River Saryu
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
A backgrounder
NehaShukla, February 6, 2024: The Times of India
Restoring Ayodhya’s lost glory, the newly built Ram temple has also put the spotlight on Saryu, the river that flows through the temple town. It is believed that Lord Ram took ‘samadhi’ (deep meditation) at Saryu’s Guptar Ghat. Being the biggest tributary of the Ganga after Yamuna, as also a trans-boundary river in itself, Saryu calls for more awareness around its mythological and ecological significance.
The fountainhead
The river originates from a cavity in the mountains of Uttarakhand and this point is known as Sarmul (‘Sar’ means river and ‘mool’ origin), located at Saudhar, in Bageshwar district’s Kapkot tehsil, where several streams of water flow through the mountains. Sarmul-Saudhar is about 65km away from Kailash Mansarovar, said Ayurveda practitioner Bhaskar Asthana, who collected water from Sarmul in May last year and offered it to the part of the river flowing in Ayodhya and to the Shri Ram Mandir Teerth Kshetra Trust for daily rituals. The river is believed to have originated from Mansorovar, at least 6,000 feet above the point of Saryu’s origin in Uttarakhand. Saryu has presence in China, Nepal and India.
River of many names
Saryu means perennial river that flows forever. In May 2023, social organisation Lok Bharti started a campaign to highlight that Saryu, despite being a significant river in mythology, did not get due recognition. The river is called Saryu only in Ayodhya and after merging with Kali river from Nepal at Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand, it is called Sharda. In Lakhimpur, the river is called Ghaghra and from there, it is Rapti. The river finally drains into the Ganga in Saran district of Bihar. “Just as Ganga retains its identity throughout its length, despite rivers like Yamuna, Saryu and others draining into it, Saryu should retain its identity too,” said Asthana.
Mythological references
“In mythology, the river is mentioned as Vashishth-Putri (daughter of sage Vashishth) and ashram of Muni Vashishth is in Bageshwar,” said Lok Bharti’s organisational secretary, Brijendra Pal Singh. One mythological account says King Vaivasvat Manu, ancestor of Lord Ram, shot an arrow during a yajna and it hit the Mansarovar lake and a river originated from there and since arrow in Sanskrit is called ‘shar’, the river was named Sharyu, said Singh, adding, “The river traced the course of the arrow back to Ayodhya. There are many such accounts mentioning the river, in mythology.”
Proposal to rename Ghaghra as Saryu
In 2020, UP cabinet approved a proposal to rename Ghaghra as Saryu and it was sent to the Centre for consideration. The proposal was to rename Ghaghra as Saryu in its stretch from Chandapur Katauli village in Gonda’s Paska Sankoor area to Rewalganj in Bihar.
The proposal stated that Ghaghra, known as Karnali in Nepal, was a major tributary of the Ganga. It originates in Tibet and flows through Nepal to merge with the river Sharda at Brahmaghat in India. After this point, it is known as Ghaghra, especially in areas around Bahraich and Gonda. Further south, as it approaches Ayodhya, the river is popular as Saryu. After covering a stretch of about 970km through India, the river merges with Ganga between Ballia and Chhapra.
Restoring tributaries
In July-August 2022, state government took up restoration of smaller rivers in the state. Three tributaries of Saryu, Kuwano, Tedhi and Chhoti Saryu were also covered under the project. Professor Venkatesh Dutta, member of the river restoration committee of UP, said, “Saryu is comparatively a clean and healthy river, as it hardly has any industrial discharge. The river also has no major township along it.”
Promoting identity
In May 2023, civil society organisations took up the cause of Saryu, which, according to them, has an identity crisis. The group of volunteers did ‘jalabhishek’ of Saryu in Ayodhya by offering water collected from its origin point in Uttrakhand into the river stretch in Ayodhya. The ritual was performed by ‘mahant’ of Vashisht Kunj and former BJP MP, Ram Vilas Ved anti. A ‘kamandal’ full of Saryu’s water was also offered to Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust’s Champat Rai to start the use of Saryu water for daily rituals and worshipping at the Ram temple. The group’s contention was that the river had wrongly been named Sharda and Ghaghra in different districts in official records with intention to downplay Saryu’s mythological significance.
