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 edit
Sárasvatī (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 edit
References 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