Book Review: The Lost River - On the trail of Saraswati by Michel Danino

If there is one single book from this decade that picks itself as distinguished in History writing - it is The Lost River - On the trail of Sararaswati. Written by historian Dr. Michel Danino it is a fine book that I wish every single Indian has at home and reads.  

This is a great decade for Indic writing. Firstly, Indian society has gained immense confidence in itself and its civilization that is thousands of years old. Secondly, it has gathered courage to question history written after 1947, primarily by the leftists, without being shrill or suffering from inferiority complex. Thirdly, it is now writing for itself, its own society, its own people, without the need to convince established post-colonial historians, institutions and the west. It now has the means to directly reach out to the society and Indic writers are doing so. Fourthly, Internet has given so much power to the society thereby making a lot of online scholastic and intellectual interaction a reality and great experience. It can no more be ignored and denied that enriching and meaningful dialogue happens on the Internet, in-spite of all the ugly battles of ideology.

The stars of this decade of Indic history and tradition writing are Dr. Michel Danino, Dr. Konraed Elst, Shrikant Talageri, Dr. Nicholas Kazanas, Sanjeev Sanyal, Bibek Debroy etc., Each has brought one's own style, substance, flavour and dimension to history writing. Dr. Danino is exemplary even in this genuine elite of scholarship. He is no stranger to the discerning Indian readers of alternate narratives in Indian history. A French national by birth he lives in Coimbatore since 2003 before which he spent significant time in Auroville, Pondicherry. A recipient of Padmashri award from the President of India he has graced important positions in Indian institutions as an academic historian. More importantly, he has championed the cause of an alternative narrative of Indian history in Universities such as IIT Gandhinagar and IIT Kanpur. Universities dominated by the left such as JNU are yet to wake up to his contributions and even offer honorary positions.

The book is about...

This book is extremely important for every Indian as it unravels the mystery of River Saraswati. This great river has 72 references in Rigveda and is most prominent in the initial Mandalas of Rigveda. It is described as having Yamuna to the east and Sutlej (Shatadru) to the west flowing all the way from Shivalik in Himalayas to the Seas. Saraswati is also one of the three Great Goddesses in the Rigveda. From there Saraswati gets mentioned in multiple Vedic civilization texts all through Ramayana and Mahabharata after which its prominence fades and becomes a mythical river. 

However, the average Indian has never forgotten River Saraswati. It is revered as the invisible (guptagaaminee) that meets Ganga and Yamuna at Prayaag forming a Triveni Sangam. What a beautiful metaphor - it is invisible but without which the Sangam is not the exalted Sangam, it would only be one of the many. Among all the Prayag-s, this becomes Prayaag Raj because of River Saraswati where the greatest congregation of Indian tradition occurs every 6 years once as Ardha Kumbha Mela and Purna Kumbha Mela.

This books unravels the mystery of River Saraswati all the way Rigveda to the modern times. It establishes that it is not just a mythical river as is presented in the text book history. Stunningly it reveals the great extent to which it was already known during the colonial times as a once living river.

A Summary of the Book

The book is organized in 3 sections. The first section presents a detail of the precolonial and post colonial research on River Saraswati. These findings match with the descriptions of ancient Hindu texts. The second section brings Indus Valley Civilization into the picture and establishes its relationship with the River Saraswati. The third section studies the possibility of Indus Valley Civilization having never completely vanished and how it may have simply moved to the Gangetic plan. This requires some elaboration.

• In the very first chapter Danino reveals to us that in the colonial era an incredible amount of research was conducted in the desert of Rajasthan finding evidence of a dried river from Shivalik hills of Himalaya to Arabian Sea in Gujarat. The very inspiration for this research was the description of River Saraswati in tradition and the researchers concluded that the river was not mythical at all. Much of this is the topographical survey matching local traditional descriptions.
• In the second chapter he elaborates on the textual description of River Saraswati from Rigveda, other Vedas, Mahabharata and the Puranas - the very inspiration behind the research. And he presents, with detail, a stunning consistency in the descriptions of different texts and how they match with research done during the colonial era described in the previous chapter.
• In the third chapter he jumps to the latest research in the post colonial era using heavy duty advanced technology that further corroborates these evidences. 
• The only missing piece is the 100 years of history written by leftist historians which both hid the colonial era history and maintained that the river was merely mythical or simply eliminated River Saraswati from the text book history and mainstream literature. Now faced with evidence from multiple disciplines their position has significantly weakened.
• The next 3 chapters give an in-depth introduction to Indus Valley Civilization. The initial discoveries in the colonial era were mostly on the Sindhu river. The chapter presents the essentials of the civilization such as the cities, urban life and the beauty of the culture. After 1947, for obvious reasons, India's search for Indus valley sites within the nation territory led to a huge number of sites and all of them were on the banks of river Saraswati, which was a huge surprise. In this way, River Saraswati then becomes an integral part of the narrative of Indus Valley Civilization. The chapter also presents what the latest discoveries throw light on. 
• The summary of these chapters is that we have the greatest number of Indus Valley civilization sites on the banks of the erstwhile River Saraswati which went dry at a time that coincides with the decline of the civilization. In this - we also have an explanation for the decline of the civilization and its immense dependence on the river. With this, these chapters make a case for the civilisation to be renamed as Indus-Saraswati Civilization. [At this point, it is important to remember Dr. S. Kalyanaraman whose painstaking and dogged research rekindled the interest of educated Indian in the River Saraswati - he often referred to the Civilization as Indus Saraswati Civilization].
• The last 3 chapters make a case for how the civilization has essentially continued rather than completely vanished after the drying of River Saraswati. Its distinguishing features have largely been transferred to life in Gangetic basin in particular and larger India in general. Many civilization features of Indus Saraswati civilization appear even today in the society such as brick dimension, weights and measures, many practices in the society and so on. Many more sites may be hidden beneath the densely populated Gangetic plains and excavations may throw more light. These chapters present immense detail that makes it easy for the reader to appreciate this possibility. 
• It ends with how modern leftist historians of the post colonial era paint a picture that is totally in contradiction with all evidence that emerges from textual descriptions, archaeology, astronomy etc. In summary, Denial, Dismissal and Elimination of the evidence of river Saraswati is no more possible.

Why is the book so important for India

The book is important for so many defining reasons for Indians. It firmly establishes a continuity in Indian history from Vedic Civilization to Indus Valley and post Indus valley. The civilization is a stream of immense continuity. It also gives a model for how Indian history could be written in the future with relevance, firmly dealing with conventional history of the left and adding value to the cultural life of Indians. 

Some distinguishing features of the book are as follows.

1. The book creates a historical narrative that common man can relate to without history being compromised. The historical narrative it weaves is a text book case for how history should be presented to a general society. It picks a substance - the river Saraswati and presents all information available in academics but revealing complexity in stages woven into a accessible narrative. At each stage the story is independently interesting and engaging. Every new piece of information adds to the previous, sheds more light around the previous and constructs a large complex which the reader becomes aware gradually. By the end, the enormity and importance of the story narrative is unmistakable, along with the process of the construction of history. It does not obfuscate the process of construction. It is both a fascinating wonder of truth as well as mystery demystified. 
2. At the same time it interesting to a discerning history reader, it provides every piece of historical information available - it is comprehensive. Textual, archaeological, modern imagery, astronomy from multiple sources are presented within a narrative establishing credibility as well as richness of experience. A discerning reader can easily place any future development about River Saraswati in the right context without an expert assistance, with a reading of this book. Achieving this without harming an engaging narrative is quite an achievement less seen in India.
3. It places the narrative in the cultural context of the society, making it very relevant for both times and the general life. Living in India for long and within communities deeply rooted in the ancient traditions of India Prof. Danino understands what is the importance the river holds for the culture as a spiritual entity in the Vedas and as a devotional inspiration in its invisible form. The narrative brings physical evidence to the culture context and with narrative forms a triangle that makes history an emotional experience for the reader.
4. It brings out all the contradictions in conventional history presented in universities as a result of ideological conflicts and politics in a most civil and academic manner but without mincing words. The balance of argument, debate and confrontation is remarkable and exemplary. Conventional historians have begun to spin narratives aiming to discredit the mountain of evidence emerging, at times even through un-academic rhetoric. It is now a shrill cottage industry of ideology based abuse. However, the book very calmly and composedly exposes it. 
5. Apart from establishing the existence of River Saraswati and historical importance of ancient Indian philosophical texts, it also demolishes Aryan Invasion/Migration Theory as an implication. Rigvedic descriptions matching River Saraswati and the River drying up by 1800 BC makes Vedas a contemporary of Indus Valley Civilization the so called Aryan Invasion/Migration a fully non-issue.
6. It now provides a model for alternative history writing for the future, one that can successfully challenge the conventional leftist history and encircle it with evidence and narrative and incapacitate it. 

The last three  points are of seminal importance. For 70 years generations have been fed with the hoax of Saraswati being a mere imaginary river although the traditional Indian mind has never accepted it being an unreal myth. Hence it is stunning to know that from 1750 onwards colonial era researchers had piled on significant evidence about its existence. They knew it as being a living river in the past. They also knew the cultural importance the river held for Indians and for that very reason enthusiastically indulged themselves in this research. That such an immense and seminal piece of history did not inspire conventional leftist historians is stunning and disheartening. That they kept it away from the common education curriculum is criminal. 

As if that was not enough, a huge number Indus Valley sites were found on the Paleo channel of the dried bed of the river did not trigger any civilizational imagination in these historians. It should have naturally led to the questioning of conventional history in a more important area. The existence of the River Saraswati, its drying up in 1800BC, its descriptions in the tradition matching the geographical, topological research imply that the Vedic civilization becomes parallel to Indus valley. Civilization ought to be called Indus Saraswati and Vedas ought to be dated before 1800BC. This is a complete blow to the Aryan Invasion/Migration Theory - it rather demolishes the theory completely. This again was hidden in the history of educational curriculum. Interestingly, this evidence of river Saraswati is so much in consistency with Shrikant Talageri's Rigveda research of 1990s that time has come for all academics of India to re-date Vedic Civilization in history books and acknowledge the continuity of Indian Civilization through Vedic and the Indus/Saraswati Valley.

The net summary is - this multidimensional evidence of the river clearly establishes that

1. The great Vedic River Saraswati was physically too alive once.
2. That is where Indus valley civilization grew and hence should be called Indus-Saraswati Civilization if not Saraswati Valley Civilization.
3. Vedic civilization was older than 1800BC atleast by a thousand years.
4. As a result, Aryan Invasion/Migration Theory is a myth
5. There is a great deal of historical information hidden in our ancient texts - even in the philosophical ones. 

For creating this clarity to the common reader, Dr. Danino deserves immense respect and credit. I look forward to times when this book gains mainstream acceptability, becomes part of formal education at all levels. The real victory is when there is no university in India that does not acknowledge this as a seminal book and Indian geopgraphical maps proudly present River Saraswati as a special river - albeit dried. Further, Government of India should seriously consider establishing an Institution to create a comprehensive alternative reading of Indian History that is shaped by a visionary academic group consisting of academics like Dr. Danino.

This book brings that confidence to demand and imagine such a future.