The Source of the Sarasvati
BP Radhakrishna writes: "The antiquity of Vedic civilization is thus
intricately woven with the story of the birth and career of river
Sarasvati which had its source in the high Himalaya within sight of
Manasa Sarovar at the foot of [Mt.] Kailas" (1).
Kokei was thus very close to the truth when he stated that
Benzaiten/Sarasvati was the daughter of the dragon-king of
Anavatapta/Manasarovar.
All in all, Kokei's knowledge of the course of the Sarasvati, which
started from the Himalayas and snaked through floodplains and terminal
lakes to the then-swampy Rann of Kutch, is astounding.
1. BP Radhakrishna, Holocene Chronology and Indian Prehistory (Keynote
Address), Memoir Geological
Society of India, No. 42, 1999, pg. xix.