Rivers in Rigveda (ऋग्वेदे नदीनां विवेचनम्)

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Rivers played a critical role in the development of human settlements and civilizations around the world. It is well known that people following the dharmik life have always attributed sacredness to all living beings and even inanimate things around them. In Vedic literature, the rivers are widely described. The rivers, which were so vital to the existence of all beings, were regarded as sacred since the earliest times. Thus we find the seers of Rgveda prayed to devatas associated with all things big and small (Adhidevata tattva). In Ramayana, ShriRama prayed to Samudra devata requesting him to make a way to reach Lanka and it was granted. It is in the Vedas that we find the roots of Adhidevata tattva, which has been incorporated in the dharmik way of living seen even today. We find many mantras offering prayers to the adhidevatas of rivers in the Rgveda. Rivers were addressed as "mother" viz., मा॒तॄन्त्सिन्धू॒न्.. just like the land of Bharata is addressed as Bharatamata, the motherland.

Many great civilizations such as the Nile Valley civilization in Egypt, flourished on the banks of a river, the Nile. Archeological evidences point to the fact that the Harappan and Indus valley civilizations flourished on the banks of rivers flowing in the northwestern region of India and they represent some of the oldest human settlements in the world.

While studying about the rivers of Rgvedic times, one must note that even though we find the same names of rivers at present in many instances, the course of the river may or mostly may not remain the same in the present times. It is well known that even now rivers change course of their flow due to various reasons. The Yangtsze river in China is one such famous example.

Introduction

Rivers mentioned in Rgveda have a great geographical importance attached to them. They help in the growth of civilizations. Such rivers were called by many terms, e.g. dhuni (2.30.2), sindhu (2.12.3 and others), nadI (2.15.3, 3.33.4) and sarit (4.58.6) etc. Mitra and Varuna are designated as sindhupatI (सिन्धु॑पती).

Nadi-sukta (नदीसुक्तम्) is a sukta dedicated to the rivers in this veda. According to Shrikant Talageri,rivers named in the Rgveda can be classified into five geographical categories:

• The Northwestern rivers (tributaries of the Indus flowing through Afghanisthan and the north):
  1. Trshtama (Gilgit)
  2. Susartu
  3. Anitabha
  4. Rasaa
  5. Sveti
  6. Kubha (Kabul)
  7. Krumu (Kurrum)
  8. Gomati (Gomal)
  9. Sarayu (Siritoi)
  10. Mehatnu
  11. Svetyaavari
  12. Prayiyu (Bara)
  13. Vayiyu
  14. Suvaastu (Swat)
  15. Gauri (Panjkora)
  16. Kushavaa (Kunar)
• The Indus river and its eastern tributaries:
  1. Sindhu (Indus)
  2. Sushoma (Sohan)
  3. Arjikiya (Haro)
• The Central rivers (rivers of the Punjab):
  1. वितस्ता - Vitasta (Jhelum)
  2. असिक्नी - Asikni or Chandrabhaga (Chenab) मरुद्वृधा - Marudvrdha (Maruvardhvan) is said to be small river, a western tributary of Chenab.
  3. परुष्णी - Parishni (Ravi)
  4. विपाश - Vipaash or Vyas (Beas),
  5. शतुद्री (शतद्रू) - Shatudri or Shatadru (Sutlej)

• The East-Central rivers (rivers of Haryana):
  1. Drshadvati
  2. Apayaa
• The Eastern rivers:
  1. Ashmanvati (Assan, a tributary of the Yamuna)
  2. Yamuna/Amshumati, Ganga (Jahnavi)

Many names given above are under investigation for evidences pertaining to transfer of river-names and places in geographical context are being considered. For example, JahnAvi is the name of river Ganga mentioned in the Rgveda.

The key rivers in the Rgveda may be studied under the following headings

1. The Indus river to the west of the five rivers of Punjab
2. The Sarasvati river to the east of the five rivers of Punjab
3. The Ganga and Yamuna, the easternmost rivers described in this veda

Key rivers in the Rgveda

Nadi-sukta (नदीसुक्तम्) mentioned in Mandala 10, is a sukta (75) fully dedicated to the rivers. At least nineteen rivers have been invoked in the 5th and 6th mantras of this sukta, listed from east to west, mentioning the major rivers along with the tributaries of the Sindhu river.

इ॒मं मे॑ गङ्गे यमुने सरस्वति॒ शुतु॑द्रि॒ स्तोमं॑ सचता॒ परु॒ष्ण्या । अ॒सि॒क्न्या म॑रुद्वृधे वि॒तस्त॒याऽऽर्जी॑कीये शृणु॒ह्या सु॒षोम॑या ॥५॥ तृ॒ष्टाम॑या प्रथ॒मं यात॑वे स॒जूः सु॒सर्त्वा॑ र॒सया॑ श्वे॒त्या त्या । त्वं सि॑न्धो॒ कुभ॑या गोम॒तीं क्रुमुं॑ मेह॒त्न्वा स॒रथं॒ याभि॒रीय॑से ॥६॥ (Rg.Veda. 10.75.5-6)

O Ganga (गङ्गा), Yamuna (यमुना), Sarasvati (सरस्वती), Shutudri (शुतुद्रि) or Shatudri, Parushni (परुष्णी), Asikni (असिक्नी), Marudvrdha (मरुद्वृधा), Vitasta (वितस्ता) along with Sushoma (सुषोमा) and Arjikiya (आर्जीकीय), accept and hear my praise for you. O Sindhu (सिन्धू), you, to meet the swift-flowing Gomati, first joined with river Trshtama (तृ॒ष्टामा). Later you join with Susarta (सुसर्ता), Rasa (रस), Sveta (श्वेता), Kubha (कुभ), Krumu (क्रुमु), and Mehatnu (मेह॒त्नु) and travel in the same chariot (i.e., flow as one river merging along with them).

Following are more details about the rivers in Rgveda.

• Rivers flow towards and empty into the sea (Rgveda 1.190.7, 6.19.5, 8.6.4)
• Seven rivers emptying into the sea has been referred in Rgveda 1.71.7.

Saptasindhu

While many rivers are mentioned in the Rigveda, the term "Sapta-sindhu" appears in many instances in this veda. The Sapta-sindhu region or the land of seven rivers is also stated to be the homeland of the Rgvedic people. The word "Sapta-sindhu" means "seven rivers". The word sindhu generally indicates a river is mentioned in th

In in the present day conditions, finding these seven rivers has been a little challenging owing to renaming them as well as disappearance or change of course. Many questions around the "seven rivers" have to be resolved; such as if it refers to important rivers or seven particular rivers. However, it is difficult to arrive at the rivers considered to be important in those days. We come across more than seven rivers; which of these are counted as important? Many versions about what constitute the "seven rivers" are given by various scholars. Most notably, A.C. Das and P.L. Bhargava opined that the five rivers in Punjab, शुतुद्री (Sutlej), विपाश (Beas), पुरुष्णी (Iravati present Raavi river), वितस्ता (Jhelum), असिक्नी (or Chandrabhaga presently Chenab river) along with the Sindhu and the Sarasvati - are the rivers that are accounted for the term Sapta Sindhu. D. C. Sircar states that the seven rivers are often taken to be the five rivers in Punjab together with the Indus and the Sarasvati, though some scholars are inclined to substitute the Sarasvati by the Kabul.

According to Shrikant Talageri, Saptasindhu refers to the geographic area, a specific region identified as land coursed by the five rivers plus two more, the Indus and the Sarasvati. The word Sindhu in the Rgveda primarily means river and is mistranslayed as Indus; it is only secondarily a name of the Indus river (thus Saptasindhava can mean seven rivers but not seven Induses). The Saptasindhu is referred to in the following suktas and mantras of particular mandalas:

Mandala 1: 32.12; 35.8;

Mandala 2: 12.3, 12;

Mandala 4: 28.1;

Mandala 8: 54.4; 69.12; 96.1;

Mandala 9: 66.6;

Mandala 10: 43.3; 67.12

River Sarasvati

In the Rgvedic times Sarasvati was worshipped both as a deity of learning as well as a deity of a river. It was revered as the most sacred and is the most well-known river in these texts. In the past eras the vast river gradually dried up in the desert areas of the northwestern region of India. It now remains as a small well-known river by the name 'Sarsuti'. It flowed between Yamuna and Shutudri (Sutlej) and drained into the ocean as per Rgvedic texts. However, the Brahmana literature points to the evidence that drying up of Sarasvati has started. Tandya Brahmana (25.10.16) mentions that Sarasvati river has disappeared in a place called Vinashana. Puranas mention that this river disappears outside but flows beneath the earth to meets Ganga and Yamuna rivers at Prayaga (the modern Prayagraj). In the Jaiminiya Brahmana (4.26.12) Sarasvati river is said to reappear in a place called Plaksha praasravana (प्लक्ष प्रास्रवण), Ashvalayana shrautasutra (12.6.1) mentions this place as Plaksha prasravana (प्लक्ष प्रस्रवण).

The Sarasvati river has been referred to many times in the three oldest mandalas of the Rgveda. Three whole suktas are dedicated to this river,

Mandala 6: Sukta 61

Mandala 7: Suktas 95 and 96.

It has been referred to in nine out of the ten mandala except the 4th mandala. The Sarasvati is so important in the whole of this veda that we see it's worship as one of the three great deities in the AprI-suktas, while Indus river finds no place.

According to Shri. A. C. Das, in the Rg vedic times Sarasvati river flowed and ended its journey in what was once a vast water body in area where we now see the desert sands of Rajasthan. The Mahabharata also describes the Sarasvati as flowing westward and getting "lost in the desert". It was, according to some scholars, in this sea that Sarasvati joined and drained into. Dr. P. L. Bhargava has called this water body as Sarasvat sea of the Rgvedic times. There are at least two suktas in which Sarasvat and Sarasvati are described and that Sarasvat is that sea into which Sarasvati river had drained into. In the Rg veda we find several occurrences about the vast, swift flowing Sarasvati river.

एकाचेतत्सरस्वती नदीनां शुचिर्यती गिरिभ्य आ समुद्रात् ।.... (Rg. Veda. 7.95.2)

Here it is mentioned that Sarasvati river flows from the mountains to the sea. Dr. Bhargava gives references of Puranas and mahakavyas to support his theory that the large parts of the modern day Rajasthan was once covered by a large sea into which Sarasvati river drained into. Other investigations identify the "sea" into which the Sarasvati drained into was the present day Arabian sea.

Dr. Michel Danino, who authored the chapter: The Sarasvati River - Issues and Debates, mentions that the identification of the Ghaggar river as the Sarasvati river of the Vedic times was initially proposed in 1855 by a French geographer, Louis Vivien de Saint-Martin. He proposed this based on the surveys of the Thar Desert by British topographers, who reported the presence of a huge dry bed (the Ghaggar) between the Yamuna and Sutlej, precisely where in the Rgveda is located the Sarasvati. Many British maps (from 1760 onwards) also showed a small river named 'Soorsuty' or 'Sursooty' or 'Sarsuti' in the same location. Local tradition describes a seasonal river 'Sarsuti' as one of Ghaggar's tributaries and that there was once a vast river whose drying up caused the region's desolation. The gradual disappearance of Sarasvati is also known from the later Vedic literature, the Brahmanas, in which it is mentioned that Sarasvati breaks up at a point called Vinashana or Adarshana; and it a sacred tirtha.

River Ganga

Ganga as the name of a river finds very scarce mention in the Rgveda; in one context उरुकक्षो न गाङ्ग्यः (Rgveda. 6.45.31) the word गाङ्ग्यः can be considered as a person originating on the banks of river Ganga. However, it is not a clear explanation. It can be said that people of those times were not familiar with this river as much as they were with Sindhu or Sarasvati rivers, according to Pt. Baldev Upadhay. References to Ganga are amply found in the subsequent Brahmana and Aranyaka texts such as in Shatapatha Brahmana (13.5.4.11) and Taittriya Aranyaka (2.10).

The nadi-sukta begins with the enumeration of the rivers with the Ganga and moves westward. JahnAvI (जह्नावी) is mentioned in the Rgveda which correlates to JAhnavI (जाह्नवी) in the modern times, another name of the Ganga. JahnAvI is clearly the earlier Rgvedic form of the later word JahnAvI, the former word is not found after the Rgveda and the latter word is not found in the Rgveda. This word belongs to a class of words in the Rgveda which underwent a particular phonetic change in the course of time.

Other Rivers in the Rgveda

While the rivers, Sindhu, Sarasvati and to a lesser extent Ganga are familiar geographical landmarks in the Rgveda, there are many other rivers described in the veda, such as those mentioned in the Nadi-sukta. Most of the rivers mentioned here are of the Punjab region. The rivers that arise in Afghanistan and the Suleiman range in Pakistan and which drain into the Indus are Rasa, Kubha, Suvastu, Krumu and Gomati are also mentioned. Marudvrdha (10.75.5) found to be located in the Kashmiri region, indicates that Kashmir valley could have been known to the people of those times.

From the study of the rivers of Rgveda, it can be said that at that time people knew the regions like Afghanistan, Punjab, some parts of the Sindhu region, Rajputana, North-western region, Kashmir and the area extending up to the river Sarayu.