Though it has given India its name, the Indus is not a major river in India. However it is a major river in Ladakh which is a district in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Indus has its source in the Mansarovar Lake in Tibet. It enters Ladakh at the southeast corner of Kashmir and flows in the northwest direction across the state. It leaves Kashmir at its northwest point and enters Pakistan. From there it turns through 90° and flows in the south-west direction right across Pakistan and enters the Arabian Sea. While in India the Indus flows through uninhabited and mountainous terrain for the large part.
The River was named Sindhu by the original inhabitants who lived on its banks in the area that is now in Pakistan. Sindhu means a large body of water, now used to describe the oceans. People living on the banks of the Sindhu came to be known as Hindus. Later the word Sindhu was evolved to Indus and the land to the east of the river came to be known as India.
Sindhu Darshana
Since 1997 the people of Ladakh have been celebrating Sindhu Darshana. The festival is held on the occasion of the full moon in the end of May or beginning of June.
The festival is held at Shey near Leh, the capital of Ladakh. Shey is on the bank of the river Sindhu. Participants from different regions of India arrived at Shey with water in earthen pots from their own region. The ceremony in which waters from the different rivers of India are immersed into the Sindhu forms the highlight of the festival. This ceremony is symbolic of the multicultural identity of India. Then a cultural program is held in which the participants exhibit aspects of their indigenous culture. This program is hosted jointly by several religious associations that include Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Hindus and Sikhs. A host of sightseeing tours and religious rituals take place over during the event.
Return Of The Aryans
It is difficult to see Sindhu Darshana as a Hindu festival. It can be called an Indian festival which is cultural in nature. Its main purpose is to spread awareness about and bring commerce to a sparsely inhabited little-known part of India. However the contribution of the Sindhu to Hinduism cannot be overstated.
The Vedic philosophy has its origins in the settlements on the banks of the rivers Sindhu and the Saraswati thousands of years ago. The Riga Veda mentions these rivers several times. It was only when the Saraswati dried up and the Indus got flooded that these people migrated east and west. Those moving east settled on the banks of the river Ganga and the final evolution of Hinduism took place there. Those moving west first settled in Central Asia and from there migrated to Europe [1].
This massive migration which took place over several hundreds of years has been recreated in Bhagwan Gidwani’s Return of the Aryans. The book begins with an account of the life in the Indus Valley. In the chapter “Onward to the Himalayas and Tibet” [2] Gidwani describes an expedition to the source of the Sindhu. In that fictional account 140 people set off over the most inhospitable terrain in the world and after several years only 24 reach the source of the Sindhu.
An interesting part of this narrative is how the leaders of the expedition named the various places en route and how those names must have evolved to the present names. The Mansarovar Lake was an extremely beautiful place and the leader of the expedition called it “Tat Twam Bhagwant” meaning “Thou art from God”. The area around the lake began to be called by Tibet, which was an abbreviation of “Tat Twam Bhagwant.”
Inclusiveness and Deification
There are two aspects about Sindhu Darshana that identify with basic practices in Hinduism. One is the inclusiveness of Hinduism. The land that gave rise to the Hindu religion has absorbed communities of several other religions who have come there either to seek refuge or even to conquer.
Jews, Muslims, Parsis and Christians all coexist in India with the Hindus. The ceremony of the mingling of the waters is a tribute to this inclusiveness. The other aspect is the reverence in which Hindus hold rivers. Rivers are a source of life and are deified and worshipped by Hindus.
References:
- [1] Harsh Nevatia; The Reverse Aryan Invasion
- [2] Bhagwan Gidwani; Return of The Aryans; Penguin Books India; pp.133-167
