An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v2.c45.284

v2.c45.284

It has been stated above that Stein, 1942, explored the dried-up Sarasvatī valley in n. Rajasthan without identifying any prehistoric site and continued his work further down the river-bed in the Bahawalpur region where he found Harappa and other sites. (Valuable work has now been done in the Bahawalpur region by M.R. Mughal, quoted in Dikshit, 1979). The writer conducted an intensive exploration in the valley falling within Dt Ganganagar, n. Rajasthan, in 1950-53 (Ghosh, 1952, 1953) on behalf of the ASI, covering in the same Dt also the course of DṚṢADVATĪ which met the Sarasvatī a few km n of Suratgarh (29°19′; 75°57′). The courses of both the streams are marked by sand dunes of varying heights flanking flat dry stretches of alluvial land marking the respective ancient river-beds. (The landscape has of late largely changed by irrigation made possible by recently excavated canals.) The sand dunes have been seen to contain fresh-water shells, which must have got deposited on the banks of the river when they were still alive, thus disproving Stein's theory that they were formed of drifted sand.