Drsadvati River

The Drsadvati , Drishadwati or Drishadvati River (dṛṣad-vatī, or river meaning "she with many stones") is the most imagined, assumed, deemed, and hypothesized river by indologists to identify the route of revered Vedic river Saraswati and the state of Brahmavarta. It was on the confluence of the revered rivers Saraswati and Drishadwati during the Vedic period that the state of Brahmavarta was located, where the Rishis composed the Vedas and other Sanskrit Granths, which are the basis of Vedic Sanatana Dharma, presently called Hinduism. Though the Drishadvati river has several mentions in the Sanskrit Granths, a clear source of Drishadwati is not mentioned any where. This generates lot of speculation on source and route of Drishadwati river. But the new researches backed by various scientific techniques are becoming useful to locate the route of Drishadwati river. Latyayana Srautasutra (10.17) has described it as a seasonal river, while Saraswati as a perennial river up to Vinasana (10.15-19). This shows that Drishadwati river did not have its source in Himalayas.

Origin of Drishadwati

The Drsadvati River has been identified by Oldham with the Chautang River.^[1] Talageri (2000) identifies it with the Hariyupiya river and the Yavyavati river. Sir Alexander Cunningham in 1871 identified Rakshi River as old Drishadwati river and showed its flow from Chunar near Varanasi. Though, Brahman Granths mention that before making a confluence with Saraswati river, Drishadwati had flown from East to West, Rakshi can not be the river as it does not fulfil the second description that both Saraswati and Drishadwati had flown in opposite directions too, before making confluence and boundaries of Vedic state of Brahmavarta. While Saraswati had flown from north to south during Rig Vedic period, the Drishadwati had flown from south to North in Aravalies from pot of Lord Brahma, Pushkar Lake, near Ajmer, to Nangal Chaudhery in South Haryana and took a left turn to reach Satnali to meet Saraswati coming from North to move to Didwana Lake and further south. After major seismic activities in Aravallies, mentioned by several geologists, 6-7000BCE, Drishadwati river changed its route and from Nangal Chaudhery,^[2] instead of moving towards east it took a route to north which is the present Sahibi river route, passing through KotKasim in Alwar district, Rewari district, Jhajjar district, Rohtak district and finally in to Delhi in Yamuna river. Saraswati river also changed its route and instead of moving towards south, took a westernly turn in districts of Panipat and Sonepat in Haryana where we find Harrapan settlements now.

Brahmanas, have several mentions about Drishadwati river and because these Granths were mostly written in the state of Brahmavarta, the descriptions of rivers is most appropriate. Brahmanas point out that Drishadwati river had its origin from the pot of Brahma i.e. Pushkar lake, near Ajmer. Pushkar has the most revered Brahma temple in India. Website of Pushkar lake confirms that 4 branches of revered river (they call them Saraswati) had originated from hills near Pushkar in different directions. The name Drashadwati has been assigned to one of the branches of this river, which had flown towards north, because this branch near Brahmavarta had too many stones on the bed. Also, most of the Ashrams of Rishis who compiled Rigveda were on this river only in between Pushkar and Dhosi Hill in Brahmavarta.^[3] Rigveda also mentions that Drashadwati river was preferred for making religious sacrifices by Vedic people.

In the Manu Smriti, this river and the Sarasvati River define the boundaries of Vedic state of Brahmavarta.^[4] "It says that the land, created by the Gods, which lies between the two divine rivers Sarasvati and Drishadvati, the (sages) call Brahmavarta." Manu Smriti also says that while Saraswati made the northern boundary of Kuru Pradesh, Drishadwati had flown in the south of Kuru Pradesh and north of 'Brahmavarta'. This makes identification of Kuru Pradesh and Brahmavarta important. Mahabharata explains the southern boundaries of Kuru Pradesh up to Guru Dronacharya's Ashram, present day Gurgaon on one end and Rohtak Jangla on other southern end, which comes up to present day Jhajjar city. So Drishadwati should be considered flowing in the south of these cities. Though about 100 rivulets and small rivers had flown from south to northern side in the 200 km wide Aravali Ranges at the Northern end during the Vedic period 10,000 years ago the only huge river, which can claim the description of voluminous tributory of Saraswati in the south of Kuru Pradesh, as per mentions in Sanskrit books, is present day Sahibi River.^[5] Sahibi has much lower flow at present time because of low rainfall in catchment area, though having wide dry beds at places, which carries the water from south to north from Districts of Jaipur, Sikar, Alwar Rewari, Jhajjar, Rohtak and Delhi in Yamuna.

The river is also mentioned in the Rig Veda (RV 3.23.4) together with Sarasvati and Apaya. According to Rigved, and Brahmin Granths, Vedic sacrifices were performed on this river and on the Sarasvati River (Pancavimsa Brahmana; Katyayana Sratua Sutra; Latyayana Srauta Sutra).

According to the major religious work Srimad Bhagavatam, the Drsadvati is one of the many transcendental rivers in India.

References

• Amal Kar, Bimal Ghose: Drishadvati River System of India: An assessment and new findings. The Geographical Journal, Vol 150, No 2, 1984.
• Shrikant G. Talageri, The Rigveda, a historical analysis, Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi (2000), chapter 4