Pakistan.
• Ganweriwala vs Rakhigarhi: both are big cities in the Sarasvatī basin. Ganweriwala is in Cholistan, Pakistan. Rakhigarhi is in Haryana, India.
• Banawali vs Kalibangan: both lie on the dried Sarasvatī. Banawali has winding streets inside one wall. Kalibangan has a planned grid layout.

Prelims Hooks

• The Ghaggar (India) and the Hakra (Pakistan) are one channel, identified with the Ṛig Vedic Sarasvatī.
• About two-thirds of known Harappan settlements lie in the Sarasvatī basin, not the Indus basin.
• Of the 5 major Harappan cities, only Rakhigarhi and Ganweriwala are in the Sarasvatī basin. Mohenjodaro, Harappa and Dholavira are not.
• Kalibangan: Hanumangarh district, Rajasthan, on the Ghaggar's left bank. It was excavated by the ASI in 1960–69 and has Early and Mature Harappan layers. It is famous for a ploughed field and fire altars (places for fire rituals).
• Banawali: Fatehabad district, Haryana. It has one enclosure wall and winding streets.
• Ganweriwala: discovered in the late 1980s by Rafique Mughal. It covers over 80 hectares.

Mains Points

• Naming debate: so many settlements in the Sarasvatī basin support the other name, "Sindhu-Sarasvatī Civilisation". They show that the civilisation spread well beyond the Indus valley.
• Decline: the drying of the Ghaggar-Hakra is counted among the ecological causes of Late Harappan decline. It is also linked to the eastward move of settlements towards the Ganga-Yamuna doab.
• Archaeology meets text: linking a real river channel to the Ṛig Vedic Sarasvatī is used in debates on Harappan-Vedic continuity and dating. Many of these points are still disputed among historians.

Related concepts

• Sarasvati river basin
• Rakhigarhi
• Ganweriwala
• Kalibangan
• Banawali

Read more

• The Sarasvatī / Ghaggar-Hakra question