The Sarayu is a river that originates at a ridge south of
Nanda Kot
Nanda Kot ( Kumaoni-नन्दा कोट) is a mountain peak of the Himalaya range located in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand state in India. It lies in the Kumaon Himalaya, just outside the ring of peaks enclosing the Nanda Devi ...
mountain in
Bageshwar district
Bageshwar is a district of Uttarakhand state in northern India. The town of Bageshwar is the district headquarters. Prior to its establishment as a district in 1997 it was part of Almora district.
Bageshwar district is in Kumaon, and is bounded ...
in
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...
, India. It flows through
Kapkot
Kapkot or Kapkote is a village in Bageshwar district, Uttarakhand, India. It houses the headquarters of Kapkot Tehsil, the largest administrative subdivision of Bageshwar district. It is known for being the last bus terminus on the route to Pind ...
,
Bageshwar
Bageshwar ( Kumaoni: ''Bāgshyār'') is a town and a municipal board in Bageshwar district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is located at a distance of 470 km from the National Capital New Delhi and 332 km from the State Capital ...
, and Seraghat towns before discharging into the
Sharda River
The Sharda River, also called Kali River and Mahakali River, originates at Kalapani in the Himalayas at an elevation of in the Pithoragarh district in Uttarakhand, India. It flows along Nepal's western border with India and has a basin area ...
at
Pancheshwar
Pancheshwar is a village development committee in Baitadi District in the Mahakali Zone of western Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census it had a population of 2,951 and had 510 houses in the village. It is located at the confluence of Sarju ...
at the India—Nepal border. Sharda river (also known as Kali river) then flows into
Ghaghara
Ghaghara, also called Karnali, is a perennial trans-boundary river originating on the Tibetan Plateau near Lake Manasarovar. The Karnali cuts through the Himalayas in Nepal and joins the Sharda River at Brahmaghat in India. Together they form th ...
river in
Sitapur District
Sitapur district is one of the districts which is situated in Uttar Pradesh state of India, with Sitapur town as the district headquarters. Sitapur district is a part of Lucknow division.
History
Sitapur was first constituted as a district ...
,
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
, India.
Lower Ghaghara is also popularly known as Sarayu in India. Especially while it flows through the city of
Ayodhya
Ayodhya (; ) is a city situated on the banks of holy river Saryu in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
Ayodhya, also known as Sāketa, Saketa, is an ancient city of India, the birthplace of Rama and ...
, the birth place of the Hindu deity
Rama
Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular '' avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Bein ...
. The river is mentioned various times in the ancient Indian epic of
Ramayana
The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...
.
Course
The Sarayu rises at Sarmul (or Sarmool), which is located in the extreme north of the
district Bageshwar of
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...
on the southern slope of a ridge of the
Nanda Kot
Nanda Kot ( Kumaoni-नन्दा कोट) is a mountain peak of the Himalaya range located in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand state in India. It lies in the Kumaon Himalaya, just outside the ring of peaks enclosing the Nanda Devi ...
. It flows through the
Kumaon Kumaon or Kumaun may refer to:
* Kumaon division, a region in Uttarakhand, India
* Kumaon Kingdom, a former country in Uttarakhand, India
* Kumaon, Iran, a village in Isfahan Province, Iran
* , a ship of the Royal Indian Navy during WWII
See also
...
Himalayas
The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...
, passes by the towns of
Kapkot
Kapkot or Kapkote is a village in Bageshwar district, Uttarakhand, India. It houses the headquarters of Kapkot Tehsil, the largest administrative subdivision of Bageshwar district. It is known for being the last bus terminus on the route to Pind ...
,
Bageshwar
Bageshwar ( Kumaoni: ''Bāgshyār'') is a town and a municipal board in Bageshwar district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is located at a distance of 470 km from the National Capital New Delhi and 332 km from the State Capital ...
and Seraghat before flowing into the
Sharda River
The Sharda River, also called Kali River and Mahakali River, originates at Kalapani in the Himalayas at an elevation of in the Pithoragarh district in Uttarakhand, India. It flows along Nepal's western border with India and has a basin area ...
at
Pancheshwar
Pancheshwar is a village development committee in Baitadi District in the Mahakali Zone of western Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census it had a population of 2,951 and had 510 houses in the village. It is located at the confluence of Sarju ...
.
Etymology
The name is the feminine derivative of the Sanskrit root सर् ''sar'' "to flow"; as a masculine stem, ' means "air, wind", that is, "that which is streaming".
Ramayana
In the epic
Ramayana
The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...
, Sri Rama along with the residents of Ayodhya went to vaikunth lok from this river and became deities in
heaven
Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...
afterwards.
In fiction
Sarayu is also the name of the river that flows by the fictional town of
Malgudi
Malgudi is a fictional town located in Agumbe in Karnataka in the novels and short stories of R. K. Narayan. It forms the setting for most of Narayan's works. Starting with his first novel, ''Swami and Friends'', all but one of his fifteen nov ...
created by the Indian writer
R. K. Narayan
Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami (10 October 1906 – 13 May 2001) was an Indian writer known for his work set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He was a leading author of early Indian literature in English along with Mul ...
.
Sarayu is the name given to the personification of the Holy Spirit in "
The Shack" created by American Novelist
William P. Young
William Paul Young (born May 11, 1955), referred to as Wm. Paul Young or simply Paul Young, is a Canadian author. He wrote the novels '' The Shack'', '' Cross Roads'', ''Eve'', and the religious book ''Lies We Believe About God''.
Early life
Y ...
.
See also
*
Saranyu
Sanjna (Sanskrit: संज्ञा, IAST: ''Saṃjñā''), also known as Saranyu ( sa, सरन्यू, IAST: ''Saraṇyū''), is a Hindu goddess and the chief consort of Surya, the Sun god. She is mentioned in the ''Rigveda'', and also app ...
*
Ramayana
The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...
*
Ghaghara
Ghaghara, also called Karnali, is a perennial trans-boundary river originating on the Tibetan Plateau near Lake Manasarovar. The Karnali cuts through the Himalayas in Nepal and joins the Sharda River at Brahmaghat in India. Together they form th ...
*
Serayu River
The Serayu River is a river in Central Java, Indonesia, about 300 km southeast of the capital Jakarta.
Hydrology
The river spanned from northeast to southwest with length around 181 km, and crossring five ''kabupaten'' (regency) in Central ...
, in Indonesia is also named after Saryu river in Ramayana
References
External links
{{coord, 27, 21, N, 81, 23, E, display=title, region:IN_type:river_source:GNS-enwiki
Rivers of Uttar Pradesh