Saraswati research centre yet to come up at KU

Vishal Joshi

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, May 21

There is no state government move to raise a research centre on the Saraswati ‘river’ at Kurukshetra University (KU) that Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had announced eight months ago.

According to information, the government is yet to approve Rs 36-crore budget proposal by KU to undertake an intensive multi-disciplinary research facility with a new complex and scientific instruments for dating.

In September last, the Chief Minister had sanctioned Rs 20 lakh to set up the centre. However, the funds were made available to the KU in the last week of March.

Prof KC Sharma, Vice-Chancellor, told The Tribune that apprehending objections by financial auditors, the KU did not accept Rs 20 lakh grant released at the fag end of the last financial year. The Haryana Saraswati Heritage Development Board, headed by the Chief Minister, was duly apprised of the reason for not accepting the grant, he added.

Sharma said the university would deal with the scientific aspect about the Saraswati that is believed to have flown through the region centuries ago. “The proposed research centre is indeed a prestigious project that will throw light on India’s ancient socio-cultural and other aspects as well. Central agencies may be roped in for financial support to undertake in-depth research. But we are not aware of any development on our proposal sent to the Haryana Saraswati Heritage Development Board,” he said.

The KU has submitted a detailed draft to study the possibility of a river through geological, archaeological and hydrological research data.

Sources say a section of scientists opine the Saraswati river ceased to flow more than 10,000 years ago and there is need to link gaps in the recent chance discovery of a paleochannel in Yamunanagar. “As buried water sources are spotted in various areas along the ancient Saraswati route, a scientific validation is needed to make a further claim that it is associated with the Vedic river,” they say.

In December 2006, archaeologists Rajesh Purohit and Rajendra Singh Rana had first claimed to have discovered the riverbed of the lost Saraswati at Bhor Saidan village, 13 km from here, on the Pehowa road.

Rajesh Purohit, Director of Allahabad Museum, and his team had spotted a painted gray ware or the pottery believed to be associated with the Mahabharata age. The Saraswati is believed to have ceased due to the movement of tectonic plates.

In May 2015, the chance discovery of water from now the inactive Saraswati river route in Yamunanagar made the government claim that water was flowing out of fresh reservoirs buried underneath.

The government has announced to release water in the Saraswati riverbed to revive it and promote areas on the ancient river route as tourist and pilgrimage destinations.

It is believed that the Saraswati had its source in the upper Himalayan glaciers and it entered the plains near Adi Badri in Yamunanagar after crisscrossing mountains.