> Sorry about the drift off topic, but please what is the scientific
> paper reference to this new discovery about a real Sarasvati River?
This is mentioned in the literature more or less as a verity. I've
seen at least one (poorly detailed) map of its course.
The cause was tectonic uplift in the mountains feeding its
tributaries, which shifted the waters elsewhere (?the Ganges?). This
part of the world is experiencing rapid uplift, often faster than the
rivers can erode it down.
There is a similar case in Peru, where carved-in-the-mountainside
irrigation channels went dry because of uplift, wiping out the
agricultural culture in the valley below.
There is the case of a river in S. America which is tributary to BOTH
the Orinoco and the Amazon, at least at flood stage, and seems on the
way to being captured by the Amazon. Rivers do change course, even as
dramatically as this.
As for what the RV says of the Sarasvati, we have a genuine historical
memory fused with myth. This drying-up may have occurred before the
entry of the Indics, however.