Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/79

Rh geographical horizon of the Vedic poets, confined by the snowy mountains in the north, the Indus and the range of the Suleiman Mountains in the west, the Indus or the sea in the south, and the valley of the Jumna and Ganges in the east." The hymn has historical significance, therefore, with regard to the expansion of the Aryans.

The rivers of the Panjab are sometimes spoken of together as the "seven rivers," and in one passage the seven rivers are said to have the Indus for their mother and the Sarasvati as the seventh. The Indus and its five branches still water the primeval home of the early Hindus, but the Sarasvati, which was the most sacred of ancient rivers and was worshipped even in that remote time as a goddess, has since ceased to flow. Its bed remains visible near Kurukshetra and Thanesvar, however, and these places are still considered sacred by the Hindus.

There is one somewhat curious passage in which the sage Visvamitra, accompanied by chariots and horses and the booty-seeking host of the Bharatas, finds difficulty in crossing the confluence of the Bias and the Sutlaj and pours out an entire hymn to appease the anger of the roaring flood. The rivers yield to the honeyed words of the priest and lower their courses so that the raiding host crosses in safety.

While references to the rivers of the Panjab are thus frequent, allusions to the Ganges and the Jumna are rare, the former being mentioned only twice and the latter three times, but with sufficient clearness to