Definition: The word "Punjab" means "5 rivers". The Punjab is a region of India and Pakistan that lies around tributaries of the Indus River: the Beas, Ravi, Sutlej, Chenab, and Jhelum (Greek, Hydaspes) rivers or streams. The Punjab runs west to east, from the Indus to Yamuna, and north to south, from the mountains to the panjnad.
The Harappan civilization was in what is now the Punjab. In 326 Alexander the Great invaded the Punjab and fought King Porus of Paurava. In 322, after Alexander the Great left, the founder of the Mauryan Dynasty took over the Punjab.
Source: George Michaels, Gregory L. Possehl, Charles Higham, Song Nai Rhee, Carla M. Sinopoli "Asia" The Oxford Companion to Archaeology. Brian M. Fagan, ed., Oxford University Press 1996.
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The people who composed the hymns of the Rigveda were familiar with the Punjab, but they called it the land of the 7 rivers.
