The Lost Children of Sarasvatī

All this makes one point very clear : Aparānta, along with Punjab, Sindhū-Sauvira (Lower Indus Valley on either sides of the river) and Sourashtra, was outside the ārya heartland. The people of Aparānta have been enumerated by these Sanskrit texts along with the Kshetriyas, the Vaisyas and the Sudras, who are clearly non-Ārya; and clubbed along with ‘the Gold-Scythians and all the lawless hordes of barbarians living in the west’.

This exclusion becomes more obvious and loathsome when we look at some other Sanskrit texts. According to Baudhāyana Dharmasūtra (I.1.31) the countries of Suraśtra, Sindhu, and Sauvira are ‘not of pure Aryan ancestry’ and a person who goes to Āraṭṭa and Sauvira has to offer a solemn sacrifice like the Sarvapṛśṭha. (Kane, 1941 : Vol . II, Part 1, 15) Arāṭṭa has been identified as ‘a region in the Rann of Kutch’ based on Dholavira excavations and Ashoka edicts; Vatsyayana too couples Aparānta and Āraṭṭa or Lāt together : “आपरान्तिका लाट्यश्च” (Kāmasutra, Chapter 5, Part 2, Shloka 26) (Kedarnath, 1891 : Shri Vatsyayanapranitam Kamasutram, 130) The Mitākśara commentary on Yājñavālkya Smṛtī, III, 292 quotes a verse of Devala to the effect that if a man goes to Sindhu, Sauvira and Saurastra, for purpose other than pilgrimage, he has to perform the upanayana saṁskāra over again. (Kane, 1941 : Vol . II, Part 1, 16) Āraṭṭa is singularly looked down upon by the Vedic texts like Baudhāyana Dharma Sūtra (18.13, 44), which refers to it as the ‘immoral region of the northwest comprising of Sindh, Gandhara and the western Punjab’. (Parpola, 2015: The Roots of Hinduism - The Early Aryans and the Indus Civilization, 216) According to the Dharmasutra of Sankha-Likhita (300 BCE – 100 BCE) ‘spotless spiritual pre-eminence is to be found only in the country to the east of the countries of Sindhu and Sauvira’. (Kane, 1941 : Vol . II, Part 1, 14)

Why did the ārya disown and denounce the Sarasvatī fed region of Surāśtra, Aparānta, Āraṭṭa, Punjāb, Sindhu and Sauvira, their cradle ?