River
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...
s play a prominent part in the hymns of the ''
Rigveda
The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (''śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one Sh ...
'', and consequently in early
Vedic religion. Vedic texts have a wide geographical horizon, speaking of oceans, rivers, mountains and deserts.
The Vedic land is described as a land of the seven rivers (''sapta sindhavaḥ''; sa, सप्तसिन्धवः) flowing into the ocean. It encompasses the northwestern Indian subcontinent from
Gandhara
Gandhāra is the name of an ancient region located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely in present-day north-west Pakistan and parts of south-east Afghanistan. The region centered around the Peshawar Vall ...
to
Kurukshetra
Kurukshetra (, ) is a city and administrative headquarter of Kurukshetra district in the Indian state of Haryana. It is also known as Dharmakshetra ("Realm of duty ") and as the "Land of the Bhagavad Gita".
Legends
According to the Pura ...
.
Geography of the Rigveda
![Map of Vedic India](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Map_of_Vedic_India.png)
Identification of Rigvedic hydronyms has engaged multiple historians; it is the single most important way of establishing the geography and chronology of the early
Vedic period
The Vedic period, or the Vedic age (), is the period in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age of the history of India when the Vedic literature, including the Vedas (ca. 1300–900 BCE), was composed in the northern Indian subcontinent, betw ...
.
Rivers with certain identifications stretch from eastern
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
to the western
Gangetic plain
The Indo-Gangetic Plain, also known as the North Indian River Plain, is a fertile plain encompassing northern regions of the Indian subcontinent, including most of northern and eastern India, around half of Pakistan, virtually all of Bangla ...
, clustering in the
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...
. The region's name comes from پنج, ''panj'', 'five' and آب,
''āb'', 'water' thus "
five waters", a Persianized form of the Indo-Aryan ''Panchanada'' meaning "five rivers". Many have cognates in
Avestan
Avestan (), or historically Zend, is an umbrella term for two Old Iranian languages: Old Avestan (spoken in the 2nd millennium BCE) and Younger Avestan (spoken in the 1st millennium BCE). They are known only from their conjoined use as the scrip ...
.
The same names were often imposed on different rivers as the Vedic culture migrated eastward from around Afghanistan (where they stayed for a considerable time) to mainland India via Punjab.
List
Multiple hydronyms are located in the Rigvedic corpus; they are slotted according to rough geographical locations, following the scheme of
Michael Witzel
Michael Witzel (born July 18, 1943) is a German-American philologist, comparative mythologist and Indologist. Witzel is the Wales Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University and the editor of the Harvard Oriental Series (volumes 50–80).
Witze ...
.
Alongside, opinions of scholars about modern correlates are provided:
Indus:
* Síndhu - Identified with
Indus
The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...
.
The central lifeline of RV.
Northwestern Rivers:
* Tr̥ṣṭā́mā - Blažek identifies with
Gilgit
Gilgit (; Shina: ; ur, ) is the capital city of Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan. The city is located in a broad valley near the confluence of the Gilgit River and the Hunza River. It is a major tourist destination in Pakistan, serving as a h ...
.
Witzel notes it to be unidentified.
* Susártu - Unidentified.
* Ánitabhā - Unidentified.
* Rasā́ - Described once to be on the upper Indus; at other times a mythical entity.
*Mehatnū - A tributary of Gomatī́.
Unidentifiable.
* Śvetyā́ - Unidentified.
* Kúbhā - Identified with
Kabul river.
* Krúmu - Identified with
Kurrum.
* Suvā́stu - Identified with
Swat
In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...
.
*Gomatī́ - Identified with
Gomal.
*Saráyu / Harōiiu - Blažek identifies with
Sarju.
Witzel identifies with
Hari
Hari ( sa, हरि) is among the primary epithets of the Hindu preserver deity Vishnu, meaning 'the one who takes away' (sins). It refers to the one who removes darkness and illusion, the one who removes all obstacles to spiritual progress ...
.
* Kuṣávā - Probably
Kunar.
*Yavyā́vatī - Noted to be a branch of Gomatī́. Witzel as well as Blažek identifies with
Zhob River.
Dähnhardt comments it to be synonymous to Yamúnā or flowing very close to it
but Witzel had rejected a similar take by Talgeri.
Eastern tributaries:
* Suṣómā - Identified with
Soan.
* Arjikiya - Blažek identifies with
Haro.
Witzel speculates it to be
Poonch Poonch, sometimes also spelt Punchh, may refer to:
* Historical Poonch District, a district in the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir in British India, split in 1947 between:
** Poonch district, India
** Poonch Division, in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan, ...
or
Tawi.
* Rivers of Punjab:
** Vitástā - Identified with
Jhelum
Jhelum ( Punjabi and ur, ) is a city on the east bank of the Jhelum River, which is located in the district of Jhelum in the north of Punjab province, Pakistan. It is the 44th largest city of Pakistan by population. Jhelum is known for p ...
.
** Asiknī́ - Identified with
Chenab.
** Paruṣṇī - Probably
Ravi Ravi may refer to:
People
* Ravi (name), including a list of people and characters with the name
* Ravi (composer) (1926–2012), Indian music director
* Ravi (Ivar Johansen) (born 1976), Norwegian musical artist
* Ravi (music director) (1926–201 ...
.
** Vípāś/Vípāśi/Vípāśā - Identified with
Beas.
** Śutudrī́ - Identified with
Sutlej
The Sutlej or Satluj River () is the longest of the five rivers that flow through the historic crossroads region of Punjab in northern India and Pakistan. The Sutlej River is also known as ''Satadru''. It is the easternmost tributary of the Ind ...
.
** Marúdvr̥dhā - Identified with
Mahuvardhavan.
Haryana:
*
Sarasvati
Saraswati ( sa, सरस्वती, ) is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, art, speech, wisdom, and learning. She is one of the Tridevi, along with the goddesses Lakshmi and Parvati.
The earliest known mention of Saraswati as a god ...
- .
** Āpayā́ and Āpayā́ - Streams/rivers of Sarasvati basin.
**Dr̥ṣádvatī - .
Eastern Rivers:
* Áśmanvatī - Identified with
Assan.
*Yamúnā - Identified with
Yamuna
The Yamuna (Hindustani language, Hindustani: ), also spelt Jumna, is the second-largest tributary river of the Ganges by discharge and the longest tributary in List of major rivers of India, India. Originating from the Yamunotri Glacier at a ...
.
**Aṃśumátī - Probably an epithet for Yamúnā.
* Gáṅgā - Identified with
Ganges
The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...
.
See also
*
Ap (water)
''Ap'' (') is the Vedic Sanskrit term for "water", which in Classical Sanskrit only occurs in the plural ' (sometimes re-analysed as a thematic singular, '), whence Hindi '. The term is from PIE "water".The word has many cognates in archaic Eu ...
*
Aryan migration
*
Nadistuti sukta
The Nadistuti sukta (Sanskrit: नदिस्तुति सूक्त), or "the hymn in praise of rivers", is 75th hymn (''sukta'') of 10th MandalaTogether with 1st Mandala, 10th Mandala forms the latest part of the Rigveda of the Rigveda.
N ...
*
Old European hydronymy
Old European (german: Alteuropäisch) is the term used by Hans Krahe (1964) for the language of the oldest reconstructed stratum of European hydronymy (river names) in Central and Western Europe.Hans Krahe, ''Unsere ältesten Flussnamen'', Wiesbad ...
*
Out of India theory
Indigenous Aryanism, also known as the Indigenous Aryans theory (IAT) and the Out of India theory (OIT), is the Belief, conviction that the Aryans are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent, and that the Indo-European languages radiated out from ...
*
Rigvedic deities
*
River goddess
A water deity is a deity in mythology associated with water or various bodies of water. Water deities are common in mythology and were usually more important among civilizations in which the sea or ocean, or a great river was more important. Ano ...
*
Samudra
*
Zhetysu - 7 rivers of Central Asia
References
Further reading
;General
* Blažek, Václav.
Hydronymia R̥gvedica. In: ''Linguistica Brunensia''. 2016, vol. 64, iss. 2, pp. 7–54. ; .
* Gherardo Gnoli, ''De Zoroastre à Mani. Quatre leçons au Collège de France'' (Travaux de l’Institut d’Études Iraniennes de l’Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle 11), Paris (1985)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rigvedic Rivers
Rivers
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...
History of India
Rivers of Sindh
Hydronymy
Rivers of Pakistan