An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v2.c45.294

v2.c45.294

This alternate plentiful supply and scarcity of water in the river is confirmed by the boring in the river-bed by Raikes, 1968, who explains the phenomenon by the volume of water of the Sarasvatī flowing alternately as the Yamuna and Sarasvatī. For this cycle he lays down a time-table, whereby an e.ward diversion of the water to the Ganga system is indicated in *c.* 1750 B.C. (end of the Harappa culture), resulting in a dry phase (partly coinciding with the PGW period), a recurrence of the wet phase in the early centuries A.D. (RANG MAHAL period) and then by another desiccation. Such a regular cycle may look like a deliberate attempt to equating the hydrological datum (in this case the occurrence of the so-called Yamuna sand in the dry bed of the Sarasvatī) with the archaeological settlement pattern and is contradicted by literature wherein both the Yamuna and Sarasvatī are mentioned as flowing simultaneously (cf. *Ṛgveda-saṃhitā*, 10.76.7). Nevertheless the coincidence of the two sets of evidence is noteworthy.