Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c7.s1.7

c7.s1.7

is the Ganges and the Sindhu the Indus. The Sarasvatī rises in the Sirmur hills of the Siwalik range in the Himalayas and emerges into the plains at Ād-Badrī in the Ambala District, Punjab. It disappears once at Chalaur but reappears at Bhavanipur; then it disappears at Balchappar but again appears at Bara Khera; next it is joined by the Mārkaṇḍa at Urnai near Pehoa and the united stream, still called Sarasvatī, ultimately falls into the Ghaggar which is believed to have borne the name Sarasvatī in ancient times. In the early Vedic period, the Sarasvatī probably flowed into the Arabian Sea. Later literature speaks of its disappearance at Vinaśana (near modern Sirsa) in Kurukṣetra or Brahmāvarta (in the Eastern Punjab) which is described as the land between the Sarasvatī and the Dṛṣadvatī. Cf. दक्षिणेन सरस्वत्या उत्तरेण दृषद्वतीम् । ये वसन्ति कुरुक्षेत्रे ते वसन्ति त्रिविष्टपे ॥ (Mbh, III, 83, 204-05); सरस्वतीदृषद्वत्योर्देवनद्योर्यदन्तरम् । तं देवनिर्मितं देशं ब्रह्मावर्तं प्रचक्षते ॥ (Manu, II, 17). Vide infra, p. 41, note 4.