Arghandab River

Historical background

The river was known to the ancient Persians as the Haraxvaiti in Avestan and Harahuvati in Old Persian, which are cognate with Rigvedic Sarasvati (as described in its "family books"). Scholars such as Boyce and Parpola have identified Greek Arachosia as a Hellenization of the name, meaning the land of the Haraxvaiti. Rigveda's hymn VI.61.2 describes it with the words:

By means of her gushing and powerful waves, this (Sarasvatī) has crushed the ridge of the mountains, (breaking river banks) like a man who digs for lotus roots; with praises and prayers, we solicit Sarasvatī for her help, (Sarasvatī) who slays the foreigners.

Historian Asko Parpola states: "Arghandab [...] descends from a height of nearly four kilometers down to about 700 meters when it joins the Helmand River, which eventually forms shallow lakes." Sarasvatī- is interpreted to mean "full of lakes".

Some historians, however, assert that the Avestan Haraxvaiti as well as the Rigvedic Sarasvati refer to the Helmand River. The Rigvedic name of Arghandab is then believed to be Drishadvati.

The ruins at Ulan Robat, supposed to represent the city of Arachosia, are in its basin; and the lake known as Ab-i Istada, the most probable representative of Lake Arachotus, is near the head of the Tarnak, though not communicating with it. The Tarnak is dammed for irrigation at intervals, and almost dries up in the summer.