An archaeological excavation launched in India’s Rajasthan state in early 2024 has uncovered the long-dried bed of an ancient river that may be the mythical Saraswati River featured prominently in Hindu scripture, along with evidence of no less than five different civilizations that thrived over an era spanning 2,500 years. This potential verification of the ancient Vedas—dismissed by many scholars as fictional—stands to revolutionize our understanding of the development of Indian civilization, bringing what was once thought to be myth into reality.

Featured as a prominent location in Hinduism’s Rigveda holy texts, the Saraswati River was described as a “great and holy river in north-western India” that mirrors the celestial band of the Milky Way, considered “a road to immortality and heavenly after-life,” according to mythologist Michael Witzel. In the Vedas, the Hindu goddess Saraswati is considered to be the embodiment of her namesake river, mirroring its water’s power of purification and fertility.

But even in Vedic times, the flow of the Saraswati waned, and eventually came to a halt millennia ago.

“During the Mahabharat period, which is believed to have occurred around 5,000 years ago, Saraswati’s water flow had decreased drastically, nearly to the point of extinction, a fact mentioned in scriptures, including the Rigveda,” according to Dhuman Singh Kirmach, Deputy Chairman of the Haryana Saraswati Heritage Development Board (HSHDB).

Since its physical location has long since been forgotten, the existence of the Saraswati as a historical waterway has become a source of debate amongst modern scholars, contributing to “one of the most enduring enigmas of ancient Indian history,” according to columnist Hartosh Singh Bal, commenting in a 2012 article about then-recent study on the Bronze Age Harappan civilization.

But a recent excavation at a site near the village of Bajaj in Rajasthan state by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) uncovered evidence of a vast settlement similar in stature to the ones discussed in the Vedas. Dating back to 4,500 BCE, the site yielded geometrically-painted pottery, iron and copper tools, coins and seals with what may be the oldest known examples of Brahmi script.

Occupied continuously for at least 2,500 years, amongst the extensive brick buildings were religious structures, such as fire altars called yagna kunds, where “statues of Shiva-Parvatihave been found which point towards worship methods from Vedas and scriptures,” according to archaeological researcher Pawan Saraswat, underscoring the importance of religion in the cultures that lived there. The recovered evidence also suggests that at least five civilizations had flourished over that two-and-a-half millennia span.

“Looking at the items discovered in the excavation, it can be estimated that life during that period was quite prosperous,” Saraswat continued.

But perhaps the most significant discovery was the presence of an ancient riverbed buried 23 meters (75 feet) below the surface, along with a network of now-parched channels that resemble the waterways described in scripture. Along with the presence of a once-thriving civilization, this revelation suggests that the mythical Saraswati River may have, in fact, been real.