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"The Sarasvati river is ‘the one which the hymns mention most frequently, whose name they utter with the highest praise and predilection’ It was also ‘the first river wholly belonging to the Veda’s historical arena’ He then noted the existence of today’s stream called ‘Sarsuti, a rather insignificant river which rises at the foot of the last steep slopes overlooking the plain [that is, the Shivaliks] in the rather narrow corridor between the Djemna [Yamuna] and the Satledj [Sutlej]’ ‘The ancient designation of Sarasvati very much appears to have embraced, apart from the chief watercourse flowing far to the west, the totality of the streams flowing down from the mountain close to each other before they unite in a single bed’ ‘its course then extended through the now arid and waterless plains extending between the Satlej and the gulf of Kotch‘This positive recognition of the locale is crucially important for a full understanding of Vedic geography"
V
Vivien de Saint-Martin
