Scholars who found river Indus disappeared, similarly thought idea that Mt Meru, or Mt Imaos, its source, also disappeared. Even some of the eminent scholars of our times like Prof Wilson did not hesitate to paint Mt Meru as an imaginary mountain. Those who questioned Ptolemy’s knowledge in geography formed their geographical knowledge of the ancient world without this primordial mountain at its centre. Thus all hell broke out in identification of places mentioned in ancient literature. Pali texts which preserve the history of the 6^th c B.C. world are totally excluded.

Ptolemy gives a list of the names of rivers which flow from Mt Imaos into the Indus which are arranged as follows;

Sources of the river Koa : 120⁰ 37⁰ 

Sources of the river Souastos :122⁰ 30’ 36⁰ 

Sources of the river Indus : 125⁰ 37⁰

Sources of the river Bidaspes : 127⁰ 30’ , 36⁰ 40’

Sources of the river Sandabal : 129⁰ 36⁰

Sources of the river Adris or Rouadis : 130⁰ 37⁰

Sources of the river Bibasis : 131⁰,  35⁰ 30’

Seven mouth of the Indus river are located near its seven sources, and this is significant to locate this ancient river that witnessed most of the historical events of the world at these locations. All the seven places have gone one way or the other, into pages of world history.  Names of ancient rivers should be seen as rivers of the ‘whole’ of the ‘inhabited world’, thus, their names should be seen in all ancient literature including the Bible, the Avesta, the Quran and also the classical literature as well as in the epics and mythologies of the entire world. Individual names of rivers bears a confusing a trend as the same river carries various names at different times of history that locks its name with the name of the places it passes through.

Koa river source:

Ptolemy’s Koa which marks it clearly with the present Kua-khai still flowing and maintaining its scriptural position as assigned to it by Ptolemy more than two thousand years ago.

Scholars identified it with the Kabul river( the Saraswati river). This river they say is the only large affluent which the Indus receives from the ‘west’(of the ‘inhabited world’).

While Ptolemy fixes Koa’s point of junction in latitude 31⁰, scholars give it a latitude at 33⁰ 54’. This makes the Indus 872 miles distant from its source, and 942 miles from the sea.

Koa or the Kua-khai is at a few miles distant from the Sagapa mouth as well as from the next sources of the river at Souastos. It is well represented in the map of Eratosthenes as a river in Udaka-khanda or Erdkarte-des..

Souastos river source:

This river makes all sorts of confusion in its identification. Some sees it as same as Kophes(of Strabo), and others with Khoes(of Arrian) and Khaspes; modern writers see it as Swat.

Hydaspes of Alexander’s invasion history wrecks no difference with both Koa and Souastos. Souastos is the river Saraswati itself. It is interesting to see that this river exactly finds the ancient Sravasti on its bank which was once the capital of Kosala. Hisperia of classical literature, which marks Caesarea as same as Kesuria of Indian puranas, is identical with Hydaspes of Alexander’s India invasion accounts.

Suvastu of the Mahabharata(Bhisma,ch.9) and Suastes of Arrian marks the same river which is again same as Saravati of Pali texts. Hiouen Tsinag takes both the names Subhastu and Kapila and the latter identifies the hermitage of Kapila in Subhastu. The river flows in between these two places but Kapila’s hermitage is on the bank of this river.

In one of the prayers of the Rig Veda(X, 75), names of all the rivers of the ancient world has been invoked: ‘Receive favourably this my hymn, O Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati, Sutudri, Parashni, ; hear, O Marudvridha, with the Askni, and Vitasta, and thou Arjikiya with the Sushoma’.

‘Unite first in thy course with the Trishtama, the Sasartu, the Rasa, and the Sveti; thou meetest the Gomati, and the Krumu, with the Kubha, and the Mehatnu, and with them are borne onward as on the same car’.

All the rivers whose number will be around nineteen, or so, describes the whole of the ancient world, but they were wrongly observed and were searched within the modern India’s geographical boundary. Alexander’s historians take only few rivers in their invasion accounts of ancient India and this covers whole of the ancient world as Ptolemy shows it in his maps.

Saint-Martin, Thomas, Sir H, Rawlinson, Vincent Smith, Lassen, and many other writers found fault with Ptolemy and have suggested that this river does not exists at all like the river Indus.  These scholars put all the five rivers of ancient India in Panjab alone; and this is a great failure of academic scholarship.

Putting Bidaspes, Sandabal, Adris or Rhouadis, Bibasis, and Zaradros in Panjab diverted the primordial geographical situation of the ‘whole’ of the ancient world elsewhere and pieced it into several smaller parts and distributed it among various nations.

Souastos is identified with the present Sri Ramapur on the bank of the Prachi Saraswati near Banamalipur and Antarakula. Kapila Muni’s ashrama and Go-karna are very close to this

Indus river source

Indus source marks the country of Uden of Pali texts, or Uddiyan of later literature;  and it is as same as Odantapura of history. This is identical with Idaean shore of Vergil. 

The name ‘Uden’ is a composite term that identifies a place, a primordial king, a shrine of most remote past, and also name of a portion of the Pitakas(Greek pietas !) i.e an arrangement of matter. A forest in this name was also there in Uden where Ananda met Pindola.

According to Pali sources, Mangala was the capital of Udyana; It is Meng-ho-li of the Chinese travellers and scholars find it same as the ancient Gandhara. The Mahabharata mentions Udyanta-Parvata as a mountain of Gaya.

This is now represented by Odapadadant near Teisipur and Mangalapur in Pipili on the Puri highway.

 Bidaspes river source

This has been identified by scholars with the present Jhelum; and has been shown as the most west of the five rivers which drains the whole of the valley of Kashmir, and empties into the Akesines or Chenab.

Ancient Kashmir identifies the seat of hermitage of Sage Kasyapa, which was on the bank of the Caspian Sea. Pliny calls Kasyapa as Caspo; Ptolemy knows him as Kaspeira; and Avesta knows him as Kesaba, which means ‘gold’. Kasyapa Rishi to whom Buddhist literature identifies with Kasyapa Buddha holds the geographical situation of the ‘inhabited world’ in all religious literature of the world. Identification of seat of worship of this Sage disappeared but Caspian Sea remains now in the Middle East. Asoka repaired this worship- site and made it doubled of its ancient size; Buddha visited this temple, so also Hiouen Tsiang.   

Bidaspes identifies ancient Bidisa or Vedisha which is very close to the Sinthon mouth of the Indus. During the Ramayanic Age, the place was given to Satrughna’s son Satrughati. It was capital of Dasrna. Its history is well connected with history of ancient Magadha. It identifies ancient Vetravati.

Today it is identified with the same as Vedisa in Gopa near Konark and Sankhatira village.

 

Sandabal river source

This river marks the Mrigasira(Migdeldah of the Bible), or the Deer Park of Buddhist literature where the Buddha preached his First Sermon. Near it was Sundara and Sunandavati on the bank of the Khrysoun mouth of the Indus that identifies Sundara where thousand Arhants were staying in one name ‘Sundara’ on the bank of this river. It was near to Uruvela, of the Buddhist texts, and Ur of the Bible where the Great Flood happened. Gilgamesh of the epic Gilgamesh was ruler of this place; Abraham’s father Azar also was ruling in Ur; it is as same as Uruk. Deer Park also is identified with ancient Turkey known then as Tu-hu-lo which was then situated at the foot of the Mt Meru.

Today it is represented by both Sundara and Mrigasira village on the banks of the river Suna-muhin near Puri, Uru village is very close to it.

 

Adris or Rouadis river source

According to Zoroastrians of Sogdians, ‘mountain of Ardiya surrounds the world; that outside of it is Khom, similar to the pupil of the eye, in which there is something of everything, and that behind it there is vacuum’. In the centre of the world is the mountain Girinagara where river Sappini flows. This river marks the mouth Sapara of the Indus. Mt Gerizium of the Bible is same as Girinagara of other ancient texts; the region from this mountain to the foot of the Mt Meru describes the region of Canaan of the Bible which was pursued by Moses and his Israelites followers to capture this holy land. Here name of ‘ardiya’ marks ‘rudra’, the deity of the Scythians; or Mahadeva, or Sankara. This also refers to Rudra-Damana kings once ruling from this place.

Historical notes and explanations find Girinagara, Girivraja, and Giriyek as three different places; while Girinagara is situated on the banks of the river Palasine, known as Swarnarekha, where Aristanemi, or Neminath, the 22^nd Tirthankara of the Jainas died, this place was the capital of the Scythians from a very long time.  Scythian viceroy(Kshatrapa), who early in the 2^nd A.D. became independent of the Saka king Sakestan or Sistan, is linked to this place like many other Mauryan kings.

Roudis refers to Radha, the ‘first’ of the ‘Eight Villages’, or the Astagrama of ancient literature that identifies the source of the river Ganges, a port in the name of Ganga, and a dynasty in this same name at one and the same place. It also recognises the City of Sun near it. It is one of the Sixteen Good-lands of the Avesta and is well connected with the birthplace of Ahura Mazda.

Girivrajapura, similarly, was the ancient capital of Magadha during the time of the Mahabharata (Sabha,ch.21) where Jarasandha and his descendants resided . It was founded by Raja Basu and was therefore called Vasumati (Ramayana,Adi,ch.32); it is surrounded by five hills: Baihara, Baraha, Brishabha, Rishi-giri , and the Chaityaka. In Palli, they are : Gijjhakuta, Isugilla, Vebhara, Vepula and Pandava.

Girivrajapura had four gates ; river Saraswati flows through it ; and it passes through its north gate ; river Bana-ganga is on the south of the Rajgiri. At the time of the Ramayana, Sona river flowed through the town (Adi, 36) ; Six miles from Rajgriha is situated the Giriyaka hill containing the celebrated tower called Jarasandha Baithaka formerly called the Hamsa stupa. The Panchana river flows by the side of this hill. Bhima, Arjuna, and Krishna crossed the Panchana river and entered the Jarasandha town in disguise by scaling the Giriyak hill, a spur of the Bipula or Chaityaka range. Sandal hill, Bathani hills were also in the mention  

Giriyaka is the name of a village on the Panchana river , same as Gridharakuta, the Indrasalaguha of Hiouen Tsiang. The Panchana river is the ancient Sappini (sarpini) mentioned by Budhaghosa in his commentary on Mahavagga (ch.11,p.12). The Sappini is said to have its source in the Gridharakuta mountain. Giriyaka is the “Hill of the isolated Rock” of Fa-hian.

History of these three places is consolidated within the locked land between the river Saraswati and the Panchana river and the Mt Giri-vajra(not Giri-vraja). There is a difference between the two names : ‘vraja’ and ‘vajra’. The meanings of these two names are of much importance to scale the geographical situation of both the places. Asokan Rock Edicts at Dhauli have been wrongly deciphered on the meaning of these two words. Here ‘vajra’ has been read as ‘vraja’. While ‘vajra’ marks the ‘Place of Enlightenment of the Buddha’, ‘vraja’ identifies a pleasance in Magadha. 

Today Rouadis is identified with the village Radha near the Sun Temple at Konark, and Girima which is very close to it marks the Girinagara of history.

Bibasis river source

Bibasis of Ptolemy is Bubastis of ancient Egyptian mythology that identifies ancient Babylon, again the same as Byblos. Story of Isis and Osiris and their link to Heilopolitan pantheon makes this source of the river and origin of the river Nile in ancient Byblos which identifies the place from where Bible received its name. Indian puranic tradition finds Balhika or Bahika as identical with ancient Babylon. Alexander’s historians mention Gangetic plain as geographically contiguous with ancient Babylon. Ptolemy also makes a similar presentation in his maps.

There is no difference between the ancient Babylon and the place of hermitage of Sage Valmiki of the Ramayana who wrote his epic poem in this place whose other name is Sitavana.   

Sheshonq I,  pharaoh of the 22^nd Dynasty, who was of Libyan origin, made his capital near Bast’s city of Bubastis, and adopted the goddess Isis as his own. Today it is represented by Bobua village near Konark and near it stands the Basta village.