saraswati civilisation

[S.Kalyanaraman]

George Thompson wrote:
> Let us not wait for science to come to us. Let us do science ourselves. 

Our science seems to have misled other sciences into looking for a river in
the Great Indian Desert and in Afghanistan. If the river was a myth, will the
people referred to as living on the banks of the river also be mythical
beings? Sure, Vedic literature has lots of mythology (also some science) but
then, a recent article by Prof. Witzel assumes that many people lived around
this mythical river (also called VaizambhAlyA)... 

Anyway, here is an excerpt from a recent article which appeared in Current
Science, which should certainly be of interest and perhaps of some value:

"Sarasvati emerged as a mighty river during the warm spell that succeeded the
Pleistocene glaciation some 10,000 years ago. Flowing down the Himalayan
slopes, it had coursed through northwestern India and drained into the ancient
Arabian Sea� (studies) have indicated that spells of intermittent tectonic
activities associated with the rise of Himalayas, neotectonism in the Kutch
region, climatic changes and desertification induced by variations in earth's
orbit and tile, diminishing supply of waters due to river piracy, all appear
to have had vital roles in the downfall of the Sarasvati River�While tectonism
had certainly a major role in shaping the fate of Sarasvati and other rivers,
this could not have been the only agent bringing about various changes that
led to its downfall�It is well known that variation in earth's orbit and tilt
of earth's axis affect the earth's climate (Milankovitch and albedo forces). A
drastic weather change related to these phenomena had peaked around 7000 BC.
Recent studies have shown that the onset of an arid climate occurred in two
pulses-at 4700-3700 and at 2000-1700 BC, both of which had fairly wide impact
not only in India in the desertification of western Rajasthan but in other
countries also, like Africa in the development of Saharan and Nubian
deserts�Computer-based climate stimulation studies, to reproduce the changes
to solar heating of the atmosphere due to variation sin earth's tilt and orbit
have shown that climate-induced weakening of monsoons over India and north
Africa led to desertification in a span of just 300 years�" (Claussen, M.
Kubatzki, C., Braovkin V., Ganopolski, A., Hoelzmann, P. and Pachur, H.J.,
Geophys. Res. Lett., 1999, 26, 2037-2040; Sankaran, A.V., Saraswati-the
ancient river lost in the desert, Current Science, Vol. 77, No. 8, 25 October
1999).

Dr. S. Kalyanaraman



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