PRE-HISTORIC AGE IN SARASWATI VALLEY OR GHAGGHAR RIVER OF GANGANAGAR-HANUMAN GARH REGION OF RAJASTHAN WAS QUITE RICH.
Present Ghagghar [1] river is identified with the ancient Saraswati river of Rgvedic era.[2] The Saraswati was the most glorious river in the pre-historic age. It had seven tributaries.[3] The Sutudri (Sutlej) and the Vipas (Beas) flowed into the Saraswati.[4] The Vitasta (Jhelum), the Askini (Chenab) and the Parushni (Iravati or Ravi) joined the Sindhu river and the Sindhu joined the great Saraswati river a little above the sea-shore near about Chanhudaro, a few miles south of Mohenjodaro and this great Saraswati river flowed into the oceans.[5] This literary evidence is corroborated by the geological evidence that this sacred Saraswati river in Vedic times flowed to the sea through the Eastern Punjab and Rajputana (Rajasthan).[6]
The Saraswati region was inhabited by the Panchajanah; the five pre-Aryan republics;[7] the republics of the Purus, the Anus, the Druhyus, the Yadus and the Turvasas.[8] The Purus occupied the northern part of the Saraswati region. The Anus and the Druhyus had their strongholds in the middle of the Saraswati region. The Yadus and the Turvasas occupied the southern and the south-western portion of the Saraswati region extending upto its mouth, close to the sea shore.[9] These five peoples or the five republics were the non-Aryan and the pre-Aryan people of Bharata.[10]
This great Saraswati river was joined by a channel of the Sutlej flowing by the Ganganagar city near Fort Abbas, now in Bhawalnagar District of Pakistan. The Yamuna also flowed into the Saraswati.[11] Naiwala an old bed of the Sutlej joined it near Hanumangarh. The Drisadv ati the modern Chautang, flowing through Bhadra, Nohar and Rawatsar joined the Saraswati River at a place about three miles north of Suratgarh.[12]
The Rigved informs us that the joint streams of the Vipasa and the Sutudri flowed towards the Deva-founded region,[13] the Brahmavarta, as later seen. This mightiest river of Bharata, in the prehistoric age, supported several ports of maritime commerce.[14] Ganganagar District was the most prosperous part of the Saraswati valley. It was the famous seat of the Anu and the Druhyu republics. Geology traces back this prosperity to C. 4000 B.C.[15]
This Saraswati valley of the Ganganagar region was really a commingling of many rivers, not only geographically, but culturally.[16] Archaeological excavations of Kalibangan have raised the Ganganagar District to a place of pride in the pre-historic international Kalibangan today has been acclaimed as a third capital, equal in status to the two capitals of Mohenjodaro and Harappa respectively in the Sindh and the Punjab provinces of West Pakistan, with pottery, steatite seals with inscriptions, symbols of the Harappan script, a citadel, typical Harappan beads, terracota figurines and implements of copper.[17]
Mohenjodaro and Harappa provide no evidence of pre-Harappan culture. Kalibangan has brought to light the pre-Harappan; Ghose Christens it as Sothi culture; the basic substratum of the Harappan.[18] The pre-Harappan and the Harappani people co-lived peacefully. Harappan culture dialectically evolved from the pre-Harappan culture. Mohenjodaro and Harappa also provide no Kalibangan eminently provides conclusive evidence of the existence of the evidence of the grey-ware people, painted or plain, which Annihilated them. Grey-ware people in the Saraswati valley.
They were quite distinct people from the original stock. These people broke new ground to build their villages, not the cities; and did not utilise any existing mounds for the purpose.[19] These grey-ware people, plain or painted, have been identified with the Aryans of history in Greece, West Asia and Bharata.[20] Ganganagar District is the pivotal point-the proto-historic trijunction-the old Brahmavarta (Saraswati and Disadv ati valleys) and north-eastern Rajputana, all the streams of proto-historic cultures mingle.[21] Kalibangan, and for that matter Ganganagar District emerges to be the most eminent pre. historic culture; greater and richer than even Mohenjodaro and Harappa. It is the seat of the eternally continuous culture of Bharata, with some permanent substratum, which we so frequently and loudly boast of.
This great Saraswati valley culture influenced the whole pre-historic world. Speiser, S.N. KramerAud H.R. Hall look to some eminent country of the East for the original home of Sumer.[22] This country is called Dilmun.[23] Kramer identifies it with the land of the Indus Valley Civiliz ation,[24] which, to be scientific, is the Saraswati Valley civilization, in the fifth millennium B.C. Punt, the foreign country of the Panis, was the original home of Egypt.[25]
Panis, the great pre-Aryan people of Bharata, took the Saraswati valley culture, founded on the eternal spiritual Verities of Non-violence, Truth, Non-stealing, Continence and Non- attachment, to Sumer, Egypt, pre-Olympian Greece and the Aegean and the pre-Aztec America.[26] The basic foundation of this Saraswati Valley Culture was spiritualism which wheeler calls “Metaphysics” that endured and transmitted civilization to its barbarian Annihilators;[27] and Piggot calls “Religion”, the basic regulator of the Harappan culture.[28] It was the Saraswati valley spiritual culture that went to the pre-historic world and continued in one form or the other, till the beginning of the second millenium B.C.[29]
The materialistic Aryans of history finally celebrated their military triumph of West Asia by the middle of the second millennium B.C. They wielded undisputed political hegemony beyond the western borders of Bharata. The Aryans, to be scientific the Brahmaryans, launched their military invasion of Bharata in the second half of the second millenium B.C. The Ahi republics fell to them in the first great Brahmaryo-Bharata, war. The southern regions of western Bharata including Mohenjodaro fell to the invaders in the second great Brahmaryo-Bharata war.
The third great Brahmaryo-Bharata war, the Dasarajna war, was fought in the Punjab and the Ganganagar regions.[30] Harappa, the Hariyupiya of the Rigveda, fell first in the Vipas battles.[31] The middle Saraswati valley, the home of the Anu and the Druhyu republics, was the scene of the second battlefield. Indra annihilated in these battles sixty six thousand six hunredand sixty warriors of the Anus and the Druhyus. The hostile armies, knowing not the brutal power of Indra, ignorantly contendedAgainst him. They were routed and they fled in all directions.[32]
Indra quickly demolished all the strongholds in this region. The seven prominent cities of this region were demolished. The dwelling of the Anu leader, perhaps the fort, was given to Trtsu Sudas.[33] May we suggest that Kalibangan, the best Anu fort, was handed over to Sudas? Indra conquerred the enemies, speaking the hostile language, in battles.[34] The Dasarajna war was finally lost C. 1100 B.C.[35]
The Brahmaryan foreign military conquerers of Bharata-settled in the land of their conquest. The Saraswati valley region comprised of modern Pakistan, Indian Punjab and northern Rajasthan. The territories comprising the Puru, Anu and Druhyu republics were economically the most prosperous part of the Saraswati valley region. It possessed very fertile lands watered by ever-flowing channels and beautiful forests of wide extents. The new political masters of Bharata colonised this region and renamed it Brahmavarta.[36] Brahmavarta was founded by the Brahmadevas hence it became known as Devakrta or Devanirmita region. The Brahmavartadesa means the region covered or colonised by the Brahmans. George Buhlar is wrong in suggesting that this land was created by the ephemeral devas.[37]
The literary evidence of this newly-settled home of the Brahmaryans stands corroborated by the archaeological evidence. We do not find grey-wage settlements near Mohenjodaro and Harappa but they have been discovered in the eastern Punjab including the new Hariana and very profusely in the Ganganagar district, that jointly formed the ancient Brahmavartadesa. This event would explain the archaeological hiatus riddle. The victors did not build their settlements on the cities and towns of their vanquished adversaries for reasons of racial apathy, differences in cultures, modes of living and such other factors. They preferred to build small villages rather than occupy the big cities and towns they annihilated. The Rgveda provides ample reasons for the separate settlements of the foreign Brahmaryan conquerers.[38]
The materialistic Brahmadevas, the founders of the Brahmavarta, were very happy with their new homeland. She provided them all the material pleasures for which they conquered the land. It gave those riches, sustenance, prosperity, safety and protection and paved the way for the further military successes.[39]
Trasadasyu, the levirate son of Purukutsa by Indra from Purukutsani, the beautiful Narmada of the Ahi race, posthumously born,[40] consolidated the Brahmavarta power and liquidated the Bharatiya resistance. His levirate son Kurusravana, the Pariksit, the founder of the Kurutribe, extended the Brahmavarta rule upto Hastinapura.[41]
A large part of the Ganganagar district, then, was covered by a great forest, known to the later great epic as the Kamyakavana near the banks of Saraswati where BrahmArsis were very active.[42] These rsis living in the forest settlements, enjoying to the full the vast material prosperity of the region, bestowed by the waters and the woods, carried on their basic cultural activities. They adopted the successful policy of coalescence with the original people. The leaders of the society and the intellectuals adopted the new society for material reasons.[43] Viswamitras, the Dasyu patriarch, the commander-in-chief of the now annihilated Dasarajna forces along with a moety of his sons, led the way. He became converted to the Brahma fold and joined hands with his erstwhile adversaries Vasistha, Indra and the Angirasas.
His dissenting sons became andhras, Pundras, Sabaras, Pulindas and Mutinas, the much Abhorred Adivasis of the later times, but really the originaland convert BrahmArsis collated the floating cultural material of the victors as diluted by the inter-penetrations of the converts’ cultural ideas and redacted the Rgveda as available in the present form. Though the Brahmavarta region also included the present Hariana State and some parts of the eastern Punjab but we find there very few grey-ware people’s settlements, Rupar and two minor sites being the only exceptions, in this northern Brahmavarta. Southern Brahmavarta, the present Ganganagar district, in all probabilities, the home of about a hundred grey-ware sites, is the region where the most ancient Aryan record, the Rgveda, was redacted C. 1000 B. C.
The coalesced culture celestialised the human Devas and magico-ritualised the Brahmaryan collectivities.[44] Yajna, the collective activity had always been the foundation of the Aryan culture and civilisation. It has been identified with the Aryan way of life. It continued to be so even after its magico-ritualisation.[45] Kurusravana, the Pariksit, was the first and the most illustrious magico-ritualist in the tenth century B. C. He performed several yajnas (magico-ritualities).[46] The Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, composed in the seventh-sixth century B.C., aemoans the fading away of these great magico-ritualities.[47] The great Pariksit magico- ritualities were performed in the rahmavartadesa.
The region east to the Brahmavarta was, in that age, populated by the Panchalas, the Kosalas, the Kasis, the Videhans and the Magadans.[48] They were the non-Aryan Asura masters of this region. The Brahma-varta magico-ritual cult travelled from the banks of the Saraswati to Videha during the age of Janka who was got converted to the magico-ritual cult.[49] Janaka of Videha flourished in the seventh century B. C.[50] The Panchalas, the Kasis the Kosalas. and the Magadans could still maintain their indigenous republican system. The Vajian confederacy, after the death of Janaka, threw away the impossed monarchy and reestablished the republican system is Videha We, thus, find that the Ganganagar District remained the epicentre of the Brahma magico-ritual culture add civilization, till the middle of the first millenium B. C.
The materialistic Brahmavarta culture now begins to disintegrate. Some of the Sutlej channels withdrew their waters from the Saraswati. The Drsadvati channels adopted the eastward course and joined the much famous Yamuna of the later time. The greatest and the mightiest river Saraswati of the western Bharata now lost much of its swollen waters and became reduced to an insignificant stream. The brutal destruction of the forest wealth, ill-burnt in the performances of the magico-ritualities, converted the fertile region into the barren one. Nature and man conspired to bring desert conditions [51] to this highly prosperous region.
The Saraswati that joined the sea, now disappeared in the Vinasana desert.[52] There had been no desert in the Brahmavartadesa at any time of history. The Rajputana desert begins from the south and the west of Suratgarh and the south of Anupgarh and continues in the eastern parts of the Bhawalnagar district of Pakistan, This area lies to the south west of the junction of the Saraswati and the Drsadvati rivers and the Brahmavarta did not extend beyond to the south of this junction. The Vinasana desert was, hence, regarded as a holy place. This happened C. 300 B. C. The Mauryas,[53] the Kusanas and the Yaudheyas in later times successively occupied this unattractive region simply on feudal considerations. By the tenth century A. D., the joining channels of the Saraswati completely withdrew their waters. The area became the most appalling arid zone. It became completely dessicated and uninhabitable by C. 1000 A. D.[54] The history of the historic Ganganagar awaits reconstitution.
Thus we can say that Pre-historic age in saraswati velly of Ganganagar and Hanumangarh region remained in the oblivion for the last 2300 years and almost dead for the last 1000 years. The great Saraswati river and culture.
REFERENCES
[1] Hanna Ryde; Rang Mhal; 1959; The New Book Company, Bombay; Pages 22-23.
[2] (1) N.N. Godbole; Rgvedic Saraswati; 1963; Govt. of Raj. Jaipur, Page 18.
(2)A, ghose; The Indus civilization: Its Origin, Authors, Extent and Chrnology; (Indian
Pre-history 1964); 1965; Page 115.
[3] Rgveda 6.5.12.10.
[4] M.S. Krishnan; Geological History of Rajasthan; The Rajputana Desert; 1952; National Institute of Sciences of India, New Delhi Pages 28-29.
[5] Rgveda 7.6.6.2.
[6] D.N. Wadia, Geology of India, 1953 Macmillan & Co. Ltd, London; P. 56,389.
[7] Rgveda, 6.5.12.12.
[8] (1) Radhakumud Mukerji, ancient India, 1956; India Press (Publications) Private Ltd, Allahabad; P. 54.
(2)A.C. Das, Rgvedic Culture, 1925; University of Calcutta, Calcutta; P. 160.
[9] A.C. Das; op.cit; P. 353.
[10] R.C. Jain, The Most Ancient Aryan Society, 1964; Institute of Bharatalogical Research, Ganganage; P. 29,
[11] M.S. Krishnan; Op.Cit; PP. 27-28.
[12] A. Ghose, The Rajputana Desert: Its Archaeological Aspects; Rajputana Desert (Op. Cit); P. 38.
[13] Rgveda, 3.3.4.4.
[14] M.S. Krishnan, Op. Cit; P, 29.
[15] H.S. Krishnan; Op. Cit, P. 30.
[16] A. Chose; Op. Cit (R.D.); P. 39.
[17] Indian Archaeology; 1960-61; Explorations and Excavations; P, 32.
[18] A. Ghose; Op. Cit (I.P); P, 116.
[19] A. Ghose; Op. Cit (R.D.); P. 41.
[20] R.C. Jain; Op. Cit (M.A.A.S.); P. 93.
[21] B. Subharao, The Personality of India; 1958; M.S. University of Baroda, Baroda; P. 101.
[22] (1) S. Moscati; The Face of the Ancient Orient; 1960; Routledge and Kagan Paui, London; PP, 20-21 Footnote 2.
(2) HR. Hall; The Ancient History of the Near East; 1960; Metheun & Co. Ltd, London; P. 173-174.
[23] James B. Pritchard; Ancient Near Eastern Texts; Relating to the Old Testament; 1955; Princeton University Press, U.S.A. P. P 38 to 40.
[24] S.N. Kramer; Hindustan Times dated 15.1.1962; P. 3.
[25] R.C. Jain; Op. Cit (M.A.A.S.); P. 63.
[26] R.C. Jain, The Great Pani people; paper read before the Indology Section of the Twenty sixth International Congresa of Orientalists held in New Delhi in January 1963.
[27] Nortimer Wheeler: The Indus civiliz ation; 1952; University Press, Cambridge; P. 95.
[28] Stuart Piggot; Pre-historic India; 1953; Penguin Books Ltd., Baltimore; P. 201.
[29] R.C. Jain; Cp.Cit. (M.A,A.S.); Chapter 1 Pre-Aryan Ancient Sramanic Society,
[30] R.C. Jain; Jaya : The Brahmaryan conquest of Bharata; Chapters 20 to 23; Unsuplished.
[31] Rgveda 6.3.4.4. to 7; 7.2.1.22.
[32] Rgveda 7.2.1.15.
[33] Rgveda 7.2.1.13.
[34] Rgveda 7.2.1.14.
[35] R.C. Jain; Op. Cit. (Jaya); Chapter 22 Section II.
[36] (1) Manusmrti 2.17.
(2) R.C. Jain; Op, Cit, (M.A.A.S.); Page 125.
[37] G. Buhlar; The Laws of Manu; S.B.E. Series Vol. XXV, P, 32.
[38] Rgveda, 1.15.7.18, 2.1.11.18; 7.2.4.5.
[39] Rgveda, 2.3.8.8; 6.5.2.3; 6.5.12.3; 5,9 to 14.
[40] R.C. Jain; The Origin of the Kuru Tribe; Jaina Bharati Sodha Anka; 1963; Page 4.
[41] R.C. Jain; Hastinapura : The Capital of Ahisthola Janapada; Chapter 6 Sections II and III.
[42] Mahabharata (Cr. Ed); 3.6.3.
[43] Aitareya Brahmana, 7.18.
[44] R.C. Jain; Op. Cit. (M.A.A.S.); Page 278-279.
[45] K.R. Potdar; Sacrifice in the Rgveda; 1953; Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan, Bembay; PP. 269-272.
[46] R.C. Jain; Op. Cit. (H); Chapter 6 Section III.
[47] Brhadaranyaka Upanisad; 3.3.1.
[48] Satapatha Brahmana 13.8.1.5; 13.8.2.1.
[49] Satapatha Brahmana 1.4.1.14 to 18; 11.4.3.20.
[50] H.C. Roychowdhari; Political History of Ancient India: 1950; University of Calcutta, P. 52.
[51] S.L. Hora; Op. Cit. (R.D.); P. 3.
[52] 52. Mahabharata (Cr.Ed); 3.80.118.
[53] H.D. Sankalia; Op Cit. (R.D.); PP. 48-49.
[54] M.S. Vats; Op.Cit. (R.D.); P. 50.
