The Arctic Home in the Vedas c12.62.2

c12.62.2

The rivers of the Panjaub may therefore, it is urged, be well described as being set free to flow (sartave) by Indra himself, and in support of this explanation we are referred to the Rig-Veda X, 75, and to the phrase hapta-hindu occurring in Fargard I of the Vendidad, where it is said to denote the Panjaub or India. But the hypothesis, howsoever tempting it may seem at the first sight, is quite inadequate to explain the seven-fold division of waters in a satisfactory way. It has been pointed out above that the simultaneous release of waters and light can be accounted for only on the theory of the cosmic circulation of aerial waters; and if this is correct, we cannot identify the seven rivers, set free to flow upwards (udañcha) by Indra, with any terrestrial rivers whether in the Panjaub or elsewhere. The Panjaub is again, as its name indicates, a land of five and not of seven rivers; and it is so described in the Vâjasaneyî Saṃhitâ.¹ The term pañcha-nada is, therefore, more appropriate in the case of the Panjaub, than sapta sindhavaḥ or the Hapta-hindu of the Avesta. But we might get over the difficulty by supposing that Kubhâ and Sarasvatî, or any other two tributaries of the Indus were included in the group by the Vedic bards, when they spoke of seven rivers. In the Rig-Veda (X, 75), about fifteen different rivers are mentioned, including the Gaṅgâ, the Yamunâ, the Kubhâ, the Krumu, the Gomatî, the Rasâ, and the five rivers of the Panjaub;