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Haryana: Role of Saraswati river in Mahabharata to be taught in schools
The Haryana Saraswati Heritage Development Board, which is headed by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, constituted a 14-member ‘Saraswati river syllabus committee’ on August 26 to prepare the curriculum.
References of the Saraswati river from Vedic and pre-Vedic texts; its role in the battle of Mahabharata; medieval-era Sanskrit text Vamanapurana that explicitly mentions the history of the river and the Harappan-era archaeological site ‘Dholavira’ in Gujarat; are among the topics recommended by the Haryana’s ‘Saraswati river syllabus committee’ to be taught in the state schools.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Haryana government had last month announced to include the history of Saraswati river in the curriculum for students of classes 4th to 12th in its schools with an aim to make students aware about the mythological history of the river. The Haryana Saraswati Heritage Development Board (HSHDB), which is headed by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, constituted a 14-member ‘Saraswati river syllabus committee’ on August 26 to prepare the curriculum.
Officials at the board said the committee submitted its recommendations on Monday. Dhumman Singh Kirmach, vice-chairman of HSHDB, said the recommended topics will be included in the already existing state government’s books of History and Geography.
“The committee has recommended highlighting the existence of Saraswati river in Vedas and pre-Vedic scriptures. For instance, in Rigveda, the Saraswati river is mentioned as many as 72 times while there is only one reference of other popular rivers like the Yamuna. Similarly, in puranas, specifically Vamanapurana, which is one of the 18 major puranas of Hinduism, there has been extensive mention of the Saraswati. The committee has recommended including all these texts in the curriculum,” Kirmach said.
The committee has also suggested including the “role of Saraswati river” wherever Mahabharata or Bhagavad Gita is mentioned in the curriculum. “The Saraswati played a major role in the selection of Kurukshetra as the place for the battle of Mahabharatha. It was chosen because it is situated on the banks of the Saraswati. The committee has suggested teaching all of this to our students. Similarly, we will also be adding shlokas from Bhagavad Gita in the curriculum. It is because Lord Krishna had given lessons to Arjuna by quoting Bhagavad Gita during the battle of Mahabharata,” Kirmach said.
Pritam Singh, assistant director of Centre for Dr BR Ambedkar studies at Kurukshetra University (KU) and chairperson of the syllabus committee, said the idea is to include as many references of the Saraswati in the existing books. “For example, there is a chapter on Mahabharata in class 6th History book. We have recommended to include the importance of Saraswati river in its context there itself. Similarly, wherever there are references of rivers, the committee has suggested to include references from our ancient scriptures highlighting the importance of Saraswati river there itself,” he said.
Explaining the idea behind recommending inclusion of archaeological site Dholavira, which has recently received the UNESCO world heritage site tag, Kirmach said, “Saraswati river flows up to Kutch in Gujarat and ends near this particular heritage site. That’s why it has been added to the recommendations.”
The government will now review the recommendations. “We want to include it in the syllabi of some classes from this academic session itself. Otherwise, it will surely be added to the SCERT books that will be published for the next academic year. We will also be sending these recommendations to the NCERT so that it can also consider adding some of these topics in its books as well,” Kirmach said.
Earlier this year, the Haryana government had sanctioned ₹800 crore for the rejuvenation of the ancient river.
