State to promote Saraswati Mahotsav at international level

Vishal Joshi

Tribune News Service

Pehowa (Kurukshetra), February 12

The Haryana Government rolled out its plan today to celebrate Saraswati Mahotsav at an international level, but it maintains silence on tracking upstream channel of the mythical river.

“From 2018, the state government will celebrate the mahotsav on a grand scale,” Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said at a function organised by the Haryana Heritage Saraswati Development Board (HHSDB) here.

“Saraswati, a symbol of wisdom, has significance for the Indian heritage as all ancient scriptures, including the Vedas and Upanishads, were written on the banks of the ancient river. The government is committed to reviving the river,” the CM said.

He further said several facts associated with the ancient India culture were eliminated and misrepresented during the foreign rule in the country. “Time has come to protect our rich past.”

Khattar granted Rs5 crore for the cultural promotion of Saraswati.

There is, however, no clarity on the upstream course of the river that ceased to flow more than 10,000 years ago.

Prashant Bhardwaj, HHSDB vice-chairperson, said the board was committed to rejuvenate the river from Adi Badri in Yamunanagar. “As an RSS pracharak, Khattar had undertaken a three-day yatra from Adi Badri in 1981 in support of reviving Saraswati.”

Sources said the state government should clarify if the board was mandated to work on validating the ancient upstream track.

“Studies undertaken more than two decades ago hinted at the presence of an old riverbed in Yamunanagar; Adi Badri is wrongly projected as the point of origin of Saraswati. Adi Badri is located on the Shivalik foothills and it can be only a place where a river might have entered a plain region from hills,” Bhardwaj said.