Saraswati a majestic river, after originating in Himalaya flowed in almost south-westerly direction through present-day Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat prior to joining the Arabian Sea. Ancient Vedic culture flourished on its banks. Important towns like Kurukshetra, Pehowa, Shatrana, Sirsa, Kalibangan, Pilibangan, Suratgarh, Beriwal etc flourished on its banks. Ample references pertaining to this river are available in Rig Veda as ?ambitame, devitame and naditame?. Our former President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was very excited on seeing a photograph of the River with water and he endorsed his reaction in our visitors? book as??Delighted to see the hard work in realising reality from epic information.??Dr APJ Abdul Kalam
Adi Badri Terrace is a recent discovery in Adi Badri area, located just south of Siwalik Hills, almost 30 km north of Jagadhari. Excavations were carried out by Archaeological Survey of India on western bank of Somb River. Angular shaped pebbles of high-grade metamorphic rocks and quartzite embedded on the wall were observed in ABR-II excavation site. This alien lithology generated tremendous interest as this terrace is situated south of Siwalik Hills in Haryana plains. According to Dr VMK Puri, ex-Director, GSI, Vedic Saraswati entered plains at Adi Badri area which can be called as Haridwar of Vedic Saraswati.
Recently, subsurface water started oozing out within a pond of the famous Kapil Muni Ashram in Kalayat (Haryana). A multi- disciplinary scientific team studied the oozing water and the sand that accompanied it. Dr. AR Chaudhuri of Kurukshetra University found a suite of angular heavy minerals having their source in higher Himalayan rocks. Dr. AK Gupta and Dr BK Badra of ISRO identified fossil valleys of Vedic Saraswati in the area from the study of space imageries and concluded that this water was of aforesaid river. Shri Rajesh Purohit conducted geomorphologic studies and concluded that this water belonged to Vedic Saraswati that has been described in Rig Veda and other scriptures. Later on, he along with his team discovered the actual river bed near Jyotisar (Kurukshetra).
During the course of scientific studies carried out from space imageries, scientists from ISRO discovered a number of fossil valleys restricted to areas around Kurukshetra, Pehowa etc. in upper central Haryana. They interpreted it as remnants of the meandering Vedic Saraswati. Based on satellite imagery, they have drawn out a map of Saraswati River from Glacier to Rann of Kachch.
Dr MR Rao, GGM, ONGC along with his team, undertook drilling near Jaisalmer in Rajasthan and got a discharge of 76,000 litres/hr. of water from one of the wells. Out of 24 wells, drinking water was obtained from 23 wells. Scientific tests on this subterranean water revealed that this water belonged to an old river that once existed here. This old river was none other than Vedic Saraswati.
Besides the above geological and other scientific evidences, village-wise revenue record has been collected and compiled proving the flow of Saraswati river in continuity. Survey of India topo-sheets tally with these revenue records. Based on these revenue records, about 50 km of Saraswati channel has already been cleared by digging by Haryana Irrigation Department.
The writer visited the archaeological sites at Kunal (District Fatehabad, Haryana) and amazingly found shells in the river bed. A friend of archaeology showed a conch recovered from Rakhigarhi (Dist Jind, Haryana) excavation.
Folklore is an important factor to be considered for establishing a fact. Shrimad Bhagwat was penned by Maharishi Ved Vyas at Badrayan, i.e. Adi Badri. Every year more than 10 lakh pilgrims from North India visit Kapalmochan for bathing in crescent-shaped sarovar on Kartik Poornima. About 15 km downstream of Adi Badri lies the town of Vyaspur (presently Bilaspur), the adobe of Maharishi Ved Vyas. On the outskirts of the town Naga sadhus used to bathe in Saraswati kund alongside a perennially flowing Sarawati channel. Every evening aarti is performed at Saraswati Kund in Saraswati Nagar (presently Mustfabad, Dist. Yamuna Nagar). You can see people of surrounding villages performing last rites (asthi visarjan) of their dead at ?Sangam? of Saraswati and Somb Nadi at Adi Badri.
?Unfortunately in spite of the overwhelming ambience and public demand, the government took no steps to revive the river. The matter was brought before the Hon?ble High Court, Haryana-Punjab at Chandigarh through a Civil Writ Petition (CWP8561 of 1996) by Shri DP Dastoor, an advocate of Pehowa (Kurukshetra). Hon?ble Justice Amarjeet Chaudhary passed the order:-
??we direct Deputy Commissioner Kurukshetra and the Municipal Committee Pehowa to remove all encroachments from the land entries of which are in favour of Saraswati river…?
Unbelievably, all encroachments were removed voluntarily without any use of force. The monumental work of government and public co-operation at Pehowa has been beautifully documented by the District Administration in a souvenir (samarika).
Thus, all the evidences mentioned above point only to one conclusion that Vedic Saraswati no longer remains a debatable issue.
