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The
word "Punjab" is made up of two Persian words 'Panj'
and 'Aab', Panj means five and Aab means water. This
name was probably given to this land of five rivers
possibly in an era when this region came into close
contact with Persia. Prior to that period this
region was known by different names at different
times. Probably, when at the height of its glory it
was known as Sapta Sindhu, the land of the 'seven
rivers, namely Sindhu (Indus), Vitasta (Jhelum),
Asuhi (Chenab), Purushin (Ravi), Vipasa (Beas),
Satadru (Sutlej) and Saruri (Sarasvati).
Punjab lies at the cross-roads of the great
civilizations of the world. Historically, the area
west of Punjab was under the sphere of influence of
the Persians, the east was the heartland of the
Indian civilization, the south under the influence
of the Arabs and the north under the Turko-Mongolian
influence. Many great religious movements which
found world-wide appeal grew in the fertile plains
of Punjab. They include Budhism, Sikhism and many
schools of Sufi thought in Islam . This ethnic and
religous diversity is reflected in the cultural
mosaic of today's Punjab.
The historical area of Punjab was defined to
the east from the basin of the river Bias (including
Dehli) to the basin of River Indus in the west. To
the north it was bounded by the Himalayas of Kashmir
and to the south it stretched as far as the plains
of Cholistan and Rajasthan. Over different periods
of history Punjab has seen its boundaries expand and
shrink. The high time for Punjab was during the
reign of Mughal emperor Babur (and also during the
time of Ranjit Singh more recently) when Punjab
along with Babur's empire stretched from Dehli in
the east to Kabul and Ghazni to the West. But never
in the history, did the boundaries of Punjab shrink
so much as they did after the division of Punjab in
1947. Today, on the world map Punjab can be seen as
divided into the Indian state of Punjab and the
Pakistani province of Punjab.
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