Revisiting The Khadir-Bet's Saraswati River.

 

The footfall  of this hill at Khadir Bet - Dholavira, holds an important site discovered  as the Khadir-Bet's Dwarka City of Bhagwan Krishna. This is covered now under the thick layer of white salt.  Unidentified and unexplored by the Marine Archaeologists. 

*Birendra K Jha

( Email: birendrajha03@yahoo.com )

About the expert researcher: 

Birendra K Jha is an independent researcher and Marine Archaeological expert. He is working in Marine Archaeology since 2000. He discovered underwater sites of Dwarka, Kavatapuram and Rama-Setu. The major reporting of the Dwarka discovery is published in his book the "Discovery of Lost Dwarka".  His father, Dr N Jha,  a leading archaeologist - historian trained him traditionally on the  missing skill gap of the Indian Archaeology and history. His first book "Vedic Glossary on Indus Seals" was written with his father  on the Harappan Paleography. This  was published in 1996. This received wide appreciation and recorded reference in more than 100 journals and reference books in English, French, German and other languages. After this work he collaborated in his father's grand joint work  with Dr NS Rajaram. This appeared under the title "Deciphered Indus Script" in 2000. This book received world wide appreciation with major criticisms from the Harvard University and the Jawaharlal Nehru University. The two universities were claiming that the seal decipherment  deals about Dwarka, Bhagwan Krishna symbolism and the Mahabharat age. All mythological characters, what both the universities claimed ! This was a turning point for Jha. He decided to search Dwarka.  Since then he engaged himself on searching Dwarka. The discovery is reported widely in the published book the  "Discovery of Lost Dwarka" ( 2020 ). 

Jha is a Management expert with wide administration experience of over 30 years.  He obtained his qualification in Management and worked as General Manager in Multi National South Korean Company in Human Resource Administration widely handling training development and Organization development. Currently he has consultation firm HR Lab, where he provides expert consultation in HR and renders Social Audit service. He is a qualified Social Auditor of India. He is Member of the Institute of Social Auditor of India ( Institute of Chartered Accountants of India ). His academic qualification and experience in Human Resource Administration allowed him to think in different way. He adopted different road and approach then the current archaeologists what they were using. He adopted traditional primary reference of Indian history written in Sanskrit, then what the modern historians write. Being Management Graduate, he looked the original source. He politely ignored what the others had said. He adopted the Kaizen Scientific Management method in understanding the Marine Archaeological problems of India. He reduced waste  and adopted the net value oriented data. He eliminated guess and believed data driven data. This was completely different way   of thinking with different routes. This practice enriched our knowledge on the Marine Archaeology. 

All satellite images produced, other than ISRO images, after this section  are copyright protected. The images should not be used without proper permission of the author.   

Before Dwarka submerged, the Saraswati River was pouring its water at the Khadir-Bet. The Paleochannel archaeological mark is found clearly surrounded around the Khadir-Bet's Island. The Mansar and the Manhar  Rivers of the Khadir-Bet, were the sub streams of this Saraswati River. The Mahabharat records following observation about this River:

Saraswati punya vaha - samudraga maha vega 

(Mahabharat: 3.88.2)

"The Saraswati River joins the sea impetuously". 

This clearly suggests that the Saraswati River at the Mahabharat time receives large volume of water and meet the Ocean  with  rapid flow, at the  point of confluence.

Image One: The Satellite in specific color band sensor looks grey patch of high Archaeological properties ( See pocket covered in broken yellow line). This pocket remains submerged in water and in hot season remains covered with thick layers of white salt. This is the Paleochannel of the Saraswati River, then passing below the Dwarka Town site of Bhagwan Krishna. This site received Saraswati River water source for drinking purpose from the Mansar and Manhar Rivers. The Sub-Rivers of the Saraswati River   (Source: Birendra K Jha - Discovery of Lost Dwarka).

Image Two:  (Source: Birendra K Jha - Discovery of Lost Dwarka).

 

The Image One,  produced above is Satellite image of the Khadir-Bet Island in Specific Color Band Sensor. This is showing in brilliant grey color the submerged pocket of Archaeological importance in grey color. This is placed just below the foothill of the Khadir-Bet Island. This is the pocket of Paleochannel of the Ancient Saraswati River, where the River was meeting the Ocean. The  Ancient Dwarka in the Khadir-Bet Island ( shown in Image 2 ) was situated on the bank of this confluence. In this pocket of Paleochannel, any vegetation is not growing. This is high valuable Archaeological site. On the bank of this Paleochannel, the Dwarka of Bhagwan Krishna is situated at Khadir-Bet Island. This site received the drinking water from the Saraswati River, when Dwarka was not submerged.    

The another high resolution satellite imagery gives minute details of the old Paleochannel of this Saraswati River then surrounded around the Khadir- Bet island. The yellow broken line shown in the below image is the mark of old Paleochannel of the Saraswati River. A stream of this River was entering inside the Khadir-Bet Island from the North East side. This stream is marked in the red line broken area. This stream was sourcing water to the Mansar and Manhar Rivers. The red marked broken stream has clear water flow marks.      

Image Three: The Paleochannel of the Saraswati River entering Khadir-Bet from the North East side of the Khadir Bet marked in red broken line. This stream source was supplying water to the Mansar and Manhar Rivers (Source: Birendra K Jha - Discovery of Lost Dwarka). 

 
The Khadir-Bet's North West area is again covered by this  Saraswati River and flows down the foothill of this island, as shown here in the image given below. The yellow marked broken line, is the old Paleochannel of this River.  In this way the entire Khadir-Bet's Island was surrounded with this River. The Great Dwarka City of Khadir-Bet was stationed here at the foothill side.  

Image Four: The Paleochannel of the Saraswati River in the North West side of the Khadir-Bet marked in yellow broken line. This stream is  meeting Ocean at the foothill of the Khadir-Bet (Source: Birendra K Jha - Discovery of Lost Dwarka). 

The water storage points constructed at the Khadir-Bet's Dwarka as shown in following image suggests that the Saraswati River was not continuously flowing here. The Saraswati River was receiving volume of water here only when the Ghaggar River stream at Haryana was receiving water at the Indian Monsoon season.

Image Five: The two Paleochannels of the Saraswati River feeding water to the Water Storage Tanks in the Khadir-Bet's Dwarka City.  (Source: Birendra K Jha - Discovery of Lost Dwarka). 

The Saraswati River was just meeting with the Ocean right at the footfall of the Khadir-Bet, where Dwarka City was situated. Then Ocean was situated just below the check dam of the water storage tank as shown in the above satellite image. The entire Dwarka City of Khadir-Bet was sourcing water from the two Paleochannels as shown in the above image. The above two Paleochannels were interlinked with the water reservoirs of Dholavira. 

A brilliant study has been conducted by the ISRO. The ISRO detected Paleochannel (in blue lines) of the Saraswati River as given in the following image. The blue line surrounds entire the Khadir-Bet ( Marked here Dholavira), which meets Ocean joining the Kori-Creek. The ISRO data further says brilliantly that, apart from the Khadir-Bet, the stream of Saraswati River  was also joining the Little Rann and meeting the Gulf of Kutch. For this study, the ISRO used  IRS satellite data of WiFS, AWiFS, LISS-III and LISS-IV sensors for detecting the buried Paleochannels through image processing techniques in parts of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat.   

Image Six: ISRO  detected Saraswati River Paleochannels in blue lines covering Khadir Bet Island  marked here Dholavira  (Source: RIVER SARASWATI: AN INTEGRATED STUDY BASED ON REMOTE SENSING & GIS TECHNIQUES WITH GROUND INFORMATION. Prepared By Regional Remote Sensing Centre (RRSC-W) NRSC / ISRO, Department of Space, Govt. of India,  CAZRI Campus, Jodhpur, November, 2014 ). 

The ISRO has mapped out a simplified Paleochannel course of the Saraswati River from Sirsa ( Haryana ) to the Gulf of Kutch as given below.  

Image Seven: ISRO  prepared simplified Paleochannel of the Saraswati River from Sirsa Haryana to the Great Runn of Kutch. (Source: RIVER SARASWATI: AN INTEGRATED STUDY BASED ON REMOTE SENSING & GIS TECHNIQUES WITH GROUND INFORMATION. Prepared By Regional Remote Sensing Centre (RRSC-W) NRSC / ISRO, Department of Space, Govt. of India,  CAZRI Campus, Jodhpur, November, 2014 ). 

The Khadir-Bet's Dwarka, before the Dwarka City submerged was a vibrant port city. The city was situated just on the confluence of the Ocean and Saraswati River. The broken red line mark is demonstrating here the confluence of River and Ocean. Exactly at the confluence of the River and Ocean, the Dwarka City was situated with numbers of ship dock yards, as shown in the following satellite image. In this image one side of the large Dwarka City of Khadir-Bet is shown, where 5 ships' dockyards are clearly visible (marked in yellow round circle). The dockyards are brilliantly covered with human settlement and walls in front and back side.   

Image Eight: The Paleochannels of the Saraswati River meeting Ocean. The broken red line is the meeting point confluence of the Saraswati River and Ocean. In this satellite image at one side of the vast Dwarka City five dock yards are seen ( in round yellow circle ) surrounded with human settlements and clear covered wall in front and back side.  (Source: Birendra K Jha - Discovery of Lost Dwarka). 

This is important to note that the Dholavira,  situated upside the Dwarka City, has no dockyard. But the Dholavira site was dependent on the infrastructure of dockyard developed  by Bhagwan Krishna at the Khadir-Bet's Dwarka City. There is a brilliant passage in the Mahabharat where Balaram Ji starts from Dwarka and moves on the flow path of the Saraswati River covering important tirthas. Balram Ji journey is on the footprint of the ISRO detected Paleochannels. Balram Ji starts this journey from Dwarka City in the Pushya Nakshatra. He carried from Dwarka sacred fire, priests, gold, silver, cows, garments, horses and chariots all loaded on ship. He moved on the densely populated southern banks of the Saraswati River and visited important Tirthas on the Saraswati River banks like Sapta Saraswata ( where seven streams of the Saraswati joined). This passage of the Mahabharat adds insight  that the journey has been performed by Balaram Ji when water was on the stream up to Kalibangan-Sirsa. This journey has been performed from one of the dock-yards of the Khadir-Bet's Dwarka and moved over the stream up to Kalibangan-Sirsa. After Kalibangan-Sirsa the water volume was decreased. Then he started moving on the dry banks of the Saraswati River.     

This clearly demonstrates further that Dholavira is not Harappan Civilization, but completely a site developed by Bhagwan Krishna to meet the logistic supply of water for the Khadir-Bet's Dwarka City. This was post Vedic Civilization site. In other words the Dwarka City of Khadir-Bet and Dholavira are one. The Dwarka, is the Mother of the Harappan Civilization.  

When Dwarka submerged at the Gulf of Kutch, this site at the Khadir-Bet also submerged in Ocean. The Vishnu-Puran and the Harivans clearly mention that people of Dwarka migrated to the Saraswat Province of Punjab at Harappa. 

In hot Indian season, Ocean water evaporates quickly leaving behind thick layer of white salt cover deposited over the ancient Dwarka City at the Khadir-Bet site.

This City of Bhagwan Krishna remained hidden from public view for over 5200 years. Readers interested in Khadir-Bet's Dwarka may explore further this title  link: 

The Advance Technique of Marine Archaeology - Discovery of the Water Submerged Dwarka Site of Bhagwan Krishna at the Khadir-Bet.