Yam in Samskrt language means “to take control of”.
Why has this river Yamuna got this name which means, “taking control of”?
What did it take control of?
To answer these questions, we have researched the geology and geography of North India.
Rivers Change Direction
Rivers are known to change their course of flow and direction, over centuries or thousands of years. This is part of Nature. The Hwang Ho River of China has changed directions few times in the last few centuries and is one of the famous examples of the world for a river changing direction.
In India, we have the infamous river Kosi of Bihar, which has changed direction more than 10 times in the last 100 years. The most recent change was in the year 2008, when there were massive floods in Bihar.
These are the changes in courses of rivers that we have seen in our lifetimes.
Similarly, the river Yamuna has also changed course. Over 5000 years ago, the river Yamuna flowed in a different place to which it flows now.
It has changed its course from flowing into the Arabian Sea to now flowing into the Bay of Bengal.
This is a big change. How was this possible?
Yamuna and her course in history
As per the ancient Indian legends, the Purana and the historical texts Itihasa, which includes the Ramayana, and was written around 5000 BCE, the river Yamuna was a major tributary of the then biggest river, Sarasvati Nadi. The Sarasvati River was at that time flowing from the Himalayas, through present day Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and then emptying itself into the Arabian Sea in Saurashtra, near present day Somnath.
About 4500 years ago, there was a major earthquake in the Shivalik range of the Himalayas, due to which the Yamuna which was flowing towards the west and was a tributary of Sarasvati, was blocked. It changed direction and started flowing through a new gap created in the Shivalik range as a result of the earthquake. The Shivalik range literally tore, as we tear a paper. The Yamuna began flowing in this gap eastwards and then became a tributary of the Ganga. It joined Ganga at Prayag, leaving Sarasvati to go dry.
The new tear in the Shivalik range of the Himalayas, through which the Yamuna started flowing eastwards, is now geologically called the “Yamuna tear”.
Not only did the Yamuna turn eastwards through the gap, but with the tilt in the terrain due to the massive earthquake, it also took hold of or took control of the waters of the earlier westwards flowing river known as Tamas.
Because this river took control of the waters of the earlier river, it has been scientifically and geo-morphologically termed as Yamuna in the traditional Samskrtlanguage. As we have seen earlier itself, the root of the word Yamuna, Yam means “to take control of” and we thus see that Yamuna is not just a river from the legends of India, but is a river with lot of science, history and geology behind her. Yamuna is also a beauty among Indian rivers.
This incident which happened due to a natural disaster, more than 4500 years ago, has been allegorically mentioned in both the Bhagavata Purana and the Vishnu Purana as an event which took place during the same period in history.
In the period of Mahabharata, there is an interesting incident related to the changing of course of the river Yamuna. Balarama the elder brother of Krishna changes and charts the course of the river Yamuna to flow properly with this plough.
Changing the course of mankind
When rivers change course, they change the course of history and people too.
Today in our times we are on the brink of a manmade ecological disaster.
Are we going to let this disaster happen?
Or as the name Yamuna suggests, are we going to “take hold of” the situation, “take control”, and set things right?
Are we going to nurture the Yamuna that has been the succour of this civilization for the past 4500 years?
Can we act with thought, foresight and balance, so that the Yamuna continues to nourish the crores of people who live on its banks.
We need to take control of the Yamuna and act to keep it clean and not make it a garbage dump and drainage that we have reduced this river to, in the last few decades of progress.
World Culture Festival
Art of Living is organising World Culture Festival that will celebrate the diversity in cultures from across the world while simultaneously highlighting our unity as a human family. This festival is to be conducted along the Yamuna River.
The Art of Living had started the “Clean Yamuna” campaign in 2010. The cleaning of Yamuna River in a big way, will be one of its focuses at, and after the event.
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