Sarasvati river

[N. Ganesan]

Prof. M. Witzel:
>I am afraid that in Harappan times (during the Indus civilization)
>the Sarasvati was called something like
>*Vipaazh or *Vi<sham>baaL.

Dear Prof. Witzel,

Greetings. This is my last posting this month because I probably
have exhausted my monthly quota allotted by Dr. Wujastyk.

I am thinking of Drav. "vaani" as the old name for the river,
Sarasvati. ta. vAn2i => vaaNii, and then from vaaNii to Sarasvati
is easy. In sangam times, many rivers are called "vaanii". vaan = sky;
The "vaanii" river in CT, a tributory of Kaveri, is sanskritized
as "bhavaanii". There is a dam, bhavaaniisaagar now.

Compare this to the village name, "bhavaaniipura" where Sarasvati
river reemerges from sand. May be "bha(va)vaanii",
where "vaanii" is born again.
B. C. Law, Mountains and Rivers of India, 1968,
p. 195
"[SarasvatI] flows down past Patiala to lose itself in the northern
part of the desert of Rajputana at some distance from Sirsaa.
Manu applies the name of Vinasana to the place where it dispappears
from view. In the SiddhAnta-ziromani (Golaadhyaaya, BhuvanakoSa),
the Sarasvatii is correctly described as a river, which is visible
in one place and invisible in another. It disappears for a time
in the sand near the village of Chalaur and reappears at
**Bhavaaniipur**. At Baalchchaapar it again disappears, but appears
again at Bara Khera; at Urnai near Pehoa, ..."

Your reconstruction, *vi(sham)bAL has resemblences to
my attempt: vANI.  Tamil has for vENavaa/vELavaa (desire).
Like the vELavaa/vENavaa pair, bAL-/vANi may be related.

B. C. Law, p. 195 again:
"[Sindhu] receives on its left side at a place called
*PanJcnAD* the joint flow of the five other main rivers of the
Punjab under the name of the ChenAb".

In 1929, P. T. Srinivasa Aiyangar said (exact quote, I will
give later) the paJca jana/paJca jAta occuring in RV
may refer to Tamils because their life in Sangam texts
is divided into 5 landscapes. So, is this *paJca nAD*
contain the tamil/dr. term "nADu" (land/country)
as in Tamil NaaDu or kannADa. On sep. 19, 1999 article in the
paper The Hindu, G. Omvedt talks of a Mahabharata shlOkam
where Dramilas/DramiDas are called Mlecchas.
Does this signify the Meluhha mentioned further West?

Regards,
N. Ganesan

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