Vedic Geography: Rivers and Sites

The Rig-Vedic rivers under their Vedic names, the Saraswati, and the Later-Vedic and iron-age sites, with UPSC years.

On this map (16)

SINDHU — Vedic Sindhu = Indus. Sindhu is the river most often praised; the land was called Saptasindhava, “land of seven rivers”
Vitasta · Jammu & Kashmir — Vedic Vitasta = Jhelum. One of the five rivers of Punjab in Vedic times
Askini · Jammu & Kashmir — Vedic Askini = Chenab. Also spelt Asikni; the Greeks called it Acesines
Parushni · Himachal Pradesh — Vedic Parushni = Ravi. Dasarajna: Bharata king Sudas, backed by Vashistha, defeated ten tribes (five Aryan, five non-Aryan)
Vipasa · Himachal Pradesh — Vedic Vipasa = Beas. Greek name Hyphasis; Alexander’s army stopped here
Satudri · Himachal Pradesh — Vedic Satudri = Sutlej. Another of the five rivers of Punjab; the Ghaggar-Saraswati once flowed near it
SARASWATI · Haryana — Vedic Saraswati = Ghaggar-Hakra. Best river, best mother, best goddess in the Rig Veda
Yamuna · Uttar Pradesh — Yamuna. Ganga and Yamuna become the central rivers of Later Vedic settlement
Ganga · Uttar Pradesh — Ganga. The centre of gravity moved east from the Sindhu to the Ganga–Yamuna doab in the Later Vedic period
Sarayu · Uttar Pradesh — Sarayu = Ghaghara. Named in the Rig Veda; later linked with the Kosala kingdom
Sadanira · Bihar — Sadanira = Gandak. The Shatapatha Brahmana describes Sadanira as the limit between Kosala and Videha
Kurukshetra — Brahmavarta · Haryana — Vedic heartland · PGW. Kuru kingdom of the Later Vedic period grew from the Bharata–Puru merger
Hastinapur — Meerut · Uttar Pradesh — Kuru capital · PGW. B. B. Lal excavated it (1950–52) and found PGW below the flood layer
Ahichchhatra — Bareilly · Uttar Pradesh — Panchala capital · PGW. PGW is the hallmark of the Later Vedic Ganga–Yamuna doab
Atranjikhera — Etah · Uttar Pradesh — Early iron · PGW. Iron objects appear in the PGW layers (around 1000 BC)
Hallur — Haveri · Karnataka — Earliest iron in the south. Iron Age megalithic burials are widespread in the peninsula

Asked in exams

UPSC 1996River most mentioned in early Vedic literature → Sindhu (not Sutudri, Sarasvati or Ganga)

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