# Helmand River

The Helmand river (Pashto/Dari: هیرمند / هلمند; Ancient Greek: Ἐτύμανδρος, Etýmandros; Latin: Erymandrus), also spelled Helmend, or Helmund, Hirmand, is the longest river in Afghanistan and the primary watershed for the endorheic Sistan Basin.
Arranged alphabetically by author or source: A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · Quotes from the Avesta · See also · External links

## B

* ...I will note, here, that proposals correlating [the Sarasvati] with other rivers in Afghanistan or elsewhere are unconvincing to my mind, as are attempts to argue that she ended in a terminal lake rather than the ocean.
** Edwin Bryant . "'Somewhere in Asia and No More,' Response to 'Indigenous Indo-Aryans and the Rigveda' by Kazanas." Journal of Indo-European Studies 30.3-4 (2003): 341-353

## C

* Irfan Habib, to whom the name Sarasvati is a kind of anathema... has his faith in an obscure nineteenth century opinion that the name Sarasvati was originally given to the Helmand river in Afghanistan and that was later transferred to the one near Kurukshetra in Haryana. This opinion which was ignored by people like C.F. Oldham and Aurel Stein seems to have found favour among some modern Sanskritists and government historians like Habib. The problem with the historical linguists and those who have faith in historical linguists/ comparative philology is that they apparently inhabit a world in which there is no need for independently testing a theory. One would , however, have thought that Habib as a historian would critically examine the source on which the idea that the Helmand was the original Sarasvati was based. In any case, the Sarasvati-phobia of this group of scholars is inexplicable. If they are upset by the density of distribution of Harappan sites in the region drained by the Sarasvati and get alarmed by the prospect of the Indus civilization being associated with ancient Brahmavarta, basically the land between the Sarasvati and the Drishadvati, that is their problem.
** Dilip K Chakrabarti, Whose Past and Which Past? The Warring Factions of the Ancient Indian Historical Research, also in Dilip K. Chakrabarti, Nation First: Essays in the Politics of Ancient Indian Studies, 2014

## E

* [Burrow] suggests that Saraswati was a proto-Indoaryan term, originally applied to the present Haraxvaiti when the proto-Indoaryans still lived in northeastern Iran.... It would be just as plausible to assume that Saraswati was a Sanskrit term indigenous to India and was later imported by the speakers of Avestan into Iran. The fact that the Zend Avesta is aware of areas outside the Iranian plateau while the Rigveda is ignorant of anything west of the Indus basin would certainly support such an assertion.
** George Erdosy 1989: Ethnicity in the Rigveda and its Bearing on the Question of Indo-European Origins. Erdosy, George. pp. 35-47 in ―South Asian Studies‖ vol. 5. London p. 41-42. Quoted in in Bryant, E. F. (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture : the Indo-Aryan migration debate. Oxford University Press. also in Talageri, S. G. (2010). The Rigveda and the Avesta. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.

## H

* But it seems likely... that Sarasvati/Harakhvati was the name for the Helmand. Otherwise it is difficult to understand how Sarasvati could be put between Sindhu and Sarayu as the major intervening river in RV X, 64.9.
** Habib Irfan and Faiz Habib, 1991-92. The Historical Geography of India 1800 -800 B.C. p. 76
** Habib argues that the Sarasvati in the Rigveda is the Helmand river. B.B. Lal (2002) commented that Habib "blindly" follows Griffiths misleading translation of the Rigvedic hymn, and that actually the Rigvedic hymn (in the original Sanskrit) "does not put the Sarasvati between the other two rivers".
** Lal, B. B. (2002). The Sarasvatī flows on : the continuity of Indian culture. Aryan Books International. 10-11

## K

* Now, it would be ludicrous to claim that the IAs left the common Indo-Iranian habitat, as per the AIT, moved into Saptasindhu and turning the Haraχvaiti name into Sarasvatī gave it to a river there to remember their past while they proceeded to generate the root sṛ and its derivatives to accord with other IE languages. Occam’s razor, which here is conveniently ignored by AIT adherents, commands the opposite: that the Iranians moved away, lost the root sṛ and the name Sarasvatī in its devolved form Haraxvaiti was given to a river in their new habitat.
** Kazanas, N. (2009). Indo-Aryan origins and other Vedic issues. Chapter 9

## Quotes from the Avesta

* (the Unappropriated Glory) which is coming over to Saoshyant Verethrajan who will rise from the area where the Kansayoya sea is situated by the (River) Haetumant and Mount Ushada around which the many watercourses meet, coming from the mountains.
** — Zamyad Yasht 19.66–77 (translated by Helmut Humbach).
** Humbach, Helmut (1998). Zamyad Yasht - Yasht 19 of the Younger Avesta. Text, Translation, Commentary. Harrassowitz Verlag - Wiesbaden.