The objective of this note presented as a draft for further discussions is to suggest further deliberations by scholars, researchers and students of Bharatiya Sabhyata and Samskriti and wide dissemination of the issues of public interest to all Bharatiyas.
Rediscovery of Vedic River Sarasvati and ongoing projects which will lead to the rebirth of River Sarasvati in Northwerstern Bharat are historic landmark events in Bharatiya Itihaas. This is a tribute to many savants who have contributed to a better understanding of Sarasvati heritage.
That 80% of sites or over 2,000 of the ancient Bharatiya Civilization (so-called Harappan culture or Indus Valley civilization) are on the bank of Vedic River Sarasvati evidence that the epicenter of the Civiization was the Sarasvati River Basin. Action is ongoing to explore and excavate the archaeological sites in the basin. The contributions of the ongoing projects will significantly improve the water supply systems of Haryana and other states of Northwestern Bharat for irrigation and for drinking water. The Rajasthan Nahar project is already supplying drinking water and irrigation water to areas on the Basin – halting the march of the desert Marusthali – in regions such as Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Barmer and as the works progress, the regions of Rann of Kutch and Gujarat will also be benefited by integrated schemes for recharging groundwater aquifers and cost-effective use of surface irrigation, drainage and water supply systems..
From the perspective of Bharatiya Samskriti संस्कृति celebration of the heritage of the Sarasvati River which has nurtured the Bharatiyas from ancient times dating back several indeterminate millennia is a celebration remembering the identity given to Bharatam Janam by the Pitr-s, ancient Rishis who performed सोम संस्था and other Vedic Yagas. It will be an error to translate a Yaga as a 'sacrifice'. It is a multi-layered metaphor, divination, transformation from Being to Becoming.
Anupgarh (Bijnor). Fork of Vedic River Sarasvati
Yajna Kunda. Bijnor with octagonal yupa
Indus Script seal. Bijnor.
Terracotta cake. Kalibangan. With Indus Script hieroglyphs
Yagna Kunda. Kalibangan. Quadrangular yupa
Sites dating Bharatiya civilization from ca 8thmillennium BCE
Cluster of 80% of sites on Sarasvati River Basin ca. 3500 to 1900 BCE
A reconstructed drawing of Vedic River Sarasvati.
Indian Remote Sensing IRS Wide-Field Senso (WiFS) image showing palaeochannel signature -- From Himalayas to Rann of Kutch, Gujarat
King Purushottama (Porus) presents Indian ukku (wootz) steel sword to Alexander in the battle on River Hydaspes (Jhelum, Vitasta) Painting in Steel Authority of India Ltd. Institute, Ranchi
A remarkable discovery was made by students of Institute of Archaeology, National Museum, Janpath, Delhi and the discovery was reported in April 2015. The discovery relates to an archaeological site called Bijnor (4MSR) near Anupgarh on the Vedic Sarasvati River basin. Close to this site, the river forks into two wide channels (as seen in LANDSAT and Indian Remore Sensing Satellite System). One fork flows southwards to Jaisalmer and another flows westward to Ganweriwala, Bahawalpur Province, Pakistan. At this Bijnor site, discovery of a Vedic Yajna Kunda was reported. The remarkable finds also included an octagonal Yupa (also called yaSTi) and a seal with Indus Script inscription including a one-horned young bull in front of a standard device. This discovery reinforces similar discoveries in many sites of the civilization where fire-altars with embedded steles were found. A quadrangular yupa was found in Kalibangan (another site on the Sarasvati River Basin) together with an inscribed terracotta cake and many Indus Script seals.
The most remarkable features and importance of the Bijnor discoveries relate to the fact that Vedic texts Taittiriya Samhita and Satapatha Brahmana describe the presence of an octagonal Yupa (called अष्टाश्रि in Samskritam meaning ‘with eight-angles’). Thus the octagonal Yupa of Binjor on Yajna Kunda is a signifier documenting the performance of a Soma Yaga (Vaajapeya वाजपेय याग) called सोम संस्था.
This explanation has profound implications emphatically attesting the continuum of Vedic culture in the Sarasvati River Basin into historical times. As many as 19 Yupa inscriptions have been reported by scholars and Archaeoogical Survey of India from Rajasthan, Allahabad and even from East Borneo (Yupa inscriptions of Mulavarman). All the Yupa inscriptions record the performance of a Soma Yaga (Vaajapeya and other specified Yaga of सोम संस्था). All the Yupa inscriptions are in Samskritam. The Indus script inscriptions found in sites such as Bijnor or Kalibangan and scores of other sites are all comparable as documentations/ records of performance of Yaga or metalwork or mintwork using Yajna Kunda. Further researches are ongoing to relate these insights into the evolution of Bronze Age in ancient Bharatam. In one significant expression, Rishi Visvamitra refers to Bharatam Janam as an identifier of a large group of people on Sarasvati Basin. The word Bharatam is relatable to a metalwork word called bharat or baran in Marathi-Gujarati-Punjabi as Prakritam words which refer to a metal alloy of copper, pewter and tin metals. (This points to the need for linguistic researches into what is called Indian sprachbund (or language union) which united language streams of Aryan-Dravidian-Munda-Tibeto-Burman streams of the language kaleidoscope). This leads to a possible derivation and meaning of Bharatam Janam as ‘metalcaster people’ consistent with the historical evidences recording the excellence achieved by ancient Bharatiyas in metallurgy and other technological activities. The highpoint of metallurgical excellence achieved is evidenced by a painting in Steel Authority of India Limited Institute in Ranchi. It shows Purushottama gifting a steel sword to Alexander on the banks of Jhelum (Vitasta) river which was part of the Panchanadi or Saptasindhu references in ancient texts and traditional narratives.
Thus, the significance of the Bijnor finds goes beyond glaciological, hydrological, geological, archaeo-metallurgical, archaeological, linguistic, literary researchers but to a documentation of the continuity of culture and civilizational markers of Bharatam Janam across time and space for millennia from a period earlier than ca. 8th millennium BCE.
Efforts at coordinating and promoting such researches to document the heritage of Sarasvati (called Vakdevi, divinity of speech) should find support from institutions with priorities assigned to augment the water conservation and water management systems and Himalayan glacial melts yielding perennial river systems.
Dr. S. Kalyanaraman
February 4, 2016
Mirror: http://tinyurl.com/gvj5vuh