Is Sarayu, the Harayu?

Is Sarayu, the Harayu?

Sarayu is a river originate from Himalayas and flowing through the Indian States of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

Lord Rama was born on the bank of river Sarayu. His father King Dasarath slain Shravan Kumar by accident and received the curse (grief due to loss of son) of Shravan's blind parents. You know the story of Ramayana. After completion of the purpose of his life Lord Rama gave up his body in the water of river Sarayu.

Sarayu in Sanskrit means flowing. If 'S' is replaced with 'H' it becomes Harayu, the river that removes the sin, sorrow and pain.

Do you know that Hindu Kush the mountain in Afghanistan was named after the son of Lord Rama, Kush. He founded the city of Kasur. The descendants of Kush might be the Kushans, who were ruling the area till 1st century AD. Kush means death, the workers/slaves of Indian subcontinent were not able to cross this pass to reach to Central Asia or the place were Hindus were killed. Kush means mountains, therefore it could be mountains of Hindus. It was the last point of Hindu Kingdom in the west.

Do you also know that the the original name of the city of Lahore was Lovepura, founded by the son of Lord Rama, Love. Lahore Fort has a vacant temple dedicated to Love. Ptolemy (2nd century) mentioned it as Labokla.

Taking a clue from Hindu Kush and Lahore and presume that the land between Hindu Kush in the West and Lavapura in the East were part of the Rama Rajya, the Solar dynasty, one may tempt to check river Sarayu between Sarasvati and Sindhu.  

The river is mentioned three times in the Rigveda. The banks of the Sarayu are the location of the killing of two Aryas at the hands of Indra in RV 4.30.18. It is listed together with western tributaries to the Indus: Rasā Anitabha, Kubha, Krumu, and the Sindhu itself as obstacles crossed by the Maruts in RV 5.53.9. At this stage of the earlier Rigveda, it apparently was a river west of the Indus system that corresponds to Iranian Harayu (Avestan acc. Harōiium, Old Persian Haraiva, modern Harē), the Herat river. It is invoked together with Sindhu and Sarasvati (two of the most prominent Rigvedic rivers) in the late hymn RV 10.64.

The Hari River or Herat River (Persia Harī Rūd, rud means river) is a river flowing 1,100 kilometres from the Baba mountain range of Hindu Kush mountains of central Afghanistan to Turkmenistan, where it disappears in the Kara-Kum desert. Hari is Visnu, and Rama was the 7th incarnation of Lord Visnu. Was the river named after Hari, the Visnu?

Were the Aryans, moved towards the east due to the push from the west, relocated and renamed the river at new location to remember the native river? Or they win the area of Hindu Kush and named the river Harayu in remembrance of river Sarayu? The later is more probable. Ayutthaya city of Thailand was named after Ayodhya. Ramayana had a great influence over the land from Hindu Kush in the west to Burma, Thailand, Indonesia in the east. 

Ayodhya (Kaushaldesa), the 9000 years old city was the capital of Solar Dynasty of Ikshvaku Kings was the birth place of Lord Rama. It was also a birth place of 5 Jain Tirthankars: Adinath(1), Ajitnath(2), Abhinandanath(4), Sumatinath(5) and Anantnath(14).

There is a long history of Ikshvaku dynasty (Solar Dynasty) kings of India. Harishchandra, Sagar, Dilip, Bhagirath, Raghu, etc, were the great kings of the dynasty. Lord Rama was the great grand son of King Raghu-2.  The founder Ikshvaku was the son of Vaivasvata Manu. 24 of the 22 Jain Tirthankars belong to Ikshvaku Dynasty. Buddhas also finds their origin in this dynasty.

Don't ask, if Sarayu was Harayu/Herat, then where is Lanka, the country made of Gold? By the way India is known as "Sone ki Chidiya" (the golden bird) to the western world for centuries!!! Lol.

Punamchand
17 January 2016