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.
