“One thing that stands out clear and unmistakable both at Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, is that the civilisation hitherto revealed at these two places is not an incipient civilization, but one already age-old and stereotyped on Indian soil, with many millennia of human endeavour behind it. Thus India must henceforth be recognised, along with Persia, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, as one of the most important areas where the civilizing processes of society were initiated and developed.” This was the famous quote by Sir John Marshall in the foreword to the ‘Mohenjo-Daro and the Indus Civilisation,’ the official report on the archaeological excavations conducted by the then-colonial government between 1922 and 1927 in the Harappan sites. According to this analysis and the current ongoing studies, the actual national life of Hindus did not emerge in the Harappan or Indus Valley civilisations, as is commonly believed. Instead, it originated thousands of years ago.
An Age of Wisdom and Equality
Early civilised cultures, such as Mesopotamia and Egypt, were complicated by many types of inequity. However, Hindu Vedic culture formerly had no disparities, no stratification in economic distribution, and no hierarchies. It appeared several millennia before Harappa’s settlement on the banks of the River Indus. There were no dynasties, nobility, palaces, armies, courts, or slaves. The social and political classes did not have exclusive access to resources or economic activity. This made it the world’s most equitable society. This civilised society’s administration was to be executed with as little force as possible. Women were revered in society during the period and held significant leadership positions in the Sabha and Samiti. Many of the ladies were poets, with Ghosha, Vishwavara, Apala, and Lopamudra being the most notable in the period.
The Upnayan rite was open to the whole community, including women. It marked the commencement of Vedic study. Education was universal. Brahmins were the term used at the time to refer to Acharyas, Pandits, and people with higher education. They received the highest level of respect in society. Kshatriyas were both monarchs and warriors. They wished to safeguard the community. The Vaishyas included farmers, traders, and shopkeepers. Shudras did ordinary jobs, particularly as artisans, gardeners, and cleaners. At the time, these four characteristics were acquired rather than inherited. Nothing was smaller or larger than the other. Instead, they were merely the titles assigned to each community based on their profession. They then degenerated into castes, and birth became the basis of social position, resulting in the emergence of a new category of untouchability. The social position of women also degraded.
The Bharat Society of that time was a marvel of the world, expanding into numerous sectors. It has a rich intellectual tradition shaped over millennia. The Vedic civilization paved the way for growth in various scientific domains. The Vedas, epics, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanishads, and Puranas not only explored philosophical and spiritual realms but also offered the world profound insights into mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and other fields. They were familiar with planets, atmospheric energy, aviation, gravitational force, weights and measures, the earth’s diameter, cosmology, seafaring, the shape of the earth and continents, the Matya Yantra or mariner’s compass, gunpowder, military rockets and missiles, Ayurvedic medicine, surgery, contemporary plastic surgery, town planning and architecture, agriculture, art, dance, music, yoga, and politics. It was broad and universal in scope and spirit. New research indicates that this great Hindu vision of life evolved on the shores of the sacred ancient Saraswati.
The Rebirthing of the River Saraswati
The narrative that the Saraswati River is a myth has been prevalent in Bharat for a long time. However, the ancient literature clearly reveals that it is not a myth. The Rigveda 2.41.16 states that ‘Ambitame Devitame Naditame Saraswati’, or ‘The finest of all mothers, rivers, and goddesses, is the Saraswati’. According to Rigveda 7.36.6, Saraswati was known as Saptati Sindhumata. According to this, Saraswati has seven tributaries. Saraswati is said to be the mother of the Indus River. The river Saraswati appears at least seventy times in the Rigveda. The Vedas described her as a roaring torrent untamed by nature. In addition to the Rigveda, this sacred river is mentioned in Vedic and ancient literature such as the Brahmanda Purana, the Srauta Sutra literature, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Bhagavata Purana, the Vamana Purana, and the Upanishads. Sages such as Yagyavalka resided and established various study centres and ashrams along the banks of this river.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is now studying the Saraswati River in northwest India, utilising digital elevation models and Indian remote sensing satellite data. Historical maps, archaeological locations, hydrogeological data, and drilling data are also utilised. According to the research, the Saraswati was 1,500 km long, three to fifteen kilometres wide, and around five meters deep. The river is thought to have started in the Himalayas and flowed through the current states of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Gujarat.
A powerful and prosperous civilisation developed on its shores, which excelled scientifically and culturally. This civilization achieved remarkable advances in medicine, mathematics, physics, cosmology, art, architecture, agriculture, education, spirituality, and culture. However, by 1900 BC, the Saraswati River had dried up. The collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates, also known as continental drift, severed the Saraswati River’s connection to its two main glacial sources, the Kapalshikhar and Har-Ki-Dhun valleys near Manasarovar. As a result, the Saraswati lost its two major tributaries, the Yamuna and the Sutlej. These later joined with the Ganga and Beas, respectively. It is claimed that the Saraswati took roughly 400 years to dry out fully.
Research employing Landsat and radar pictures from European remote sensing satellites indicated that the Saraswati River’s surface and subterranean flow extends into Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Gujarat. However, 4,000 years after the river dried, it remains sixty meters below the surface as a vast underground water tressure. Scientists at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) used tritium analysis to determine that the groundwater is 8,400 years old and originated in a Himalayan glacier. So far, almost a thousand archaeological sites going back to 3000 BC have been discovered along the river’s path. This points to a large prehistoric civilisation that thrived around the Saraswati River. The Vedas were written along the banks of this sacred river. The Mahabharata, set on the Saraswati River, was written approximately 3000 BC.
The Civilization of Bharat is Vedic Saraswati
The Saraswati River basin witnessed the birth of Hindu’s ancient civilisation, which served as a model and guidance for the rest of the globe. Hindus adore Saraswati as the goddess of study and wisdom. We named her Saraswati because it was on the banks of this sacred river that the Vedic scriptures, the basis and foundation of Hindu knowledge and life philosophies, were written and countless discoveries made.
Recent archaeological excavations have revealed that the region around the Saraswati River in Kurukshetra, Haryana, known as Rakhigarhi, is larger and older than Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro on the banks of the Indus. According to this research, Rakhigarhi, rather than Harappa, is more accurately associated with Bharat’s ancient civilisation. The third phase of excavations, which began in 2021, has revealed evidence of people who lived there between 7,000 and 8,000 years ago. We must analyse the new material at Rakhigarhi in the light of the theory that our predecessors were the Harappan people who lived on the banks of the Indus between 3300 and 1900 BC. The important Harappan sites of Harappa, Mohan-Jodaro, Kalibangan (Rajasthan), Banawali, Dholavira, and Lothal (Gujarat) were originally located along the Saraswati River. The Indus-Saraswati civilisation was culturally homogenous. In short, based on all available modern, scientific, geographical, and historical facts and logic, Hindu culture should be called the Vedic Saraswati civilisation. Furthermore, DNA samples from the skeletons discovered at Rakhigarhi revealed that they were not connected to the numerous clans described by the Aryan invasion but had affinities with several South Indian tribes. Studies also suggest that the Indus people had contact with languages such as Tamil.
Should the Name Harappa Continue?
The word Harappan civilisation was recently changed in the NCERT textbook to Indus-Saraswati civilisation. This is made after a long-held belief that Hindu national life began with the Harappan civilisation on the banks of the Indus River. However, the term ‘Harappa’ has not represented any continuity in Hindu history since ancient times, and it is not even mentioned in the Vedas. Proponents of the Aryan invasion theory, such as Sir Mortimer and Wheeler, supported this term as referring to the Hindus. They used this non-Vedic phrase to support the Aryan invasion theory, which was predicated on the murder of Mohenjo-daro’s indigenous. Harappans are commonly referred to as pre-Vedic or non-Vedic. This demonstrates that the recent findings in Rakhigarhi, Haryana, are false. As a result, it is fairer to refer to the Hindu culture as “Vedic Saraswati Civilisation” rather than ‘Harappan’. However, using the name ‘Harappan’ distorts the historical study of this magnificent culture. Harappa is an artificial and accidental name derived from an archaeological site called Harappa in Pakistan and the ancient urban sites of Mohenjo-Daro before India’s partition.
Marxist historians in India, such as Romila Thapar and Irfan Habib, have questioned the veracity of the Saraswati civilisation. Unfortunately, the Congress governments that took power after British rule in India maintained the previous colonial policies and commissioned anti-national Marxist academicians to develop Indian history textbooks. They presented India as a place of invaders. Hinduism was minimised. India was taught to be a country of diverse nationalities. As a result, Indian youngsters were offered a false view of their country’s past as authentic. They were continually taught to reject and question their culture and the Dharmic civilization.
The search for Hindu root culture has finally reached the banks of the River Saraswati. Colonial-Marxist historiography is shown to be erroneous and motivated by agendas. Therefore, we must explore many neglected histories after independence. Even contemporary chronologies developed a century ago by the British should be examined and updated using modern technologies and methods.
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