SARASIVATI. In India there are three rivers of this name.
Saraswati or Sarsuti, a sacred river of the Panjab, frequently mentioned in the Vedas. It rises in lat. 30° 23' N., long. 77° 19' E., in the low hills of Sirmore State •, emerges upon the plain at Zadh Budri in Ambala, a place esteemed sacred by all Hindus ; passes by the holy town of Thanesar and the numerous shrines of the Kuru kshetra, a tract celebrated as a centre of pilgrim ages ; enters Karnhl district and Patials. State, and finally joins the Ghaggar in Sirsa district (lat. 29° 61' N., long. 76° 6' E.). In ancient times the united stream below the point of junc tion appears to have borne the name of Sarsuti, and, undiminished by irrigation near the hills, to have flowed across the Rajputana plains, debouch ing into the Indus below its confluence with the Panjab rivers. The Hindus identify the river with Saraswati, the Sanskrit goddess of speech.
On the banks of the Gagger Saraswati the Aryan race came into contact with others, caste became recognised, but their descendants on the banks of that river have never adopted the high Hinduism of the Brahmans of the Gangetic valley, and continue agricultural.
Saraswati of the Sanskrit writers, in Zend harnma Tiarnnlinit; land in Ornalr .—„– of which agree in the last two syllables with the Chinese Tsaukuta.
Another Saraswati river, rising in 3fount Abu, Rajputana, flows through the Palanpur and Rad hanpur States of thallfahi Kanta Agency.
Samswati river of the Hoogly district, Bengal, was formerly the main stream of the Ganges, and navigable by large vessels as far as Satgaon. It has silt,ed up and become a foul shallow creek.— imp. Gaz. viii.