Recently, geological and climatological experts have probed evolution and disappearance of Hakro River

• Satellite imagery has traced the Hakro River’s buried courses, and isotope analysis says ancient water still stored under the Thar Desert.

Several thousand years ago, the Indian subcontinent experienced significant upheavals. The northwest region transitioned into an arid zone, and the courses of rivers were greatly affected by erosion and tectonic events. One of the river courses disappeared was Hakro. British officials rediscovered it in the early nineteenth century through topographic exploration. Recently, geological and climatological experts have probed its evolution and disappearance. At the same time, satellite imagery has traced the river’s buried courses, and isotope analysis says ancient water still stored under the Thar Desert.

Hakro/ Ghaggar was a fifteen hundred kilometers long perennial river from the Shivlaks hills of Haryana Punjab and terminated at Sea at Rann of Kutch

The Indus civilization, which was the subcontinent’s first urban society, did not benefit from the Indus River alone. Since Aurel Stein’s expedition in 1940, hundreds of Harappan sites have been identified in the now-dry Saraswati basin. The rich technological, artistic, and cultural legacy of the Harappan civilization laid the foundation for developing newer civilizations in the Indian subcontinent.

Pre-Harappan, Harrapan, and present-day river courses in Indus Valley. Vedic Sarasvati = present-day dried up Gagghar-Hakra. The dried-up Harappan Hakra-course is actually a Sutlej-Yamuna paleochannel – Wikipedia

Hakro/ Ghaggar was a fifteen hundred kilometers long perennial river from the Shivlaks hills of Haryana Punjab and terminated at Sea at Rann of Kutch. However, it was connected with Yumna in East Punjab, Sutlej in Cholistan Bahawalpur and Indus at Reti Ghotki. It led to the emergence of human settlements all over the route and thus became a significant stakeholder in the Harappan-Hakra civilization. Later, the Britishers built the east Nara canal over it. Ghaghar Hakra was rescued by discharging excessive flood water into the sea. Perennial crops like sugarcane and other seasonal crops were growing along its route. It has been established that the Melluhas (Mallah from the Arabic language adopted from the Babylonian language) were trading through boats between the Harappan Valley and Mesopotamia and Egypt.

During the third millennium BC, there was uplifting of Doab and Kutch due to tectonic and seismic reasons, and Ghaghar Hakra became seasonal and disconnected from the Yumna in Haryana, which was part of the Ganges. And finally, after the diversion of the Indus in the thirteenth century, the Hakra ceased to flow. Due to the above, there was a drastic reduction in trade within and from Harappa, making artisans jobless.

Ghaggar River’s dry bed in February near Naurangdesar village, Hanumangarh district, Rajasthan, India. Wikipedia

There is a contrarian view as well. According to the well-known mediaevalist historian Irfan Habib, the Saraswati as a river never existed except in the Rishis and our imagination. The Ghaggar and Saraswati were separate rivers and didn’t join each other before, but Feroz Tughlaq forced such a junction in the fourteenth century by digging a canal from Ghaggar to the fort of Sirsa in Haryana.

It may seem strange, but it is indeed true that the bangles worn in the Indian subcontinent, the vermilion applied on the parting of women’s hair, the practice of yoga, the binary system of weights and measures, and the basic architecture of houses can all be traced back to the Harappan / Indus civilization.

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Published under International Cooperation with "Sindh Courier"