The "Chenab River" carries water from the "Five Rivers of the Punjab" to the Arabian Sea.

Punjab means five waters. Punj means five and Aab means water. That is the land of five waters. Generally, these five rivers are taken Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Chenab, and Jhelum. But Beas is also called the tributary of the Sutlej instead of the river and the five rivers of Punjab are taken Sutlej, Ravi, Chenab, Jhelum, and Sindh.

Chenab is located in the middle of Punjab. To the west of Chenab are Jhelum and Sindh and to the east are Ravi and Sutlej. The Jhelum and Sindh flow from the west into Chenab River, while from the east Ravi and Sutlej flows into the Chenab River, and after entering in Sindh Chenab River reaches the Arabian Sea.

The name Chenab is a combination of "Chen" and "Aab". In which Chen means moon and Aab means water. Chandrabhag is the old name of the river Chenab. The simplification of Chandrabhaga to "Chenab", with evident Persianate influence probably occurred in early medieval times and is witnessed in Alberuni.

In the Mahabharata, the common name of the river was Chandrabhaga because the river is formed from the confluence of the Chandra and the Bhaga rivers. This name was also known to the Ancient Greeks, who Hellenised it in various forms such as Sandrophagos, Sandabaga, and Cantabra.

The Chenab river was called Asikni in the Rigveda (VIII.20.25, X.75.5). The name meant that it was seen to have dark-colored waters. The term Krishana is also found in the Atharvaveda. In Vedic times (ancient India) it was known as Askikni or Iskamati and in ancient Greek as Acesines.

The river is formed by the confluence of two rivers, Chandra and Bhaga, at Tandi, 8 km southwest of Keylong, in the Lahaul and Spiti district in the Himachal Pradesh province of East Punjab and starts flowing in Punjab. It flows through the Jammu region and enters the plains of Punjab.

The Bhaga river originates from Surya taal lake, which is situated a few kilometers west of the Bara-lacha la pass in Himachal Pradesh and the Chandra river originates from glaciers east of the same pass (near Chandra Taal). This pass also acts as a water-divide between these two rivers.

The Chandra river transverses 115 km before the confluence. The Bhaga river transverses through narrow gorges a distance of 60 km before the confluence at Tandi. One of the most important tributaries of river Chenab is Kalanag which meets Chenab at Thatri, a tehsil of Kistawar district, Jammu, and Kashmir.

In the Jhang district of Punjab, the water of the Jhelum river flow from the west, and at Ahmadpur Sial water of the Ravi, the river flows from the east to enter the river Chenab at the site of Trimmu Barrage. When the Chenab reaches 16 km north of Uch Sharif in Bahawalpur District, the Sutlej river joins the Chenab from the east.

Due to the presence of Beas water in the Sutlej river, Chenab receives the water of two rivers in it and due to the already presence of water of two rivers Jhelum and Ravi in "Chenab", the location of water of "Panjnad" i.e. five rivers come into existence.

The Chenab, which carries the water of five rivers from Panjnad, flows 71 km to the south-west and reaches one km east of Mithankot in the Rajanpur district. The water of the Sindh river joins the Chenab and the Chenab enters the province of Sindh and reaches the Arabian Sea by collecting water from the five rivers of Punjab, Jhelum, Ravi, Beas, Sutlej, and Sindh.