Michel Danino

Michel Danino (born 4 June 1956) is an Indian author of French origin. He is known for his works on Indian history, notably The Lost River: On The Trail of the Sarasvati (2010).

Quotes

• I invite you to discover more such recent findings. It is unfortunate that India doesn’t accord archaeology the prestige it deserves, especially among young Indians. We must restore that prestige and fascination and make the discipline attractive so our heritage may be explored and rediscovered before it gets completely erased.
  • 2013, NEW PERSPECTIVES ON OUR CULTURAL PASTS

• The Hindu mind works in such a way that continuity of worship is more important than physical fact. When the Harappans migrated eastward towards the Gangetic region, they carried with them their memories of the Sarasvati. The myths and sanctity were transferred to Prayag.
  • Supporting the claim that the divine attributes of the Ganges were originally used for the Sarasvati river, as quoted in "A personal odyssey, The Hindu (10 April 2010)

• When I was 15 or so, I stumbled on literature related to Indian spirituality, and instantly felt that there was something that held essential keys. I read several of the great masters, something of India's ancient literature, and finally decided that Sri Aurobindo's view of life and the world was what I was looking for. It was not a passing craze or a 'New Age' fad; it not only satisfied the intellect but also touched the core of the being.
  • On Sri Aurobindo, as quoted in "The Sarasvati was more sacred than Ganga", Rediff (22 May 2010)

• If in the nineteenth century most scholars identified the Ghaggar-Hakra's course with the Vedic Sarasvati, it is basically for three reasons. The Rig-Veda, the oldest of the four Vedas, mentions various rivers but praises the Sarasvati above all others: it was a "mighty river" flowing "from the mountain to the sea", and one hymn listed it between the Yamuna and the Sutlej - precisely the location of the Ghaggar-Hakra. Secondly, the local traditions regarding the "lost river" of the Indian desert matched those in the post-Vedic literature (including the Mahabharata), which recorded the gradual disappearance of the Sarasvati. Thirdly, scholars noticed a minor tributary of the Ghaggar called "Sarsuti", an obvious corruption of "Sarasvati": it rises in the Sirmur hills that are part of the Shivaliks and was marked on British maps as early as in 1788. Putting these three lines of evidence together, they concluded that the lost Sarasvati could only have flowed in the Ghaggar's bed.
  • Supporting the claim that Ghaggar-Hakra is the Sarasvati river, as quoted in "Sarasvati: Tracing the death of a river" DNA India (12 June 2010)

• Aryabhata conceived the earth as a rotating sphere in space, which causes the apparent rising and setting of the sun. Varahamihira disagreed and Brahmagupta derided Aryabhata — but unlike medieval Europe, the intellectual climate in India was free and tolerant of dissent.
  • On ancient Indian astronomers, as quoted in "Unlike medieval Europe, India’s intellectual climate was free and tolerant: Michel Danino", The Times of India (9 February 2015)

The lost river : on the trail of the Sarasvatī

Danino, M. (2010). The lost river : on the trail of the Sarasvatī. Penguin Books India.

• I will, therefore, take a middle path and propose that the Shivalik landscape was such that only a portion of the Yamunā-Tons ran westward into the Markanda Valley, with the rest flowing southward through a smaller and higher opening than today’s ‘Yamuna tear’. The westward branch was the Sarasvatī (which would explain why the Markanda does not appear in the Rig Veda), while the southward was the Yamunā. When it touched the plains, the Yamunā divided once more, as Cunningham and R.D. Oldham proposed, and others after them: because its terraces occupied a higher level than today, part of the river flowed southwest, joining minor streams to form the Drishadvatī of old. In the plains, the Yamunā was thus a double river—which would conveniently explain the root meaning of the word yamunā: ‘twin’.