History of Punjab

Meaning of Punjab

The Punjab, called Pentapotamia by the Greeks, derives its name from two Persian words, panj (five), an aab (water, having reference to the five rivers which confer on the country).



Location of Punjab

Punjab is a region that encompasses Northern India and the East side of Pakistan. Punjab is bounded on the north by the vast Himalyan ranges, which divide it from China, Tibet and Kashmir; on the east by the river Jamna, the North-Western Provinces and the Chinese Empire; on the south by Sind, the river Sutlej, which separates it from Bahawalpur, and Rajputana; and on the west by the Sulaiman range, which divides it from Biluchistan, and Afghanistan, which joins the Khaibar.



Five Rivers of Punjab

The most remarkable feature in the topography of the country is found in its rivers, the feeders of the great Indus, which, after traversing for hundreds of miles in the mountainous regions of the lofty Himalayas, descend into the plains, fertilizing the soil, and continue their course generally to the south, until, after their confluence with the Indus, the Nile of India, the amalgamated waters fall into the ocean. These rivers run between the Indus and the Jamna, and their names, in succession, eastward from the Indus, are the Jhelum, the Chin, the Ravi, the Bias and the Sutlej.

Punjab Has Six Rivers

It is to be observed that there are, in fact, six rivers instead of five; but, as the Indus was much dreaded by the religious classes, and was considered the sacred boundary of India to the far west, the ancients seem to have disregarded it in giving the country its present name. A delineation of these rivers is necessary, not only because they form the principal features in the topography of the Province, but because their importance, from a military as well as from a political and mercantile point of view, has been admitted from the remotest antiquity to the present day.