Ghaggar-Hakra River: Difference between revisions

{{use dmy dates|date=February 2016}}{{use Indian English|date=February 2016}}

| name = Ghaggar-Hakra River

| name_other =

| image = File:Chandigarh aerial1.jpg

| image_size =

| image_caption = Aerial view of Ghaggar river near Chandigarh

| image_alt =

| map = File:Sarasvati river.jpg

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| map_caption = Present-day Gagghar-Hakra river-course, with (pre-)Harappan paleochannel as proposed by Clift et al. (2012).<ref>See [https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Satellite-image-of-the-Indus-River-system-showing-the-study-sites-Stars-indicate_fig1_229062223 Clift et al. (2012) map] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211011105058/https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Satellite-image-of-the-Indus-River-system-showing-the-study-sites-Stars-indicate_fig1_229062223 |date=11 October 2021 }} and [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-05745-8/figures/1 Honde te al. (2017) map] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201114035153/https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-05745-8/figures/1 |date=14 November 2020 }}.</ref><br />

| map_alt =

| source1_location = [[Shivalik Hills]], [[Himachal Pradesh]], India

| source1_elevation =

| mouth_location = Ottu, [[Haryana]], India

| basin_sizemouth_elevation = =

| subdivision_type1 = Country

| subdivision_name1 = [[India]], [[Pakistan]]

| length =

| title discharge1_location=<ref>{{cite book |title=Political Economy of the Punjab: An Insider's Account |publisher=MD Publications, New Delhi |isbn=978-81-7533-031-3 |year=1997}}</ref>

| isbndischarge1_avg = 978<!-81-753328-031-3>

| discharge1_maxwaterfalls =

The '''Ghaggar-Hakra River''' is an [[intermittent river]] in [[India]] and [[Pakistan]] that flows only during the [[monsoon season]]. The river is known as Ghaggar in India, before the [[Ottu barrage]] at {{Coord|29.4875|N|74.8925|E|type:waterbody|display=inline}}, and as the Hakra in Pakistan, downstream of the barrage, ending in the [[Thar Desert]].{{sfn|Singh et al.|2017}}<ref name="ref42refar">{{Cite book | title=Students' Britannica India, Volumes 1-5 | author=Britannica, Dale Hoiberg, Indu Ramchandani | publisher=Popular Prakashan, 2000 | isbn=978-0-85229-760-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AE_LIg9G5CgC | quote=The Ghaggar River rises in the Shiwalik Range, northwestern [[Himachal Pradesh]] State, and flows about 320 km southwest through Haryana State, where it receives the Saraswati River. Beyond the Ottu Barrage, the Ghaggar River is known as the Hakra River which loses itself in the [[Thar Desert]]. Just southwest of Sirsa it feeds two irrigation canals that extend into [[Rajasthan]]. | year=2000 |language=en}}</ref> In pre-Harappan times the Ghaggar was a tributary of the Sutlej. It is still connected to this paleochannel of the Sutlej, and possibly the Yamuna, which ended in the [[Nara River (Sindh)|Nara River]], presently a [[Distributary|delta channel]] of the [[Indus River]] joining the sea via [[Sir Creek]].{{sfn|Singh et al.|2017}}{{sfn|Clift et al.|2012}}{{sfn|Khonde et al.|2017}}

Nineteenth and early 20th century scholars, but also some more recent authors, have suggested that the Ghaggar-Hakra might be the defunct remains of the [[Sarasvati River]] mentioned in the [[Rig Veda]], fed by Himalayan-fed rivers, despite the fact that the Ghaggar-Hakra had dried up by that time.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Sanyal, Sanjeev |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/855957425 |title=Land of the seven rivers : a brief history of India's geography |date=10 July 2013 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-342093-4 |oclc=855957425 |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Ghaggar river near Naurangdesar village.jpg|thumb|Ghaggar river's dry bed in February month near Naurangdesar village, [[Hanumangarh district]], [[Rajasthan]], [[India]].]]

The '''Ghaggar''' is an intermittent [[river]] in [[India]], flowing during the [[monsoon]] [[rain]]s. It originates in the village of [[Dagshai]] in the [[Shivalik Hills]] of [[Himachal Pradesh]] at an elevation of {{convert|1927|m}} above mean sea level<ref name="SharmaKalwar2005">{{cite book |first1=Hari |last1=Shanker Sharma |first2=S. C. |last2=Kalwar |title=Geomorphology and Environmental Sustainability: Felicitation Volume in Honour of Professor H.S. Sharma |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vmPaIIVgtooC |year=2005 |publisher=Concept Publishing Company |isbn=978-81-8069-028-0 |page=61}}</ref> and flows through [[Punjab, India|Punjab]] and [[Haryana]] states into [[Rajasthan]];<ref>{{cite web |title=Sarasvati: Tracing the death of a river |url=http://www.dnaindia.com/india/interview_sarasvati-tracing-the-death-of-a-river_1395200 |access-date=12 June 2010 |date=2010-06-11 |archive-date=26 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226075141/https://www.dnaindia.com/india/interview-sarasvati-tracing-the-death-of-a-river-1395200 |url-status=live }}</ref> just southwest of [[Sirsa, Haryana]] and by the side of [[Talwara Lake]] in Rajasthan.

Dammed at [[Ottu barrage]] near Sirsa, Ghaggar feeds two irrigation canals that extend into Rajasthan.{{cncitation needed|date=August 2022}}

The Kaushalya river is a tributary of Ghaggar river on the left side of Ghaggar-Hakra, it flows in the [[Panchkula district]] of [[Haryana]] state of [[India]] and converges with Ghaggar river near [[Pinjore]] just downstream of [[Kaushalya Dam]].<ref name="MH1">[{{Cite web |url=http://www.hillsofmorni.com/around-morni/kaushalya-dam/ |title=Hillsofmorni.com - Kaushalya dam] |access-date=13 April 2016 |archive-date=14 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171114024025/http://www.hillsofmorni.com/around-morni/kaushalya-dam/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to archaeologist Rita Wright, the large number of documented sites may be due to the ephemeral nature of the settlements, with the inhabitants frequently moving around in pursuit of water.<ref>Stephanie Pappas (28 November 2017), [https://www.livescience.com/61039-ancient-indus-civilization-survived-without-rivers.html Mystery Solved: How the Ancient Indus Civilization Survived Without Rivers], LiveScience</ref> According to archaeologist Shereen Ratnagar, many Ghaggar-Hakra sites in India are actually those of local cultures; some sites display contact with Harappan civilisation, but only a few are fully developed Harappan ones.<ref name="Ratnagar">{{cite book |last=Ratnagar |first=Shereen |year=2006 |title=Understanding Harappa: Civilization in the Greater Indus Valley |location=New Delhi |publisher=Tulika Books |isbn=978-81-89487-02-7 |ref=Shereen-2006b |pages=7–8 |language=en |quote=If in an ancient mound we find only one pot and two bead necklaces similar to those of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, with the bulk of pottery, tools and ornaments of a different type altogether, we cannot call that site Harappan. It is instead a site with Harappan contacts. ... Where the Sarasvati valley sites are concerned, we find that many of them are sites of local culture (with distinctive pottery, clay bangles, terracotta beads, and grinding stones), some of them showing Harappan contact, and comparatively few are full-fledged Mature Harappan sites.}}</ref> Hetalben Sidhav notes that claims of a large number of Ghaggar-Hakra sites are politically motivated and exaggerated. While the Indus remained an active river, the Ghaggar-Hakra dried up, leaving many sites undisturbed, which explains why such a large number of sites has been found.{{sfn|Sindhav|2016|p=103}}

Late in the 2nd millennium BCE the Ghaggar-Hakra fluvial system [[aridification|dried up]], becoming the small seasonal river it is today, which affected the Harappan civilisation.{{sfn|Giosan et al.|2012}}{{refn|group=note|name=Drying-up}}{{refn|group=note|name=Giosan.2012}}<ref name=madella-fuller>{{cite journal |last1=Madella |first1=Marco |last2=Fuller |first2=Dorian |year=2006 |title=Palaeo-ecology and the Harappan civilisation of south Asia: A reconsideration |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=25 |issue=11–12 |pages=1283–1301 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2005.10.012 |bibcode=2006QSRv...25.1283M}}</ref><ref name=macdonald>{{cite journal |last=MacDonald |first=Glen |year=2011 |title=Potential influence of the Pacific Ocean on the Indian summer monsoon and Harappan decline |journal=Quaternary International |volume=229 |issue=1–2 |pages=140–148 |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2009.11.012 |bibcode=2011QuInt.229..140M}}</ref><ref name=brooke-2015>{{cite book |last=Brooke |first=John L. |title=Climate Change and the Course of Global History: A rough journey |date=17 March 2014 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O9TSAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA296 |page=296 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-87164-8 |access-date=1 October 2016 |archive-date=18 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418050414/https://books.google.com/books?id=O9TSAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA296 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{refn|group=note|From Brooke (2015):<ref name=brooke-2015/> “The story in Harappan India was somewhat different (see Figure&nbsp;111.3). The Bronze Age village and urban societies of the Indus Valley are some-thing of an anomaly, in that archaeologists have found little indication of local defence and regional warfare. It would seem that the bountiful monsoon rainfall of the Early to Mid-Holocene had forged a condition of plenty for all, and that competitive energies were channelled into commerce rather than conflict. Scholars have long argued that these rains shaped the origins of the urban Harappan societies, which emerged from Neolithic villages around 2600&nbsp;BC. It now appears that this rainfall began to slowly taper off in the third millennium, at just the point that the Harappan cities began to develop. Thus it seems that this "first urbanization" in South Asia was the initial response of the Indus Valley peoples to the beginning of Late Holocene aridification. These cities were maintained for 300 to 400&nbsp;years and then gradually abandoned as the Harappan peoples resettled in scattered villages in the eastern range of their territories, into the Punjab and the Ganges Valley&nbsp;...&nbsp;.” — Brooke (2015)<ref name=brooke-2015/>{{rp|page=17}} (footnotes)<br />

(a) {{cite journal |first1=Liviu |last1=Giosan |display-authors=etal |year=2012 |title=Fluvial landscapes of the Harappan Civilization |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA |volume=102 |issue=26 |pages=E1688–E1694 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1112743109 |pmid=22645375 |pmc=3387054 |bibcode=2012PNAS..109E1688G |postscript=; |doi-access=free }}<br />

(b) {{cite journal |first=Camilo |last=Ponton |year=2012 |title=Holocene aridification of India |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |volume=39 |issue=3 |page=L03704 |doi=10.1029/2011GL050722 |bibcode=2012GeoRL..39.3704P |hdl=1912/5100 |s2cid=140604921 |postscript=; |hdl-access=free }}<br />

(c) {{cite journal |first1=Harunur |last1=Rashid |display-authors=etal |year=2011 |title=Late glacial to Holocene Indian summer monsoon variability based upon sediment records taken from the Bay of Bengal |journal=Terrestrial, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=215–228 |doi=10.3319/TAO.2010.09.17.02(TibXS) |bibcode=2011TAOS...22..215R |url=http://research.bpcrc.osu.edu/Icecore/publications/Rashid%20et%20al%20Terr%20Atmos%20Ocean%20Sci%202011v222p215.pdf |postscript=; |doi-access=free }}<br />

Compare with the very different interpretations in Possehl (2002),{{sfn|Possehl|2002|pages=237–245}} and Staubwasser ''et al''. (2003),<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Michael |last1=Staubwasser |display-authors=etal |year=2003 |title=Climate change at the 4.2&nbsp;ka&nbsp;BP termination of the Indus Valley Civilization and Holocene south Asian monsoon variability |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |volume=30 |issue=8 |page=1425 |doi=10.1029/2002GL016822 |bibcode=2003GeoRL..30.1425S |s2cid=129178112 }}</ref> Bar-Matthews & Avner Ayalon (2015).{{refn| Bar-Matthews & Avner Ayalon "Mid-Holocene Climate Variations" in Brooke (2015).<ref name=brooke-2015/>}}

}} Paleobotanical information documents the aridity that developed after the drying up of the river.<ref>Gadgil and Thapar (1990), and references therein</ref> The diminishing of the monsoons particular effectedaffected the Ghaggar-Hakra system, which became ephemeral and was largely abandoned, with the IVC reorganizing in local settlements some 4000 years ago.{{sfn|Giosan et al.|2012|p=1693}} In the late Harappan period the number of late Harappan sites in the middle Ghaggar-Hakra channel and in the Indus valley diminished, while it expanded in the upper Ghaggar-Sutlej channels and in Saurashtra.{{sfn|Giosan|2012|p=4}} The IVC-people migrated east toward the more humid regions of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, where the decentralised late Harappan phase took place.{{sfn|Giosan et al.|2012|p=1693}}{{refn|group=note|name=Giosan.2012}}

The same widespread aridification in the third millennium BCE also led to water shortages and ecological changes in the Eurasian steppes,<ref group=web name="Kochhar2017">Rajesh Kochhar (2017), [http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/aryans-dna-genetics-archaeology-4765740/ "The Aryan chromosome"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210619202352/https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/aryans-dna-genetics-archaeology-4765740/ |date=19 June 2021 }}, ''The Indian Express''</ref>{{sfn|Demkina|2017}} leading to a change of vegetation, triggering "higher mobility and transition to nomadic cattle breeding,"{{sfn|Demkina|2017}}{{refn|group=note|Demkina et al. (2017): "In the second millennium BC, humidification of the climate led to the divergence of the soil cover with secondary formation of the complexes of chestnut soils and solonetzes. This paleoecological crisis had a significant effect on the economy of the tribes in the Late Catacomb and Post-Catacomb time stipulating their higher mobility and transition to the nomadic cattle breeding."{{sfn|Demkina|2017}}}}{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=300, 336}}{{refn|group=note|See also Eurogenes Blogspot, [http://eurogenes.blogspot.nl/2017/07/the-crisis.html ''The crisis''].}} These migrations eventually resulted in the Indo-Aryan migrations into South Asia.{{sfn|Anthony|2007}}<ref group=web name="Kochhar2017"/>

Nineteenth and early 20th century scholars, such as orientalist [[Christian Lassen]] (1800–1876),<ref name=Koenig1876>{{citation |title=Indische Alterthumskunde Christian Lassen: Geographie und die älteste Geschichte |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j1sW1vB4uRcC&pg=PA91 |year=1847 |publisher=H. B. Koenig |page=91}}</ref> philologist and Indologist [[Max Müller]] (1823–1900),<ref>[[Sacred Books of the East]], 32, 60</ref> archaeologist [[Aurel Stein]] (1862–1943), and geologist [[Richard Dixon Oldham|R. D. Oldham]] (1858–1936),<ref>Oldham 1893 pp.51–52</ref> had considered that the Ghaggar-Hakra might be the defunct remains of a river, the [[Sarasvati River|Sarasvati]], invoked in the orally transmitted collection of ancient [[Vedic Sanskrit|Sanskrit]] hymns, the [[Rig Veda]] composed circa {{Circa|1500 BCE}} to 1200 BCE.

Because most of the Indus Valley sites known so far are actually located on the Ghaggar-Hakra river and its tributaries and not on the Indus river, some Indian archaeologists, such as S.P. Gupta, have proposed to use the term "Indus Sarasvati Civilization" to refer to the Harappan culture which is named, as is common in archaeology, after the first place where the culture was discovered.

[[Romila Thapar]] terms the identification "controversial" and dismisses it, noticing that the descriptions of Sarasvati flowing through the "high mountains" does not tally with Ghaggar's course and suggests that Sarasvati is Haraxvati of Afghanistan which is also known as the [[Helmand river]].<ref name="Thapar2004">{{cite book |first=Romila |last=Thapar |year=2004 |title=Early India: From the origins to AD&nbsp;1300 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-24225-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/earlyindiafromor00thap/page/42 42] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/earlyindiafromor00thap/page/42| |language=en}}</ref> Wilke suggests that the identification is problematic since the Ghaggar-Hakra river was already dried up at the time of the composition of the Vedas,{{sfn|Wilke|2011}} let alone the migration of the Vedic people into northern India.{{sfn|Witzel|2001|p=93}}{{sfn|Mukherjee|2001|p=2, 8-9}}

Rajesh Kocchar further notes that, even if the Sutlej and the Yamuna had drained into the Ghaggar during [[Vedic period]], it still would not fit the [[Rig Veda|Rig Vedic]] descriptions because "the snow-fed Satluj and Yamuna would strengthen [only the] lower Ghaggar. [The] upper Ghaggar would still be as puny as it is today."<ref name=Kocchar/> According to Rajesh KocchaKocchar there are two Sarasvati rivers mentioned in the Rigveda. The older one described in the family books of the Rigveda, which he calls ''Naditama Sarasvati'', drains into a [[samudra]]. The newer one described in the tenth book of Rigveda as well as later Vedic texts, which he calls ''Vinasana Sarasvati'', disappears in the sands. The ''Vinasana Sarasvati'' has been "accepted by all" to be the same as the Ghaggar-Hakra river. The description of the ''Naditama Sarasvati'' in the Rigveda matches the physical features of the [[Helmand River]] in Afghanistan, more precisely its tributary the [[Harut River]], whose older name was ''Harax^vatī'' in Avestan. Ganga and Yamuna, he takes to be small streams in its vicinity. When the Vedic people moved east into Punjab, they named the new rivers they encountered after the old rivers they knew from Helmand.<ref>{{citation |last=Kochhar |first=Rajesh |chapter=On the identity and chronology of the Ṛgvedic river Sarasvatī |title=Archaeology and Language III; Artefacts, languages and texts |editor1=Roger Blench |editor2=Matthew Spriggs |publisher=Routledge |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-415-10054-0 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h8jfBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA257| |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Kocchar">Rajesh Kocchar, [http://rajeshkochhar.com/tag/rigveda/ The rivers Sarasvati: Reconciling the sacred texts] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160507125617/http://rajeshkochhar.com/tag/rigveda/ |date=7 May 2016 }}, blog post based on ''The Vedic People: Their History and Geography''.</ref>

* [[Sutlej]]

* [[Ganges]]

* [[Indus]]

{{refn|group=note|name=Giosan.2012|{{harvtxt|Giosan et al.|2012}}:

* {{harvtxt|Giosan et al.|2012|p=1688}}: "Contrary to earlier assumptions that a large glacier-fed Himalayan river, identified by some with the mythical Sarasvati, watered the Harappan heartland on the interfluve between the Indus and Ganges basins, we show that only monsoonal-fed rivers were active there during the Holocene."

* {{harvtxt|Giosan et al.|2012|p=1689}}: "Numerous speculations have advanced the idea that the Ghaggar-Hakra fluvial system, at times identified with the lost mythical river of Sarasvati (e.g., 4, 5, 7, 19), was a large glacier-fed Himalayan river. Potential sources for this river include the Yamuna River, the Sutlej River, or both rivers. However, the lack of large-scale incision on the interfluve demonstrates that large, glacier-fed rivers did not flow across the Ghaggar-Hakra region during the Holocene."

* "Numerous speculations have advanced the idea that the Ghaggar-Hakra fluvial system, at times identified with the lost mythical river of Sarasvati (e.g., 4, 5, 7, 19), was a large glacier fed Himalayan river. Potential sources for this river include the Yamuna River, the Sutlej River, or both rivers. However, the lack of large-scale incision on the interfluve demonstrates that large, glacier-fed rivers did not flow across the Ghaggar-Hakra region during the Holocene.

* The present Ghaggar-Hakra valley and its tributary rivers are currently dry or have seasonal flows. Yet rivers were undoubtedly active in this region during the Urban Harappan Phase. We recovered sandy fluvial deposits approximately 5;400 y old at Fort Abbas in Pakistan (SI Text), and recent work (33) on the upper Ghaggar-Hakra interfluve in India also documented Holocene channel sands that are approximately 4;300 y old. On the upper interfluve, fine-grained floodplain deposition continued until the end of the Late Harappan Phase, as recent as 2,900 y ago (33) (Fig. 2B). This widespread fluvial redistribution of sediment suggests that reliable monsoon rains were able to sustain perennial rivers earlier during the Holocene and explains why Harappan settlements flourished along the entire Ghaggar-Hakra system without access to a glacier-fed river."

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* OpenStreetMap: [https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/5388381#map=7/29.187/74.524&layers=C Ghaggar River], [https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/12213371#map=7/29.187/74.524&layers=C Hakra canal (partly on the Hakra bed)].

* OpenStreetMap: [https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/12213231#map=7/26.612/71.074&layers=C Nara Canal]

* [http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/oct25/articles20.htm Saraswati – the ancient river lost in the desert by A. V. Sankaran]

* [http://www.mapsofindia.com/history/sarasvati-river.html Map of the ancient Ghaggar and Hakra rivers], mapsofindia.com

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070101164930/http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucgadkw/members/indus.html Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization and Sarasvati River]

* [http://www.gisdevelopment.net/application/archaeology/site/archs0001.htm The Saraswati: Where lies the mystery by Saraswati Paik]

[[Category:Indus Valley civilisationCivilisation]]