Modi government picks up Saraswati from where Vajpayee govt left it

Perhaps if one looks carefully enough, even myth can find veneration in reality. Such is the case of the government’s zealous thrust into countrywide excavations for proof of the existence of the mythical Saraswati river, mentioned in several religious texts like the Rig Veda.

At a meeting of the standing committee of the Central Advisory Board of Archaeology (CABA) at the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) headquarters here, for the review of over 100 proposals for “exploration, excavation, scientific clearance and trial excavation for 2016-17”, on September 28 and 29, over six projects that have been green-lighted lie on the basin of the Saraswati river.

They include Kunal on the Bhuna-Ratia Road in Fatehabad district in Haryana, either Lohari Ragho or Masudpur in Hisar, the Chautang basin in Hisar, Bhiwani, Jind, and Rohtak, Shikarpur in Gujarat, Bijnore in Rajasthan, and Vadnagar and another “probable locality” in Gujarat.

Kunal, Head of the National Museum, BR Mani, denies any connection with the mythical river, though “the site holds a lot of potential”.

“There has been a difference of opinion among scholars on the accurate date of the area, and we are confident that if we rely on the AMS mention and not the carbon-dating method of C-14, we will get more details,” he said.

Excavation nod to Lohari Ragho or Masudpur in Hisar in Haryana, which lie on the banks of Drishadvati river, has been green-lighted on the condition that only one site be excavated in one year. 

And that the applicant should submit to the ASI clearances from both the MEA and the state government. Exploration nod has also been given to several sites in the Chautang basin, including those that lie in the districts of Hisar, Bhiwani, Jind and Rohtak. The proposal was sent by the Department of History at Rohtak’s All India Jat Heroes Memorial College.

The excavation site at Binjore - Archaeological Survey of India

A proposal for geophysical exploration of Shikarpur in Gujarat’s Kutch district, believed to be a port settlement on the Indus basin, was given nod with the rider that the applicant, Goa’s National Institute of Oceanography, will be accompanied by the ASI in the project. Excavation recommendations were also given to Binjore in Ganganagar district in Rajasthan in response to a proposal by the Institute of Archaeology, New Delhi. During earlier excavations in both sites, terracotta figurines and domestic pottery were unearthed.

It is no surprise that all the states where excavations have been sanctioned are BJP-ruled states. Rajasthan’s River Basin and Water Resources Planning Authority had sought a sanction from the Centre for Rs 70 crore to ‘rejuvenate’ the river last year, while Haryana’s first BJP government under Manohar Lal Khattar has set aside Rs 10 crore for the Saraswati Heritage Development Board.

View of the excavated trenches at the site in Binjore -  Archaeological Survey of India

Last year, a committee formed by Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti asserted in its report that the river existed, originated in the Himalayas and ended in the Arabian Sea.

Historian Dwijendra Narayan Jha says that these recommendations reflect the Centre’s “obsession” with the Saraswati river, and consequently, the Harappan civilisation. “There are other rivers like the Indus, the Beas, and as per the beliefs of these scholars, the Saraswati was the largest. Yet, others remained intact and Saraswati dried up. Some of these scholars claim that the confluence of Saraswati, Ganga and the Yamuna occurred at Triveni in Allahabad, while some argue that it ended in the Arabian sea. This has nothing to do with common sense, it is simply putting on the garb of science to pass certain beliefs,” said Jha.