[edit] Saraswati as a river
Main article: Saraswati River
The Rigvedic hymns dedicated to Saraswati mention her as a mighty river with creative, purifying, and nourishing properties. The best theory regarding the Vedic Saraswati River states that it was formed by the present headwaters of the Yamuna River. According to Hindu texts, after leaving the Himalayan foothills, the waters of the Yamuna turned west instead of east at Paonta Saheb in ancient times. The river then supposedly flowed southwest across the Punjab and Haryana regions along the course of the modern Ghaggar-Hakra River in a pathway roughly parallel to the smaller Indus River to its west. The Sutlej flowed further east than it does today[citation needed], and is believed to have joined the Saraswati somewhere near Bahawalpur. Eventually, the wide river emptied into the Rann of Kutch, which at the time was a more integral part of the Arabian Sea.
Along the course of the Indus and Saraswati rivers, the Harappan Civilization developed. The earliest known examples of writing in India have been found in the ruined cities that line the now dry riverbed of the ancient waterway. Some have postulated[who?] that the goddess Saraswati gained her role as personified communication and the giver of knowledge due to the role of the Saraswati River in the development of written language in ancient India.
Between 2000 B.C. and 1700 B.C., seismic activity caused the waters of the river's two main sources to change course.[citation needed] The Sutlej moved course westward and became a tributary of the Indus River. The Yamuna moved course eastward and became a tributary of the Ganges. The tremendous loss of water which resulted from these movements caused the once mighty river to become sluggish and dry u ...