History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.18

v5.c74.18

flood of the Sarasvatī impinging by its powerful waves against the tops of hills is referred to in Ṛg. VI. 61. 2 and 8¹²⁵⁰. In VII. 96. 1, Sarasvatī is spoken of as *asuryā* (of divine origin) among rivers. Sacrifices are said to have been performed on the Dṛṣadvatī, the Āpayā and Sarasvatī (Ṛg. III. 23. 4). In Ṛg. II. 41. 16 Sarasvatī is called the best of rivers and goddesses (ambitame nadītame devitame Sarasvatī). Ṛg. I. 3. 11-12 praise¹²⁵¹ Sarasvatī as a river and a deity, as a purifier (*pāvaka*), as the impeller of sweet but truthful words and the inspirer of good thoughts and as bringing to notice its great flood of waters. From Ṛg. VII. 95. 2, VII. 49. 2 and I. 71. 7 it is obvious that the Ṛgvedic sages knew that the seven rivers fell into the sea. It would be proper to hold that the seven rivers are Sindhu (Indus), the five rivers of the Panjab and the Sarasvatī. Though from the Ṛgveda passages cited above it appears that in the times of the hymns of the Ṛgveda Sarasvatī was a big river with abundant waters, that it flowed between the Yamunā and Śutudrī (X. 75. 5), in the times of the Brāhmaṇas it disappeared in the sands It is now generally identified with the modern Sarsuti which is lost in the desert at Bhatnair. The Vāj. S. 34. 11 says that five rivers together with their tributary streams fall into Sarasvatī.¹²⁵² There were three *sattras* called Sārasvata, viz the first in honour of Mitra and Varuṇa, the 2nd for Indra and Agni and the third for Aryaman The *dīkṣā* (consecration ceremony) was to be performed on the south bank of the dry bed of the Sarasvatī where it disappeared underground¹²⁵³. Vide Tāṇḍya Br.