Ptolemy mentions points of confluence of the river Zaradros with the Indus(124⁰  , 30⁰), with the Bidaspes(125^0,, 30⁰), and with the Bibasis(131⁰ ,34⁰) after points of confluence of the river Indus with the Koa(124^0,, 31⁰) and with the Souastos(122⁰ 30’, 31⁰ 40’) with the Indus. He also identifies confluence of Bidaspes with both the rivers Adris(126⁰ 30’, 31⁰ 30’  ) and the Sandabal(126⁰ 40’, 32⁰ 40’).

Zaradros is the most easterly of the five rivers, and scholars wrongly identified this with the Sutlej of Punjab. To identify this rivet with the Sanskrit Satadru is also not correct.

V de Saint-Martin’s observation on this river’s points of confluences with other rivers mars the history of history of human civilization: ‘As regards the Hyphasis, or more correctly the Hypasis, the extended application of this name till the stream approaches the Indus, is contrary to the notions which we draw from Sanskrit sources, according to which the Vipasa loses its name in the Satadru(Sutlej), a river which is otherwise of greater importance than the Vipasa. Nevertheless the assertion of our author by itself points to a local notion which is confirmed by a passage in the chronicles of Sindh, where the name of the Beiah which is the form of the Sanskrit Vipasa, in Musalman authors and in actual use, is equally applied to the lower course of the Sutlej till it unites with the Chenab not far from the Indus. Arrian, more exact here, or at least more circumstantial than Strabo and the other geographers, informs us that of all the group of the influent of the Indus rivers, the Akesines was the most considerable. It was the Akesines which carried to the Indus the combined waters of the Hydaspes of the Hydraotes and of the Hyphasis, and each of these streams lost it names in uniting with the Akesines(Arrian, Anab, lib, VI, c. v). This view of the general hydrography of the Punjab is in entire agreement with facts, and with the actual nomenclature. It is correctly recognised that the Chenab is in effect the most considerable stream of the Punjab, and its name successively absorbs the names of the Jhelum, the Ravi, and the Gharra or lower Sutlej, before its junction with the Indus opposite Mittankot. Ptolemy here differs from Arrian and the current ideas on the subject. With him it is not the Akesines(or , as he calls it, the Sandabala for Sandabhaga) which carries to the Indus the waters of the Punjab. It is the Bidaspes (Vitasta). Ptolemy departs again on another point from the nomenclature of the historians who preceded him in applying to the Gharra or lower Sutlej the name of Zaradros, and not, as did Arrian that of Hypasis. Zaradros is the Satudri or Satadru of the Sanskrit nomenclature, a name whose common usage in the Musalman ascendancy has strangely disfigured into Sutlej. No mention is made of this river in memoirs relating to Alexander’s expedition, and Megasthenes, it would appear, was the first to who made its existence known. The application moreover of the two names of Zaradros and Bibasis to the united streams of the Satadru and the Vipasa is justified by the usage equally variable of the narratives along the banks, while in the ancient Sanskrit writings, the Satadru goes, as in Ptolemy, to join the Indus. It may be added that certain particularities in texts of Arrian and Ptolemy suggest the idea that formerly several arms of the Hyphasis existed which went to join, it may be, the Hydraotes, or, it may be, the lower Akesines above the principal confluent of the Hyphasis, an idea which the actual examination of the locality appears to confirm. This point merits attention because the obscurities or apparent contradictions in the text of the two authors would here find an easy explanation…’.

Name of Vipasa identifies the land of the Vespasians of history who were known to the ancient world as Vasabha, the people of ancient Lanka, who occupies a place in history of Rome.

Zaradros identifies Mt Zered  of the Bible, and  Mt Zaradhira of Indian puranas. This mountain identifies the seat of ancient Jerusalem, and also ancient Campa, same as Kamboj, again same as Kubera and Cyprus. River Zaradros should be seen as a river of flowing in the ancient Cyrus( or Kuru)  and Cyprus(or Kubera) region of Uttar Kuru which is considered as the deified region of the ‘inhabited world’. This is the Byzantium region of the Bible. Hydraotes whose other name is Sanskrit Drusad-vati marks Kuru-Panchala region ; Panchaia is identical with Panchala country of the epic Mahabharata. According to Pali sources, Gharaghara lake was in Champa.

Bible sees Zadok as a priest during the time of Solomon. Though biblical scholars are not sure of Zadok’s genealogy, he represents the Zoroastrians who were then living in this region. Indian puranas mention Jada or Zada-Bharata who most probably hails from this place. Adoni-zedek, and Melchi-zedek are identified with this priest class people, and meaning of Zadok in Hebr as ‘without father, without mother, and without genealogy’(Heb. 7:3) explains a similar story for the primordial king Manadhata of Indian puranas.

As both the rivers Bibasis and Zaradros waters one and the same region where Drusadvati flows and as both join the latter before it joins the Akesines, their points of meeting the rive Indus have been shown by Ptolemy very clearly.  This projects a very compact region for the rivers that put the whole of the ancient India and the ‘inhabited world’ on the banks of these rivers.

Divarication of the Indus towards Mt Vindion:

Ptolemy puts the Indus in such a geographical plain that seems to have branched out many rivers which join this river again before it reaches the sea, and to such branches scholars find, Ptolemy gives the name ekto-porai.

Saint-Martin observes, ‘Thus one does not quite precisely see what he means by the expression which he frequently employ ……ektaporus. What he designates thereby must be undoubtedly the streams or the currents which descend from the lateral region, and which come to lose themselves in the branches of the river. But the expression, which is familiar to him, is not less ambiguous and altogether improper’.

Lassen(Ind, Alt. Vol..III, pp121, 129) takes it to be the Lavani river. ‘Ptolemy’, he says, ‘in contradiction to fact makes a tributary flow to it from the Vindhya mountains. His error is without doubt occasioned by this, that the Lavani river , which has its source in Aravali chain falls into the salt lake, the Rin or Irina, into which also the eastern arm of the Indus river discharges’.

This forms the base for a real and the creative explanation for the Indus river which puts Ptolemy’s geographical knowledge out of questioning by the same authors whi criticised him earlier.

‘ektoporai’ identifies a place in the ancient Magadha; there one finds two to three places in this name where the river Indus flows by. These places are very close to Patalene, or the ancient Pateli that identifies Asoka’s seat of administration. The place where Asoka built a hermitage for his brother Ekcharia is identified with this name ‘ekta-poria’; in the epic the Mahabharata there is mention of a place called Ekchakra-puri that identifies Ecbatana of the Bible which was capital of the Persian empire. Alexander reached here when he pursued Darius who fled away from Alaba to Ecbatana. This place also finds its history in the narratives of the Bible.  There again is another place in this name where an Arhant in the same name was staying. That is the reason why Ptolemy frequently uses this name ‘ekta-poria’ to identify various branches of the river Indus.    

Geographical situation of Mt Vindhay frequently faces scholars’ disagreement with each other because they do not refer to Pali texts for clarity. It was a mountain in ancient Kalinga, and Vessantara Jataka presents a clear geographical route from the ancient Sivi(Thebes) country to Venkatachala, same as ancient Vakshu or Baku, the seat of worship of Makkaswar(anciently Mecca) at the foot of Mt Meru.

What Ptolemy really means for this Mt Vindion may not be very clear because it may also identify Mt Pandion. But a deep study of Ptolemy’s narratives on the river Indus finds this river passing through all the places that have gone into world epics, mythologies, classics, and historical events and also to sacred pages of religious literature.

Thus Mt Vindion identifies Pundarika, or Paundra-vardhana, a place on the bank of the ancient Nile river that identifies the region of the White Lotuses. Mahavir of Jain died at this place, and it is neighbourly to Arakhosia divarification of the Indus. It is hemmed in between Byblos and Qumran; the latter is situated on the bank of the Kumbha or Kurma river of ancient texts. Wilderness of Zin of the Bible identifies the naked ascetics of the Jainas in the Negev near Mt Vindion.

Description which Ptolemy makes on the river Indus puts one place after the other in a geographical order so that passage of the river and the places it names with this river are easily identifiable.