The government says the “revival of the ancient river” will take a couple of years, but to begin with, a 7-km water channel will be dug up. The digging is to be spread over 43 villages of Yamunanagar district starting from Rohlaheri (Bilaspur tehsil) to Uncha Chandna (Mustafabad sub-tehsil), a distance of 50 km. It was March this year that Haryana’s BJP government announced excavation of the Saraswati river from Adi Badri, the point from where it is said to have originated. Locals say a number of seasonal rivulets in the area are dotted with small temples, alluding to the notion that the river has always existed - in their minds, at least. The Ramayana, Mahabharata, Brahmanas and Puranas all talk of Saraswati, some even calling it Brahma’s sacred daughter Ikshumati - the greatest of mothers, greatest of rivers and greatest of goddesses. Some are simply inquisitive, but there is a sprinkling of those who want to immerse themselves in the “holy goddess”. Such is the rush that a community kitchen (bhandara) has been set up in the vicinity. At Rohlaheri village in Yamunanagar, fresh water has been found not far below at 7 feet, bringing a flood of outsiders and locals to the excavation site. The Saraswati river as a reality has still not won the day, but it being a myth is losing ground as the earth is being dug up since April 21.
That consciousness seems to have seeped in. that it was not a mythological desert river.” “However,” he pointed out, “in the course of the research, a certain consciousness will find its way into the minds of the people.
A related charge was of trying to establish the indigenousness of Hinduism while discounting the Aryan invasion theory, and making it appear as a continuing 5,000-year-old civilisation centered around the Saraswati.ĭenying giving Saraswati a civilisational virtue or aiming to revive Brahmanism and the sanctity of Vedas, he said it was not important whether the river was found or not. When NDA’s former Culture minister Jagmohan ordered excavation in Haryana to trace the course of this mythical “lost river” in 2002, he faced criticism of pushing the Sangh Parivar’s agenda of equating the supposed pre-Vedic Harappan era with Hindus in the garb of promoting religious tourism. Rigveda, the oldest of the four ancient Hindu texts, mentions the “mighty” Saraswati 45 times.
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