Abstract
To understand palaeo-climatic conditions and also tectonic activities of the past, it is necessary to identify the probable ancient tracks of a river. Among many approaches, at the primary level, the written evidences like old literatures may be used as basic tools for palaeochannel identification and mapping. India being rich in religious texts and literatures, offers a vast scope for the study of historical geography as well as palaeo-geography. Keeping in view the above concept, we have tried to identify and mapping the palaeochannels of Damodar fan delta of West Bengal with the help of medieval Mangal-kavya. In the poems of Ketakadasa Kshemananda’s Manasamangal-kavya of seventeenth century, Damodar River took an important place and it is the main cause of our selection of it for our present study. In Manasamangal-kavya, many settlements have been mentioned which helps to identify the locations of palaeochannels. Result shows that below Barddhaman (West Bengal), the Damodar River or its deltaic distributaries was flowing east to meet the Bhagirathi River during seventeenth century. We also get positive result when we tried to calibrate the information with other old maps.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Acharyya SK, Shah BA (2007) Arsenic-contaminated groundwater from parts of Damodar fan-delta and west of Bhagirathi River, West Bengal, India: influence of fluvial geomorphology and quaternary morphostratigraphy. Environ Geol 52:489–501. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-006-0482-z
Ali SM (1966) The geography of the puranas. People’s Publishing House, New Delhi
Bandyopadhyay S (1996) Location of the Adi Ganga palaeochannel, South 24 Parganas, West Bengal: a review. Geogr Rev India 58(2):93–109
Bates RL, Jackson JA (eds) (1980) Glossary of geology. American Geological Institute, Falls Church
Bhadra BK, Gupta AK, Sharma JR (2009) Saraswati Nadi in Haryana and its linkage with the Vedic Saraswati River – integrated study based on satellite images and ground based information. J Geol Soc India 73:273–288
Bhattacharya B (ed) (1987) Manasa Mangal of Ketakadasa Kshemananda. Sahitya Akademi (Bengali), New Delhi
Bhattacharyya A (1975) History of the Bengali Mangalkavyas, 6th edn. A Mukherji and Co. Pvt. Ltd., Calcutta
Bhattacharyya K (2011) The lower Damodar River, India: understanding the human role in changing fluvial environment. Springer, New York
Charlton R (2008) Fundamentals of fluvial geomorphology. Routledge Publication, New York, p 136
Dasgupta S, Pande P, Ganguly D, Iqbal Z, Sanyal K, Venkatraman NV, Sural B, Harendranath L, Mazumdar K, Sanyal S, Roy A, Das LK, Misra PS, Gupta H (2000) Seismotectonic atlas of India and its environs. In: Narula PL, Acharyya SK, Banerjee J (eds) Geological Survey of India, Special Publication No. 59, Sheet 24: Chotonagpur Gneissic Terrain, Rajmahal Basin and Bengal Basin
Deshmukh DS (1973) Geology and groundwater resources of the alluvial area of West Bengal. Bull Geol Surv India 34B:451
Deshmukh DS, Prasad KN, Niyogi BN, Biswas AB, Guha SK, Seth NN, Sinha BPC, Rao GN (1973) Geology and groundwater resources of alluvial areas of West Bengal. Bull Geol Surv India Ser B 34:1–451
Ghosh S, Mistri B (2012) Reconstructing the phases of channel shifting through identification of palaeochannels and historical accounts of extreme floods of Damodar River in West Bengal. Indian J Geomorphol 17(2):65–80. ISSN: 0973-2411
Goudie AS (ed) (2004) Encyclopedia of geomorphology, vol 2. Routledge Publication, New York, pp 743–744
Gupta RK (ed) (1970) Padma Puran or Mansa Mangal of Bijoy Gupta. Rajendra Library, Calcutta
Gupta AK, Sharma JR, Sreenivasan G (2011) Using satellite imagery to reveal the course of an extinct river below the Thar Desert in the Indo-Pak region. Int J Remote Sens 32(18):5197–5216. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2010.495093
Howard AD (1967) Drainage analysis in geologic interpretation: a summation. Am Assoc Petrol Geol Bull 51:2246–2259
Jarvis A, Reuter HI, Nelson A, Guevara E (2008) Hole-filled seamless SRTM data V4, International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)
Kale VS (2003) Geomorphic effects of monsoon floods on Indian rivers. Nat Hazards 28:65–84
Kalyanaraman S (1997) Sarasvati River (circa 3000–1500 B.C.). Sarasvati Sindhu Research Centre, 19 Temple Avenue, Chennai 600015. Available in http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/sarasvati/sartxt.PDF
Knighton D (1984) Fluvial forms and processes. Edward Arnold (Publisher) Ltd. London. ISBN 0-7131-6405-0
Krishnan MS (1968) Geology of India and Burma, 5th edn. Higginbothems Publication
Kumar V (2011) Palaeo-Channel. Encyclopedia of Snow, Ice and Glacier. In: Singh VP, Singh P & Haritashya UK (eds) Springer, Dordrecht: The Netherlands, p. 803, ISBN: 978-90-481-2641-5
Majumder A (2013) Ground water budgeting and its management in Pundua block of Hugli district, West Bengal, unpublished Ph.D. thesis. Department of Geography, The University of Burdwan
Mallick S, Niyogi D (1972) Application of geomorphology in groundwater prospecting in the alluvial plains around Burdwan, West Bengal. Indian Geohydrol 8:86–98
Mukherjee A (2001) Rigvedic Sarasvati: myth and reality. Breakthrough 9, No. 1
Murthy SRN (1980) The Vedic River Saraswati, a myth or fact – a geological approach. Indian J Hist Sci 15(2):189–192
Nandini CV, Sanjeevi S, Bhaskar AS (2013) An integrated approach to map certain palaeochannels of South India using remote sensing, geophysics, and sedimentological techniques. Int J Remote Sens 34(19):6507–6528
Niyogi D (1975) Quaternary geology of the coastal plain in West Bengal. Indian J Earth Sci 2:51–61
Oldham RD (1886) On probable changes in the geography of the Punjab and its rivers. Asiatic Soc Bengal. 55:322–343
Pal T, Mukherjee PK (2010) Search for groundwater arsenic in Pleistocene sequence of the Damodar River flood plain, West Bengal. Indian J Geosci 64(1–4):109–112
Pramanik SK, Rao KN (1952) Hydrometeorology of the Damodar catchment, Ind Met Dep Mem. 29(4):429–431
Ramasamy SM (2005) Remote sensing of river migration in Tamilnadu. In: Ramasamy SM (ed) Remote sensing in geomorphology. Published by New India Publishing Agency, New Delhi. ISBN 81-89422-05-7
Roy BC, Banerjee K (1990) Quaternary geological and geomorphological mapping in parts of Bardhaman and Bankura districts and preliminary assessment of sand deposits suitable for construction and other allied purposes. Progress report for the field season 1988–89. Geological survey of India
Shukla RK (2013) Ramayana: a study in ancient Indian geography. An unpublished Ph.D. thesis submitted to Bundelkhand University, Jhansi, India
Singh LP, Parkash B, Singhvi AK (1998) Evolution of the lower Gangetic plain landforms and soils in West Bengal, India. Catena 33:75–104
Singhvi AK, Kar A (1992) Thar Desert in Rajasthan. Geological Society of India, Bangalore, p 191
Sinha R, Yadav GS, Gupta S, Singh A, Lahiri SK (2012) Geo-electric resistivity evidence for subsurface palaeochannel systems adjacent to Harappan sites in northwest India; Quaternary International, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2012.08.002
Tamaskar BG (1989) Geographical knowledge in Upanisads. Indus Publishing Company, New Delhi. ISBN 81-85182-29-9
Tripathi JK, Bock B, Rajamani V, Eisenhauer A (2004) Is River Ghaggar, Saraswati? Geochemical constraints. Curr Sci 87(8):1141–1145
Valdiya KS (1996) River piracy: Saraswati that disappeared. Resonance 19–28
Valdiya KS (2013) The River Saraswati was a Himalayan-born river. Curr Sci 104(1):42–54
Valdiya KS (2017) Prehistoric River Saraswati, Western India: geological appraisal and social aspects, Society of Earth Scientists series. Springer International Publishing AG, Switzerland. ISBN 978-3-319-44223-5, ISBN 978-3-319-44224-2 (eBook)
Willcocks W (2001) Ancient system of irrigation in Bengal in ‘Rivers of Bengal’, vol 1
Yashpal, Sahai B, Sood RK, Agrawal DP (1980) Remote sensing of the ‘lost’ Saraswati’ River. Proc Indian Acad Sci (Earth Planet Sci) 89:317–331
Acknowledgements
The authors are sincerely grateful to Central library and Department of Geography of The University of Burdwan, for providing the necessary supports to do this work. Thanks are accorded to Dr. Arijit Majumder and Sujay Bandyopadhyay for their continuous assistance and suggestion.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ghosh, P.K., Jana, N.C. (2019). Historical Evidences in the Identification of Palaeochannels of Damodar River in Western Ganga-Brahmaputra Delta. In: Das, B., Ghosh, S., Islam, A. (eds) Quaternary Geomorphology in India. Geography of the Physical Environment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90427-6_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90427-6_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-90426-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-90427-6
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)