Oghavatī

The realm along Ikṣvākus on the land of Kurukṣetra

Lineage names impact on geography and river names

Kaśyapa’s son Vivasvān’s lineage Nriga, brother of Ikshvaku, bears Oghavana whose daughter/son is Oghavatī.

Stories, stories and stories…

After a long lost time, during Mahabharata, Oghavatī as one of tributaries of the river Saraswatī is being invoked in the land of Kurukṣetra. Bhiṣm fell on the arrows on the banks of Oghavatī. Apparently the earlier paleochanel of Saraswatī was filling in as a rainfed one and thus a story was needed to record this event.

It shows that even before the realm of Ikṣvākus, the land was inhabited by the Kaśyapa’s grandsons equally and the Paleochannels of Saraswatī bore names of remote past which were fortunately not renamed with new names during MBH times. Thanks to Vyāsadeva and Janamejaya.