Saraswati river (IAST: Sáraswatī-nadī́) is a river flowing through Indore, the commercial capital of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It doesn't contain freshwater but instead has become polluted[1] mainly due to the pollution of the Kanh river.
| Saraswati River | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Country | India |
| State | Madhya Pradesh |
| City | Indore |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | |
| • location | Indore, India |
| Mouth | Kshipra river |
| Basin features | |
| Tributaries | |
| • right | Kanh river |
For the past few years efforts are being done to revive the dying river by the means of projects.[2][3]
Etymology
editSárasvatī (cognate:Saraswati) is the feminine nominative singular form of the adjective sárasvat (which occurs in the Rigveda[4] as the name of the keeper of the celestial waters), derived from ‘sáras’ + ‘vat’, meaning ‘having sáras-’. Sanskrit sáras- means ‘lake, pond’ (cf. the derivative sārasa- ‘lake bird = Sarus crane’). Mayrhofer considers unlikely a connection with the root *sar- ‘run, flow’ but does agree that it could have been a river that connected many lakes due to its abundant volumes of water-flow.[5]
Sarasvatī may be a cognate of Avestan Haraxvatī, perhaps.[6] In the younger Avesta, Haraxvatī is Arachosia, a region described to be rich in rivers, and its Old Persian cognate Harauvati.
It may be named after the holy Sarasvati river mentioned in the Rigveda.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Jha, Bagish (4 January 2013). "Polluted Saraswati river". The Times of India. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
- ^ "Cleaning of Saraswati river". Times of India. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
- ^ "Ensure Waste not dumped". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
- ^ e.g. 7.96.4, 10.66.5
- ^ Mayrhofer, EWAia, s.v. Saraswatī as a common noun in Classical Sanskrit means a region abounding in pools and lakes, the river of that name, or any river, especially a holy one. Like its cognates Welsh hêl, heledd ‘river meadow’ and Greek ἕλος (hélos) ‘swamp’; the root is otherwise often connected with rivers (also in river names, such as Sarayu or Susartu); the suggestion has been revived in the connection of an "out of India" argument, N. Kazanas, "Rig-Veda is pre-Harappan", p. 9.
- ^ by Lommel (1927); Lommel, Herman (1927), Die Yašts des Awesta, Göttingen-Leipzig: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht/JC Hinrichs