Tracing the Soul of Indus Valley

Sindhu

Sindhu is the original name of mighty Mother Indus River. The word became Hindu during the age of Greeko-Persian era and finally it becomes Indus by Europeans.

According to the mythological or esoteric history, this mighty river basin is the first cradle of Post-flood human civilization built by the migrants from the greatest of all, the pre-flood civilization known as Atlantis by initiates like Plato and William Scott-Elliot. Ancients truly believed that the ones who survived the great flood, embarked at Tibetan plateau and travelled downstream along Indus river, settling in her fertile plains in Northwestern India, laying the basis of the first human civilization from scratch.

The Lion River

Ancient Zoroastrian Magis called this river the Lion river and the Indus basin “Mehr‘an“. Mehr is Persian version of God Mithra the Sun God. Sun is depicted as Lion in all esoteric mysteries.

The reason possibly is the that ancients considered Sun as a holy unity of seven spirits and this land is mentioned as Sapta Sindhu extensively in the Rigveda. The word means “Land of Seven Rivers,” refers to the Indus river system that comprises of Indus and its six tributary rivers Sarasvati, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej. It includes rivers. This region was the cradle of early Vedic civilization, where Indo-Aryan tribes settled, composed hymns, and performed rituals. The rivers were revered as sacred, sustaining both spiritual and agricultural life. Sapta Sindhu symbolized not only geographical identity but also the cultural and religious heartland of the Vedic people, often contrasted with non-Vedic lands in early texts.

A thousand years of Cultural Sedimentation

Pre-modern world knew all this about the Indus river, the civilization and the Riches hidden within. This attracted the mystics, explorers, scholars and worst of all, invaders and colonials.

The geography of Indus Basin also served as a natural corridor for for those explorers and invading forces to Indian subcontinent, its strategic location made it a perpetual frontier, absorbing wave after wave of external influence.

The first significant Muslim presence arrived with the Arab expeditions under the Umayyad Caliphate in the 8th century. This was followed by the Turkic incursions, most notably under Mahmud of Ghazni, and later by the Mughals, who established an enduring imperial order in the subcontinent, fusing Central Asian, Persian, and South Asian traditions into a complex cultural synthesis.

The British Empire, the final major colonial power, profoundly reshaped the region’s institutions, introducing industrial infrastructure and modern statecraft while also entrenching religious and ethnic divides through its policies of classification and governance.

In 1947, as colonial rule ended, most of the Indus Basin became part of the newly-formed state of Pakistan envisioned as a homeland for South Asia’s Muslims. This reflected a reassertion of Religious identity in a land shaped by millennia of pluralistic coexistence, layered with the sediment of successive empires and ideologies.

Sindhuvas

The Mohana water gypsies of Indus River who live entire of their lives on their boats floating up and downstream along the shores of Mother Indus, were called Sindhuvas by the native Hindu sages of the region. Sindhu’vas, in Sanskrit means dwelling/dweller in Indus river. The word Vas here holds multiple meanings, common meaning is someone who LIVES but in oriental philosophical realm it means “Someone living in total PRESENCE at a specific place and that he is the PRESENCE himself and its not static but dynamic like flow of Water” So the Sindhuvas never stays at a point for long, he allows the Great Tao to take him with her Flows.

knowing all this became a milestone in my life and i decided to be a Sindhuvas and travel entire Indus basin. My holy journey started in year 2012 and now i’ve decided to share the gems i received in this pilgrimage in form of visual stories, with all who value.

The Visual Tour

Photography

Sindhuvas is a lifelong photographer, visual Artist and historian and turned to be a nature conservationist and Ecological steward. I strive to tell the story of Indus through the visuals that i’ve seen and did my best to present to world in its most genuine form.