Sarasvati Regained

By  Dr. Vijaya Rajiva

The Rg Veda,  comprising  some 1008 hymns,  was composed  approximately 5,000 years ago,  and is the oldest of the Hindu Scritpures  and much loved by  Hindus  and much acclaimed by the rest of the world,  not only for  its beauty and  spiritually inspirational verses, but for its ancient lineage. In the Rg Veda there is special mention of the river Sarasvati as a mightly river and as one that sustained life for peoples. The Sarasvati is mentioned 72 times. The seers of the Rg Veda hailed it as best among rivers and as flowing from the mountains to the sea.  It is therefore, natural to assume that the river existed and that the Rg Vedic hymns were composed along its banks and the surrounding  river basin.

However, shortly after the Rg Vedic period, the river disappeared and it is believed that it dried up owing to natural causes such as techtonic shifts.  Recent archeological discoveries and evidence from a variety of disciplines such as satellite photography   show that  the dried up bed of a large river existed once. The inference then is that the Rg Veda must have been composed before the disappearance of the Sarasvati. This dating of the river’s existence and its disappearance shed light on what is a controversial topic today, the date of the Rg Veda and the identity of the people who composed these immortal hymns.

Colonial scholars since the 19th century and their present day followers have created a tradition ( somewhat dubious at this stage of Indic studies) that  maintains that the Rg Veda was composed circa 1,500 B.C. at the earliest and that it was the work of the Indo Europeans/Aryans who invaded India or immigrated from the Steppes there shortly before that period. Their further belief was that the Rg Veda was composed along the banks of the Sindhu (Indus), some even arguing  that it was composed partially ,further north.  Readers will be familiar  with the phrase  Aryan Invasion Theory.

In the last two decades both Indian and foreign scholars (who can be described as the New Theorists) have challenged this tradition and reclaimed the Veda as the product of indigenous people, native to the Indian subcontinent.  On this new theory the Sanskrit peoples, the Dravidians and the tribal peoples who spoke the Munda language were the natives of India and amalgamated loosely into a conglomerate of peoples. Further, that they were the peoples of what has been till recently called the Indus Valley Civilisation and which is now called the Sarasvati Sindhu Civilization. Based on the evidence provided by geneticists that all non African peoples migrated out of Africa some 90,000 years ago and one branch travelling along to the Indian subcontinent, and a further movement of peoples from south to north in India some 40,000 years ago, it is argued by the New Theorists that the Veda was composed in India by indigenous peoples and not by invaders from  outside the subcontinent.  The linguistic evidence also  points to the close affinity of the various peoples of the Indian subcontinent. This is described by Dr. S.Kalyanraman in his  paper ‘ Indian Lexicon : An Overview’,  ll May,  1998
(www.hindunet.org). His later paper  ‘ Sarasvati – Vedic river and Hindu civilisation’(2008) is also a remarkable account of the topic.

The results of this new thinking have been ably presented in the last two decades in books, lectures, papers  and Conferences.  The  most recent one was held in Nov.2008 at an international Conference held in October 2008 in New Delhi. The theme of the Conference was The Vedic River Sarasvati and Hindu Civilisation .

A Compendium of papers presented at this Conference has been  published under the  title  ‘ The Vedic River Sarasvati and Hindu Civilisation’ (Aryan  Books International, New Delhi, 2008, editor Dr. S.Kalyanaraman). The participants in the Conference are scholars, scientists and researchers in their respective fields.

The literature on the indigenous creation of the Veda and the identification of the Indus Valley Civilisation as proto Vedic is growing. The works S. Kalyanaraman, N.S.Rajaram, David Frawley and Subash Kak are some of that new thinking.

The rediscovery of the  Sarasvati  revitalises the foundations of Vedic thought. The name Sarasvati which the Vedic seers bestowed on the ancient river,  which along with the Sindhu,  has captured the hearts and imagination of millions of Hindus,  also gives new meaning to the later deification of the Goddess Sarasvati.  She is the repository of learning,  music and the arts. Great as was classical India’s achievements in all the arts and sciences (and these have been acknowledged as considerable) they could only have come as the product of a riverine civilization that began with the the 4 Vedas ( Rg Vedam the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda and the Atharva Veda)  and ended with the profound speculation of the forest treatises,  the Upanishads and led the way for the achievements of classical ,   medieval and modern Hinduism.

What is the secret  of the Rg Veda’s continued fascination for all who have encountered it ?

Is it the deep devotion of millions of everyday Hindus who see it as the profound beginnings of their culture’s wisdom and guidance ? Is it the diligence down the centuries of scholars,  savants,  sages,  saints and the millions of unsung and  unknown priests and members of their community that have kept the Rg Veda alive in the consciousness of the people of the subcontinent ? Is it simply the compelling beauty of  Sanskrit as a language  which no one who has heard it can deny ?

Some of all of the above,  would be an approximate answer. More importantly, for our times,  it is about the core values of the Rg Veda : its environmentalism and its emphasis on the unity of humankind,  linked to the cosmic universe. Earth,  heaven and the entire universe and humans inside it, are the  subject of the Rg Veda. The Vedic civilization, along with the native cultures of various parts of the world,  especially the Americas, exalt the role of Nature in their world view.

The Dutch philosopher,  Spinoza,  said in the 17th  century of the Christian era that Nature and God are one.Long before that,  the Hindus saw Prakriti (Nature ) and Purusha (God) as aspects of the Divine  Principle. This is the letimotif of Hinduism’s beliefs, the basis of  its pluralism, its all embracing tolerance. The Divine Principle is Infinite and therefore limitless. It is not ONLY this or ONLY that. It can be worshpped in a variety of modes and the Rg Vedic mode set a precedent for Hinduism for all time to come.

Hence, the inner connection between the Sarasvati and Vedic thought is not to be limited to a  geographical nexus. The rediscovery of the ‘lost’ river is a joyful reaffirmation of the Vedic truths propounded on the banks of the Sarasvati – Sindhu by sages and seers of the Veda.

The current present day controversy around the Sarasvati and the composition of the Rg Veda by the indigenous people of India is a challenging and many ways a welcome one since Hindu/Indian scholars are tested in  their mettle at the deepest and foundational level of their culture and religion. The discovery of some 2000 sites of what is formerly called the Indus Valley Civilisation,  with almost 80 % of them being located at the site of Sarasvati may indeed be the clinching argument for the continuity of Vedic civilization with the  Indus Valley Civilisation, and its identity with that civilization.  The New Theorists have not only pointed out various similarities between the two cultures,  but also the intimate connection of various beliefs and cultural habits between the Indus Valley Civilisation and the Vedic, a connection which can be seen even today in the Indian subcontinent. 

The controversy may rage on between the Aryanists and the New Theorists but with the accumulating evidence centred round the rediscovery of the Sarasvati, the latter seem to be winning out.

What is of importance is the opportunity provided to contemporary Indians to give new meaning to the alternative names given to the subcontinent and its rivers. Afterall, it was the Greeks who called the Sindhu, the river Indus. And Bharata Varsha, Hindustan and Bharat can be equally be used for the more modern India.  Further, there is the message of the Veda which can never be forgotten This is the great civilisational  advantage of being a Hindu and that responsibility is upon  Hindus, since they have inherited an ancient and noble tradition that extols the importance of Bhu (Earth), and the interconnectedness of all life,   cosmic and terrestrial.

In the end, that is Sarasvati’s message to all Hindus and all Indians who are part of the Indian subcontinent. It is also the message for all humanity in the New Age.

(The writer taught Political Philosophy at a Canadian university).

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