Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/119

Rh PUNJAB 107 the five rivers being the great tributaries of the INDUS (q.v.), namely, the Jhelum, Chinab, Ravi, Bias, and Sutlej. 1 These are all rivers of large volume, but, on account of the great width of sandy channel in their passage through the plains, their changing courses, and shifting shoals, they are of very moderate value for steam navigation, though they all support a considerable boat -traffic. The Induj has a course of about 550 miles through the Punjab. The Jhelum enters the plains a little above the town of Jhelum. Thence it flows south-west about 200 miles to join the Chinab. The Chinab (called Chandrabhaga in the hills, being formed by the union of the Chandra and the Bhaga, both from the Bdva Lacha Hills) enters the Punjab about 15 miles north of Sialk6t. About 200 miles lower down it receives the Jhelum on the right, and about 60 miles farther the Ravi on the left. After a further course of about 120 miles it joins the Sut- lej. The Ravi, after reach- ing the plains, follows a very winding course to its junction with the Chinab. A deserted channel runs generally parallel to the present river through part of the district of Mont- gomery. The Bias enters the Punjab in the Gur- daspur district, and has a course in the plains of nearly 100 miles to its junction with the Sutlej near Hari-ki-Patan. The Sutlej flows nearly 500 miles through the plains before it unites with the Chinab, which is the junc- tion of the five tributaries. Thence the united rivers (sometimes called Panj-nad or " the five streams ") flow in one channel about 50 miles to the Indus. Whilst the general name Punjab is applied to the whole country of the five rivers, there are distinct names for each of the "doabs" (do, two ; db, water) or tracts between two 1 The name first given by the Aryans after their immigration was Saftta Sindhii, "[land of] seven rivers," these being the five rivers of the modern Punjab with the addition of the Indus on the one side and of the Saraswati on the other. In the Vedic poems they are severally addressed as Sindhu, the Indus (the river) ; Vitasta, the Jhelum ; Asikni, Chiuab ; Airavati and Marudwidha, Ravi ; Vipdsa, Bias ; Sutudri, Sutlej ; and Saraswati, Sarsuti. It may be remarked that Sindhii itself means "river," and Saraswati, "having running water," and that each is applied as an epithet to other great rivers. The Saraswati, alone of the seven, is not now great. It is represented by a channel or channels, occupying the position assigned to the ancient much-praised stream, but now nearly dry for a great part of the year ; for, unlike the others, it comes only from the lower hills, not from perpetual snows. The large body of water which it carries for a time in the rainy season never reaches the Indus, towards which it directs its course, but is lost in the desert lands of northern Rajputana and Bahawalpur. In writings of the 6th or 7th century B. c. the Saraswati is said to disappear and pass underground to join the Ganges and Jumna at Prag (Allahabad), which triple confluence received therefore the name Tribeni. The Saraswati dropped out of the enumeration of the rivers of the early Aryan settlement ; and, when in later days the Indus, which receives all the others, ceased to be reckoned along with them, the country took its name PancJianada, and afterwards, in Persian form, Panjab. adjoining rivers. The country between the Sutlej and the Bias is called the Jalandar Doab ; it includes the districts Jalandar and Hushiarpur. The long strip between the Bias-Sutlej and the Ravi, containing the greater part of the Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Lahore, Montgomery, and Multan districts, is called the Barf Doab. And Rechna Doab is the tract between the Ravi and the Chinab, embracing the Sialk6t and Gujranwala districts with the trans-Ravi portions of the districts of the Bar! Doab. Chaj or Jach is the doab between the Chinab and the Jhelum (Gujrat and Shahpur districts and part of Jhang), and Sind Sagar (Indus Sea) is the name of the large doab between the Map of Punjab. Jhelum and the Indus, including the Rawal Pindi, Jhelum, and MuzafFargarh districts, with parts of Shahpur, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan. The higher and drier parts of the doabs are called " bar." They are waste but not barren, scantily covered with low shrubs, capable, when watered, of being well cultivated. The bar is the great camel- grazing land. Large areas of the Muzaffargarh and Multan districts are "thai," barren tracts of shifting sand. The middle part of the Barf Doab, in the Amritsar district, bears the distinctive name of Manjha (middle) as the centre and headquarters of the Sikh nation, containing their two sacred tanks of Amritsar and Taran Taran, and a dense and fine population of Jats, Rajputs, and Gujars. The Malwa Sikhs, again, are those of the cis-Sutlej country. Besides the great rivers, the distinguishing feature of Mim the Punjab, there are some others deserving of notice, river The Cabul river joins the Indus above Attock after receiving, about 12 miles north-east of Peshawar, the Swat river, which enters British territory at Abazai. The Kunhar, from the Kashmir hills, flows down the Kaghan valley (the upper part of the Hazara district) and joins the Jhelum at Muzaffarabcad. The Siran and the D6r in Hazara unite and near Torbela run into the Indus, which