Chapter PUNJAUB to PUNKAH of P by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

PUNJAUB to PUNKAH

PUNJAUB, n. p. The name of the country between the Indus and the Sutlej. The modern Anglo-Indian province so-called, now extends on one side up beyond the Indus, including Peshawar, the Derajat, &c., and on the other side up to the Jumna, including Delhi. [In 1901 the Frontier Districts were placed under separate administration.] The name is Pers. Panj-ab, ‘Five Rivers.’ These rivers, as reckoned, sometimes include the Indus, in which case the five are (1) Indus, (2) Jelam (see JELUM) or Behat, the ancient Vitasta which the Greeks made ‘ [Greek Text] TdasphV (Strabo) and [Greek Text] BidasphV (Ptol.), (3) Chenab, ancient Chandrabagha and Asikni. Ptolemy preserves a corruption of the former Sanskrit name in [Greek Text] Sandabal, but it was rejected by the older Greeks because it was of ill omen, i.e. probably because Grecized it would be [Greek Text] XandrofagoV, ‘the devourer of Alexander.’ The alternative Asikni they rendered [Greek Text] AkesinhV. (4) Ravi, the ancient Airvati, ‘ [Greek Text] TarwthV (Strabo), [Greek Text] TdrawthV (Arrian), [Greek Text] AdriV or ‘ [Greek Text] RouadiV (Ptol.). (5) Bias, ancient Vipasa, [Greek Text] TfasiV (Arrian), [Greek Text] BibasioV (Ptol.). This excluded the Sutlej, Satadru, Hesydrus of Pliny, [Greek Text] ZaradroV or [Greek Text] ZadadrhV (Ptol.), as Timur excludes it below. We may take in the Sutlej and exclude the Indus, but we can hardly exclude the Chenab as Wassaf does below.

No corresponding term is used by the Greek geographers. “Putandum est nomen Panchanadae Graecos aut omnino latuisse, aut casu quodam non ad nostra usque tempora pervenisse, quod in tanta monumentorum ruina facile accidere potuit” (Lassen, Pentapotamia, 3). Lassen however has termed the country Pentepotamia in a learned Latin dissertation on its ancient geography. Though the actual word Panjab is Persian, and dates from Mahommedan times, the corresponding Skt. Panchanada is ancient and genuine, occurring in the Mahabharata and Ramayana. The name Panj-ab in older Mahommedan writers is applied to the Indus river, after receiving the rivers of the country which we call Punjaub. In that sense Panj-and, of equivalent meaning, is still occasionally used. [In S. India the term is sometimes applied to the country watered by the Tumbhadra, Wardha, Malprabha, Gatprabha and Kistna (Wilks, Hist. Sketches, Madras reprint, i. 405).]

We remember in the newspapers, after the second Sikh war, the report of a speech by a clergyman in England, who spoke of the deposition of “the bloody Punjaub of Lahore.”

B.C.g.—“Having explored the land of the Pahlavi and the country adjoining, there had then to be searched Panchanada in every part; the monkeys then explore the region of Kashmir with its woods of acacias.”—Ramayana, Bk. iv. ch. 43.

c. 940.—Mas’udi details (with no correctness) the five rivers that form the Mihran or Indus. He proceeds: “When the Five Rivers whi ch we have named have past the House of Gold which is Multan, they unite at a place three days distant from that city, between it and Mansura at a place called Doshab.”—i. 377–8.

c. 1020.—“They all (Sind, Jh ailam, Irawa, Biah) combine with the Satlader (Sutlej) below Múltán, at a place called Panjnad, or ‘the junction of the five rivers.’ They form a very wide stream.”—Al-Biruni, in Elliot, i. 48.

c. 1300.—“After crossing the Panj-ab, or five rivers, namely Sind, Jelam, the river of Loháwar (i.e. of Lahore, viz. the Ravi), Satlút, and Biyah….”—Wassaf, in Elliot, iii. 36.

c. 1333.—“By the grace of God our caravan arrived safe and sound at Banj-ab, i.e. at the River of the Sind. Banj (panj) signifies ‘five,’ and ab, ‘water;’ so that the name signifies ‘the Five Waters.’ They flow into this great river, and water the country.”—Ibn Batuta, iii. 91.

c. 1400.—“All these (united) rivers (Jelam, Chenáb, Rávi, Bíyáh, Sind) are called the Sind or Panj-áb, and this river falls into the Persian Gulf near Thatta.”—The Emp. Timer, in Elliot, iii. 476.

[c. 1630.—“He also takes a Survey of Pang-ob…”—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1677, p. 63. He gives a list of the rivers in p. 70.]

1648.—“…Pang-ab, the chief city of which is Lahor, is an excellent and fruitful province, for it is watered by the five rivers of which we have formerly spoken.”—Van Twist, 3.

“ “The River of the ancient Indus, is by the Persians and Magols called Pang-ab, i.e. the Five Waters.”—Ibid. i.

1710.—“He found this ancient and famous city (Lahore) in the Province Panschaap, by the side of the broad and fish-abounding river Rari (for Ravi).”—Valentijn, iv. (Suratte), 282.

1790.—“Investigations of the religious ceremonies and customs of the Hindoos, written in the Carnatic, and in the Punjab, would in many cases widely differ.”—Forster, Preface to Journey.

1793.—“The Province, of which Lahore is the capital, is oftener named Panjab than Lahore.”—Rennell’s Memoir, 3rd ed. 82.

1804.—“I rather think…that he (Holkar) will go off to the Punjaub. And what gives me stronger reason to think so is, that on the seal of his letter to me he calls himself ‘the Slave of Shah Mahmoud, the King of Kings.’ Shah Mahmoud is the brother of Zemaun Shah. He seized the musnud and government of Caubul, after having defeated Zemaun Shah two or three years