Land of Kashyapa - Page #3 - The Jhelum

The Jhelum

When rivers turn to flow in a northerly direction, they are called "Uttara Vahini". Ganges turns north in Kashi as if touching Kasi Viswanatha Swamy. Places where rivers turn North for a sustained flow are auspicious.
Vitasta is a Rigvedic name given to River Jhelum. "The river draining the entire Kashmir Valley called by Kashmiris as “Vyath” is the direct derivative of the original Sanskrit name Vitasta."
The Jhelum dissects Kashmir valley diagonally from the southeast to the northwest flows north and was considered as the holiest of holy. The Jhelum river balances at the Wular Lake in the north and turns west to flow into Pakistan via Baramulla (Varahamula) gorge in the Pir Panjals, a drop of about 7,000 feet (2,100 metres) deep with almost perpendicular sides. It turns sharply south and later joins the Chenab in the Alluvial plains of Pakistan.
A very long time ago civilizations thrived along the Saraswati river. I read that "Yamuna, as well as Sutlej, were tributaries of Saraswati river but around 3700 BC, due to tectonic disturbances in the area, Saraswati’s Yamuna tributary was diverted to its present course and Sutlej was deflected to the west later causing the disappearance of the Saraswati river." May be this was the reason for the northern and north western migration of the learned from the now extinct Saraswati.
When Pangea the supercontinent broke up around 200 million years ago, the Indian plate began to move forward to collide with the Eurasian plate. The pressure of the impinging plates caused the upward movement of land and hence the Himalayan range. If the lands had not collided, we would not have the Himalayan mountain ranges and hence there would have been no Kashmir. The 2500 kilometer wall that is the Himalayas prevents cold polar air from central asia and keeps the country fertile. Without the wall, India would have "been run over several times by invaders, we would not have any of the large rivers, the climate would be nothing like what we have today and racial profile would have been very different."
Except in the mountains where the waters of the glaciers melt to show clear water, the Jhelum and its tributaries in the valley are full of pollutants from "sewage from settlements, agricultural runoff and effluent discharges from various small and large industrial units". More when I write about the Dal Lake.
Sriram(Hari)

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