Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c30.101

c30.101

The notices of rivers in the Rigveda are no certain guide as to all that the Aryans knew of the geography of India then, for, while the Sindhu and Sarasvatī are mentioned often, no other rivers in N. India are alluded to more than once, twice or thrice.² The Sindhu no doubt attracted attention because of its immense size, and the Sarasvatī because of its sanctity,³ which was largely due to its being in the territory of the Bhārata kings of Hastināpura, among whom (and not in the Panjab⁴) the development of Rigvedic brahmanism took place, as will be explained in the next chapter.⁵ The Rigveda knows of the Sarayu, and there is no good reason for doubting that that is the river of Oudh. Its silence about the Vindhya Mts. and other geographical features proves no ignorance, when one considers its silence about the banyan (p. 125), about salt,⁶ and about the Pāriyātra hills (the Aravalli range), which the Aryans had actually reached according to the current view.