River of the Mahabharata
Saraswati
सरस्वती
Sacred river of Kurukshetra and Balarama's pilgrimage
Saraswati: Sacred river of Kurukshetra and Balarama's pilgrimage, located at coordinates 29.50°N, 75.00°E.
Key Facts
| Type | River |
|---|---|
| Sanskrit name | सरस्वती |
| Coordinates | 29.50°N, 75.00°E |
| Significance | Sacred river of Kurukshetra and Balarama's pilgrimage |
About Saraswati
The sacred river of the Kurukshetra country, along whose banks lay the Kamyaka and Dvaita forests of the Pandavas' exile. Balarama made his famous pilgrimage up the Saraswati during the eighteen days of the war (Shalya Parva).
Why it matters: Sacred river of Kurukshetra and Balarama's pilgrimage
Details
- Point
- Identified with the Ghaggar-Hakra channel, Haryana-Rajasthan
- Fate
- Said to vanish into the desert sands at Vinashana
On the Map
Saraswati sits at 29.50°N, 75.00°E.
View on the full mapStories Set at Saraswati
Balarama's Pilgrimage
Forty-Two Days on the Sarasvati While the World Burned
Kurukshetra Before the War
Why the field was already holy
Why the Moon Wanes
A household injustice repaid in the sky
The Sage Who Drank the Sea
Utathya, Bhadra, and the day Varuna came up on foot
Kamyaka, the Forest of the Exiles
First refuge of the twelve years
Saraswati, the Vanishing River
The river of sages that hides in the sand
The Boy Who Kept the Vedas
A twelve-year famine strips the Vedas from sixty thousand sages - except one boy fed by a river
The Maiden Who Cooked the Jujubes
Badarapachana Tirtha - The Fire She Fed With Herself
The Old Maiden's Bargain
An ascetic's lifetime of tapas cannot buy her heaven until she takes a husband for one night
The Wind Answers the Thousand-Armed King
Kartavirya boasts, and an invisible voice begins to argue
The Fourth Commander
A nephew's water poured on an uncle's head at the foot of Himavat
The River With Seven Names
Wherever she was called, she came
The Head That Would Not Let Go
Why the ford on the Sarasvati is called Kapalamochana
The Pupil Who Could Not Learn
Years in a teacher's house, and nothing to show for them
The Kingdom Poured on the Fire
A sage is mocked with dead cattle and burns a realm with them
The Head That Followed Indra
A treaty kept to the letter and broken in every other way
The Anointing of the War God
Every god brings a gift to a six-day-old commander
The Duel on the Southern Bank
Two pupils of one teacher settle a war with clubs
The Return of the Portions
Who everybody turned out to have been
Twenty-Three Days on the Saraswati
Bhishma fights his own preceptor and neither man can win
The Promise Made in the Kamyaka Woods
The allies arrive, and Draupadi asks Krishna what her friendship is worth
The Court of Sages at the Dvaita Lake
An exile that filled up with brahmanas instead of soldiers
The Names That Cleanse Sin
Asked what destroys sin, Bhishma answers with a litany of gods, rivers, mountains, sages and kings
The Five Lakes of Blood
Parashurama's oblation to the fathers at Samantapanchaka
Bhrigu in Agastya's Hair
How an unseen sage cursed the mortal king of heaven into a snake
The Lords of the Waters and the Treasures
Balarama walks the Sarasvati past the fords where Varuna, Kubera, Indra and Surya won what they hold
Sakamvari and the Ford of Gold
The goddess who fed the sages on herbs, and the tirtha where Vishnu knelt to Rudra
Tarkshya Asks Saraswati
What a gift is worth, and the one merit a man with nothing can still earn
The Children of Agni
Markandeya names the whole family of fires, from the daughters of Angiras to the rivers who mothered them