Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c38.3

v2.c38.3

Our considered opinion is that the *Ṛgveda* corresponds to the ancient civilization on the valley of the lost river (*vinaśana*) Sarasvatī. (Biswas, 1987) The archaeological expeditions have unearthed not only the ancient course of the said river (Stein, 1942; Ghose *et al.*, 1979) but also the details of many important sites on the river such as Kālībaṅgan (Lal, 1979), Banawālī (Bisht, 1982), Bhagwānpurā (Lal, 1982), etc. C-14 measurements have shown that the different strata of the above settlements ranged from 3000 to 1500 BC. In other words, the Ṛgvedic culture was Pre-, Mature- as well as Post-Harappan. We agree with B.B. Lal (1982:337) that the uninterrupted sequence from the Pre-Harappan ploughed field to the Post-Harappan PGW ‘formed the base on which the Mature Harappan appeared like bubbles on a vast lake, only to disappear and merge into the waters of the lake itself’.