340 R. D. Oldham — On prohahle Changes in the Geography [No. 4, 



§ 5. We have now seen that a dry river bed can be traced, practically 

 continuously, from Tohana in the Hissar district to the Eastern Narra 

 in Sind. We find that the drying up of this river cannot be due to 

 diminished rainfall, and that we must consequently look to either the 

 Sutlej or the Jumna for its supply ; and, as the latter of these has been 

 known to flow in its present course from the time of Manu downwards, 

 while tradition and history alike point to the lost river having flowed 

 at a much later date than this, we are perforce compelled to look to 

 the Sutlej. We have seen that the supposed mention of the confluence 

 of the Sutlej and Bias in the Vedas is not conclusive ; that, though 

 Ptolemy seems to take the former river into the latter much as is now 

 the case, yet, when we come to the time of the Arab invaders of India, 

 we find a peculiar nomenclature of the river, which points to the con- 

 clusion that the Sutlej can then only recently have become a tributary 

 of the Bias and so of the Indus ; and, moreover, we find a number of dry 

 river channels, all of which lead from within a few miles of the present 

 channel of the Sutlej, and ultimately join the dry bed of the lost river. 

 Taking all these points into consideration, we may well conclude that 

 this Lost River of the Indian Desert was none other than the Sutlej, 

 and that it was lost when that river turned westwards to join the Bias. 



III. The Saraswati of the Vedas. Probably the most difiicult of 

 all these problems relating to the rivers of Northern India is the 

 persistent reference, in the Yedas, to the Saraswati as a large and 

 important river. It is impossible to suppose that rational beings would 

 have selected the insignificant streamlet, now known by that name, 

 whose bed contains no water for a large portion of the year, to associate 

 it on equal terms with the rivers of the Punjab and the Indus, still less 

 to exalt it above them all, to describe it as " chief and purest of 

 rivers flowing from the mountains to the sea", or as ''undermining 

 its banks with mighty and impetuous waves." The only conclusion 

 open to us is, then, either that there has been some great change in 

 the rivers of this region, or that the Saraswati of the Yedas has no 

 connection with the insignificant streamlet which we now call by that 

 name.* 



The latter of these two is the opinion adopted by Mr. E. Thomasf 

 in an essay on the rivers of the Yedas. According to him, a part of the 

 ancient Aryans, after leaving their native country at the head waters of 

 the Oxus, remained for some time in the valley of the Helmund, refer- 

 ences to which were incorporated in their sacred hymns. After a while 



* I have already shewn that this change cannot be duo to diminution of 

 rainfall. 



t Jour, Boy. As. Soc, XV (new eer.J, pp. 357—386 (1883). 



