Saraswati: River, Civilisation, and the Meaning of Knowledge

Satellite imagery, groundwater studies, archaeology, and ancient texts affirm that the Saraswati River was not a myth but a civilisational reality.

In the 1960s and 70s, Saraswati Puja was observed every Friday in schools, with children enjoying prasad of jaggery and roasted chickpeas. While they repeated that Saraswati was the goddess of knowledge, few understood what knowledge—or even being a student—truly meant. As the Saraswati River was believed to be long extinct, textbooks referred only to the Indus (Sindhu) Valley civilisation.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Moropant Pingale and archaeologist Dr. Wakankar of Ujjain led expeditions to trace the Saraswati River, with support from Padmashri Darshanlal Jain of Jagadhari and researcher Shri Kalyan Raman of Chennai. Their collective efforts helped establish that the Saraswati River did exist and that Indian civilisation originated along its banks.

Since the establishment of the Haryana Saraswati Heritage Development Board in 2015, sustained efforts have been made to revive the Saraswati River. Stretching nearly 400 kilometres through Jind, Fatehabad, and Sirsa, the river has seen its water flow successfully restored in these regions over the past three years.

All major archaeological sites excavated in Haryana—including Rakhigarhi, Kunal, and Bhirana—lie along the paleo-channel of the Saraswati River. Excavations at Baholi and Bhagwanpur in the 1990s found sand identical to that along the river’s course in Rajasthan and Gujarat, marked by high porosity and rapid water drainage.

Scientific Evidence

Institutions such as IIT Roorkee, the Geological Survey of India, ONGC, ISRO, the National Institute of Hydrology, and the Central Ground Water Board—along with other scientific bodies—have established the reality of the Saraswati River. Satellite imagery, groundwater studies, research papers, Survey of India maps, and revenue records corroborate its existence. The Rigveda refers to Saraswati as Ambitame, Naditame, and Devitame, underscoring her central role in the rise of India’s earliest civilisation.

Geological studies suggest that the Saraswati River existed for over six crore years, flowing nearly 1,600 kilometres from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea before drying up due to tectonic changes around 4000 BCE. The Vamana Purana records that Balarama, Krishna’s elder brother, did not join the Mahabharata war, choosing instead to undertake a pilgrimage along the banks of the Saraswati River.

Originating from the Bandarpunch glaciers in the Garhwal Himalayas, the Saraswati River flowed southwest, entering the plains at Adibadri in Haryana’s Yamunanagar district near the Shivalik foothills. Cities such as Kurukshetra, Sirsa, Kalibangan, Pehowa, and Suratgarh developed along its banks, which also hosted the ashrams of sages including Markandeya, Vashistha, and Vishwamitra. Flowing through present-day Punjab, Rajasthan, and Gujarat, the river met the sea in the Rann of Kutch; its 3–12 km-wide riverbed and over 1,200 riverside villages point to its vast scale.

The Saraswati River is mentioned 75 times in the Rigveda, while the Ganges appears only once. Vyasa is believed to have composed the Bhagavata Purana at Adi Badri, and the Mahabharata records that the war was fought between the Saraswati and Drishadvati rivers, a region known as Kurukshetra. Once, turning the Thar Desert lush and green, the river’s revival today has become a matter of public demand.

Civilisation and Memory

Indian civilisation developed along the banks of the Saraswati, not the Indus (Sindhu). Those unfamiliar with Samskrit often confuse the term 'Sindhu', a masculine word meaning 'ocean' or 'sea'. As the Saraswati dried up, communities migrated, though some continue to preserve its memory, identifying themselves today as Saraswats.

Beyond geography and archaeology, Saraswati also represents India’s understanding of knowledge itself.

Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, is worshipped during the Shishir (winter) season on the fifth day of the bright half of Magha, known as Vasant Panchami, a major social festival in eastern India.

In Telangana, a Saraswati temple at Basar on the banks of the Godavari draws large crowds on Vasant Panchami for Vidyarambha, the initiation of children into learning.

The Vishnu Purana defines "vidya" as "Sa Vidya Ya Vimuktaye”—knowledge that grants liberation. By contrast, modern education largely prepares students for employment rather than liberation, focusing on worldly sciences such as physics, chemistry, zoology, and botany.

In India, both moral and spiritual sciences evolved, with spiritual sciences aimed at liberation and taught primarily in Gurukuls and Samskrit institutions.

Spiritual Sciences

The sixteen philosophical systems (darshanas) are outlined in the Sarvadarshanasangraha by Madhvacharya. Except for Charvaka, the remaining systems aim at liberation—moksha, samadhi, kaivalya, or nirvana—and are therefore regarded as vidya. Learning and living by even one of these traditions is seen as worship of knowledge, or Saraswati, which first requires mastery of Samskrit and its grammar. The period around Vasant Panchami is thus an apt time to begin learning Samskrit and resolve to study one of these scriptures.

(The writer is national organiser of Samskrita Bharati. Views personal.)