Land of the Seven Rivers - by Sanjeev Sanyal

This book is a whole hearted attempt by the author to trace the civilization of India right from Harappan times to the present day. In this pursuit covering close to 5000 years we come across many startling facts about India. The author throughout emphasises that Indian always had a sense of their civilizational history and we are but a mere episode in it. This book is a mix of travelogue, History and Geography and this alone makes it a very interesting read. Overall this book is a genuine piece of work on Indology.

He starts from the Harappan civilization and creates a mental map of how the harappan cities would have been like in their hey day. Particularly he points out many fascinating aspects of that civilization and brings home the truth to us. For example take ratio of sawa or 5/4 or 1.25 used in building Harappan cities. This ratio is followed even in later Aryan cities like Ayodhya and is used as a salutation in medieval period for famous general like Sawai Man Singh. I was searching for authritative material on Out of India theory of Migration and here the author convincingly presents the case of genetic make up of indians and debunks the Aryan invasion theory in favour of Out of India theory. By the time you finish the chapter on Genetics you will have no doubts in your mind about the OIT.

One common theme always peddled by British apologists and Marxist writers is that India was never a single country and how the British consolidated it into one nation. This is a total lie and here also i find the book to be an eye opener. Indians always had a sense of civilization and this is evident in many ways. The author points out the Ashokan pillars found in various parts of India , which was later used by Akbar to proclaim his rule over India. Much later a similar proclamation was done by British in 1858 in Allahabad. All of these rulers were aware that they were episodes in an otherwise great story of a civilization and left their mark knowingly. For the very same reason Ashoka Chakra was made the centrepiece of our national flag and Ashoka column was made the national emblem. Our forefathers and framers of constitution were aware they are inheriting a truly ancient civilization.



The book answers some of very pertinent questions i always had in mind. For example, Why did Buddha gave his sermon at Sarnath and not at Bodh Gaya when he had attained enlightenment there itself ? Why the rulers of Mewar are called Rana and not Maharaja like all other Rajput kingdoms ? Who are the Sinhalese people and why do they use Lion as national animal of Sri Lanka if there were no lions in their country ? Why India has huge reserves of gold in households when there are very few gold mines in India ?  Grab the book and have a great time.