The rivers and India play an important role in the lives of the Indian people. The river systems provide irrigation, potable water, cheap transportation, electricity, and the livelihoods for a large number of people all over the country. This easily explains why nearly all the major cities of India are located by the banks of rivers. The rivers also have an important role in Hindu mythology and are considered holy by all Hindus in the country.Seven major rivers along with their numerous tributaries make up the river system of India. Most of the rivers pour their waters into the Bay of Bengal; however, some of the rivers whose courses take them through the western part of the country and towards the east of the state of Himachal Pradesh empty into the Arabian Sea. Parts of Ladakh, northern parts of the Aravalli range and the arid parts of the Thar Desert have inland drainage. Dr.Francis Buchanan surveyed the courses of the rivers of India along with their tributaries and branches in 1810-11 AD and presented a minute account of it. The shifting of the courses and bed over the centuries is very remarkable. Many of the channels mentioned in that survey have now become dead , dried or even extinct.All major rivers of India originate from one of the three main watersheds:

Indian rivers overviewHimalayan

and Karkoram Ranges

Vindhyas, Satpuras, Central Plateau

Western Ghats

India

Arabian Ocean

Bay of Bengal

Rivers and human

civilization

The major Himalayan Rivers are Indus , Ganga and Brahmaputra . These rivers are long , and are joined by many large and important tributaries . Himalayan Rivers have long courses from their source to sea.

The Ganga (or Ganges) and its tributaries like Yamuna, Son, and Gandak, which have been left out of the list, actually formulates the biggest cultivable plains of north and eastern India, known as the Gangetic plains. The main river, the holy Ganga forms by the joining of theAlaknanda River and Bhagirathi River at Devprayag. The Bhagirathi, which is considered the Ganga's true source, starts from Gangotri glaciers in the Himalayas and flows through the states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal, after which it enters Bangladesh. Known as the Padma River in Bangladesh, it joins the Jamuna River, the largest distributary of the Brahmaputra River. The Padma then joins the Meghna River before emptying into the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh. With a length of about 2,525 kilometres (1,569 mi), the Ganga the second longest river of India. The Brahmaputra is longer, but most of its course is not in India.

The Indus River is a major river which flows through Pakistan, as well as India and China.Originating in the Tibetan plateau of western China in the vicinity of Lake Mansarovar in Tibet Autonomous Region, the river runs a course through the Ladakh district of Jammu and Kashmir and then enters Pakistan via the Northern Areas (Gilgit-Baltistan), flowing through the North in a southerly direction along the entire length of Pakistan, to merge into the Arabian Sea near the port city of Karachi in Sindh. The total length of the river is 3,180 kilometers (1,976 miles) and it is Pakistan's longest river.The river has a total drainage area exceeding 1,165,000 square kilometers (450,000 square miles). The river's estimated annual flow stands at around 207 cubic kilometers, making it the twenty-first largest river in the world in terms of annual flow. Beginning at the heights of the world with glaciers, the river feeds the ecosystem of temperate forests, plains and arid countryside. Together with the rivers Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej, Beas and two tributaries from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Afghanistan, the Indus forms the delta of Pakistan mentioned in the Vedic Rig Veda as Sapta Sindhu and the Iranic Zend Avesta as Hapta Hindu, (both sets of terms meaning Seven Rivers).

The Brahmaputra also called Tsangpo-Brahmaputra, is a trans-boundary river and one of the major rivers of Asia. It originates in China, near the sources of the Indus and the Sutlej. It is about 2,900 kilometres (1,800 mi) long. In China, where it is known as the Yarlung Zangbo River, or Tsangpo, it flows east, parallel to the Himalayas. Reaching Namjagbarwa it turns south and enters India in Arunachal Pradesh, where is it known as Dihang. In Assam it is called the Brahmaputra. Just before entering Bangladesh it splits into two distributaries, the larger of which is called the Jamuna River.

The Chenab River is a major river of Jammu and Kashmir and the Punjab in India. It forms in the upper Himalayas in the Lahaul and Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh, India, and flows through the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir into the plains of the Punjab. The waters of the Chenab are allocated to Pakistan under the terms of the Indus Waters Treaty.

Peninsular India is drained by five major river systems:  Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, Penner and Cauvery.

The geology and climate of Peninsular India are two overriding physical controls effecting the rivers of the region.  By effecting  the soils and vegetation the geology and climate determine the sedimentological characteristics and the whole process of erosion, transportation and deposition within each drainage basin. The sparse vegetation of the highlands contrasts with the moderately luxuriant vegetation of the river valleys.

The Mahanadi in East Central India. It drains an area of around 132,100 km2 and has a total course of 858 km.  The river flows through the states of Chhattisgarhand Orissa.Like many other seasonal Indian rivers, the Mahanadi too is a combination of many mountain streams and thus its precise source is impossible to pinpoint. However its farthest headwaters lie 6 km from Pharisiya village 442 m above sea level south of Nagri town in Dhamtari district of Chhattisgarh. The hills here are an extension of the Eastern Ghats and are a source of many other streams which then go on to join the Mahanadi.

The Godavari is a river that runs from western to southern India and is considered to be one of the big river basins in India. With a length of 1465 km, it is the second longest river in India (only after the Ganga), that runs within the country and also the longest river in South India. It originates near Trimbak in Nashik District of Maharashtra state and flows east across the Deccan Plateau into the Bay of Bengal near Narasapuram in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh.The Godavari River is a major waterway in central India, originating in the Western Ghats Trimbakeshwar, in the Nashik Subdivision or District Of Maharashtra and flowing eastwardly across the Deccan Plateau through the state of Maharashtra. It is known as dakshin ganga (Southern Ganga). It enters Andhra Pradesh at Kandhakurthi in Nizamabad district.

The Krishna River is one of the longest rivers in central-southern India, about 1,300 kilometres (810 mi). It is also referred to as Krishnaveni in its original nomenclature.Krishna river is the third largest river in india.

Krishna river rises at Mahabaleswar near the Jor village in the extreme north of Wai taluka,district satara,Mahararshta in the west and meets the Bay of Bengal at Hamasaladeevi in Andhra Pradesh, on the east coast. It also flows through the state of Karnataka. The delta of this river is one of the most fertile regions inIndia and was the home to ancient Satavahana and Ikshvaku Sun Dynasty kings.Vijayawada is the largest city on the River Krishna . Sangli is the largest city on the river Krishna in Maharashtra state .

Rivers and Human Civilization

• Rivers played a very important role in the development and maintenance of Civilizations.

• With the discovery of the usefulness of water in food production, man realized that hunting and gathering were not the only ways to produce food!

• Now with the constant supply of water, man could reliably and in a sustainable manner grow plants intentionally.

• This discovery alleviated the need to search and gather food. Agriculture was hard work but yielded huge benefits:

– Larger food supply led to decreased starvation which further led to increased settlements, communities and later cities

– This led to an increase in the trade and commerce. Rivers served as important modes of transport and transportation for the same.

– As wealth and trade increased huts were replaced by houses, which further shaped the ‘civilized’ world.

Indian Rivers – an overview

Ancient Indian river civilizations

Indus Valley CivilizationThe ancient civilizations of the Indian sub-

continent were in and around two might river systems

– The Indus Valley Civilization (mature period 2600–1900 BCE), abbreviated IVC, was an ancient civilization in the Indian Subcontinent that flourished around the Indus River basin. Primarily centered along the Indus river, the civilization encompassed most of what is now Pakistan, mainly the provinces of Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan, as well as extending into modern day Indian states of Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan.

– Nearby the Saraswati civilization, based on the now dried-up Saraswati river, a river that in ancient Indian historic texts is described as far mightier that the Ganges, and suspected of drying up due to tectonic shifts in the upper reaches of the Himalayas.

The sites of the Mohenjadaro and Harappan sites along the Indus

River Valley

The Saraswati Civilization"Pure in her course from the mountains to the ocean, alone of streams Saraswati hath listened."

- Rig Veda

The Saraswati river, believed to be now mostly disappeared underground, was the locus of one of the most ancient of human civilisations

The mother of Indian rivers-

Ganga

Ganga is born in the Gangotri glacier at the foothills of the Himalayas (14000 ft) high up in the Himalaya

Mountains of Uttaranchal. Gaumukh is the giant ice-cave from where the Ganga originates

The first town she reaches on leaving the mountains is Rishikesh. At this point she is wider and slower. She

becomes a ‘real’ river, no more the turbulent stream that flows through canyons and ravines

Her main flow is through the Gangetic plain: the vast flat land that stretches from the north to south to the state of Uttar Pradesh and from its West all the way to the Eastern

state of West Bengal. She is a source of water for agriculture, passing through famous towns such as

Varanasi.

Finally, past Kolkata in the east, the Ganges reaches the ocean – creating one of the world largest river deltas and

home to the beautiful Sundarban forests.

The Brahmaputra

The origin of Brahmaputra River is in southwestern Tibet as the Yarlung River. The river takes birth at the Mansarovar of the Himalayas, flows through Tibet, China, Burma, India and joins with River Ganges in Bangladesh.

Called the Tsangpo in Tibet, it flows past the towns of Xigatse and Tsedang and then climbs north. It curves around a majestic mountain called the Namche Barwa,

shortly before entering India.

Along the Brahmaputra are a thousand chars or river islands. Several nomads live on them who wander from

one island to another.

Finally, passing through Bangladesh, it becomes the Padma river and enters the Bay of Bengal in the

Sundarbans along with the Ganges.

River Kaveri – The Ganga Of South

India

Kaveri starts as a small spring in Karnataka Talakaveri, high up in the mountains of the Brahmagiri mountains of the Western Ghats. At this spot stands a temple which has a tank filled with the river’s water.

A little further down the Kaveri forks to form a rocky island called Srirangapatna; until the end of the 18th

century this was the capital of the Mysore kingdom. It is believed that Lord Vishnu himself came and resided in

these islands.

At Sivasamudram the Kaveri tumbles down as a rapids and waterfalls, where the river plunges downward in a

wonderful cascade to a depth of 300-350 ft. She falls with tremendous force and her waters are used to generate

hydroelectricity.

Kaveri enters the sea in a triangle-shaped delta in Tamil Nadu. The delta is large and covers 14 lakh hectares of

land. The ancient temple town of Tanjavur stands at the head of the delta.

The Narmada , rivers and the environment

The Narmada is born in a small tank called “Narmada Kund” on the Amarkantak Hill in Eastern Madhya Pradesh.

The Kanha National Park lies close to the Narmada in the Maikal Plateau. Unusual species of birds and animals are found here. This is a protected area and was a declared a

Tiger Reserve in 1974.

The Sardar Sarovar project is part of a plan to take Narmada’s waters to states further away where there is little rainfall and not much water for people and crops.

But the dangers if this plan materializes are many:Earthquakes and flood caused by this man made structure threaten the area around it. In response to these concerns, that the Narmada Bachao Andolan movement grew to try and answer questions like (i)Are big dams more dangerous than useful?(ii) Are there other ways of collecting water for drinking, irrigation and electricity?(iii) Will those who lose their homes be given land somewhere else?

Conclusion

Conclusion• The large geographic span of India has a variety of rain-

fed and mountain glacier fed rivers, that have sustained the ancient civilization of India, and still today continue to provide livelihood and sustenance for the large population of the nation.

• The rivers of India, apart from their utility, are a rich storehouse of natural beauty, and have a long and ancient history of mythological and historical treasures.

• The global environmental problems of the 21st century will also have their impact on the rivers of India. By respecting these treasures of India, both for their history as well as for the precious natural resource of water, these rivers will sustain our country for many centuries to come.