Prayagraj is said to be the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and the invisible Saraswati river. Is the existence of the Saraswati river a myth or a historical river? The history of Kumbh and the invisible Saraswati, in the Round Table Conference held at Lucknow, India Today, scholars shared their views. In the first session of India Toda Round Table Conference on Kumbh, Bharat Gupta, member trustee of Indira Gandhi National Center for Arts, DP Dip Dubey, Prayag-The Site of Kumbh Mela and Prof. Ram Nath Jha and Santosh Kumar Shukla of Sanskrit Center of JNU joined the first session.
The Roots of Saraswati River:
Bharat Gupta, a member trustee of the Indira Gandhi National Center for Arts, said about the existence of the Saraswati river that it has been clear from the research done by three decades and NASA that Saraswati is not a myth but a historical river. But when Saraswati was extinct, then Yamuna river was flowing through that same path. He further added that Saraswati is a Vedic river and various archaeological sources also reveal that thousands of villages, towns, and settlements were settled along the banks of the river Saraswati. Commonly Known as the Harappan culture, it is indeed the Sarasvati culture which found harmony and peace along the perimeter of this spiritual river. It is a culture before the Indus Valley Civilization and continued in the Indus Valley Civilization. It is estimated that in 900 BC Saraswati started drying. This river fell into the Arabian Sea passing through the Adibadri (near Dehradun) and Rajasthan, Gujarat. As the Saraswati river dried up and there was a phenomenon of tectonic shift. Yamuna river originated at this time.
Did the Indus Valley civilization also collapse due to the extinction of the Saraswati river?
In response to this question, Professor Bharat Gupta said that many scholars believe that somewhere this incident was responsible for the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization. Although the Saraswati river may not exist in physical form, it still has many connotations. The Saraswati river is still present as a heritage symbol. Saraswati is revered as the goddess of knowledge and in Vedic civilization, only the earliest evidence of knowledge is available in written form.
Whether the answer to the question – Is Saraswati river true? Is a yes or a No, one is sure. That is the belief of the millions of people who come here to participate in the Maha Kumbh Mela to dip at the Triveni Sangam – and wipe away their sins.