Native name चौतांग नदी | Country India | |
 | ||
Main source Shivalik Hills, Himachal Pradesh Discharge Location:
Ghaggar river in Haryana | ||
The Chautang (Hindi: चौतांग नदी), originating in Siwalik Hills, is a tributary of Sarsuti river which in turn is tributary of Ghaggar river in of Haryana state of India.
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Origin and route
The Chautang river is a seasonal river in the state of Haryana, India. It is a remnant of the Drsadvati and joins the Ghaggar-Hakra River east of Suratgarh in Rajasthan. This river was one of the main contributors to the Sarasvati river until the Yamuna changed its course. However, according to recent studies, Yamuna changed its course towards east some 50,000 to 10,000 years ago, and that Chautang is a rain-fed river and the Yamuna had not been pouring any water into it for the last 10,000 years.
Identification with Vedic rivers
Several modern scholars identify the old Ghaggar-Hakra River as the Sarasvati river and the Chautang river with the Drishadvati river of Vedic period, on the banks of which Indus-Sarasvati civilisation developed. such scholars include Gregory Possehl, J. M. Kenoyer, Bridget and Raymond Allchin, Michael Witzel, Kenneth Kennedy, Franklin Southworth, and numerous Indian archaeologists.
Gregory Possehl and Jane McIntosh refer to the Ghaggar-Hakra river as "Sarasvati" throughout their respective 2002 and 2008 books on the Indus Civilisation.
Gregory Possehl states:
"Linguistic, archaeological, and historical data show that the Sarasvati of the Vedas is the modern Ghaggar or Hakra."