Lehal Library

* 1. The Sikh Homeland be Punjab has a geographical unity distinct from the neighbouring countries and the rest oflndia. It is shaped like a scalene triangle balanced on its sharpest angle. The shortest side is in the north and is composed of the massive Himalayas, which separate it from the Tibetan plateau. The western side is ,bounded by the river Indus from the point it enters the plains to another point 1650 miles downstream, where it meets the confluence of the Punjab's rivers at a place appropriately named panjnad, the five streams. Westwards of the Indus runs a chain of rugged mountains, the Hindu Kush and the Sulaiman, pierced by several passes Jike the Khyber and the Bolan which have served as inlets for the people of the countries which lie beyond, Afghanistan and Baluchistan. The eastern boundary of the Punjab's triangle is not clearly marked, but from a point near Kamal where the Jumna plunges south-eastwards a jagged line can be drawn up to Panjnad, which will demarcate the state from the rest of Hindustan and the Sindh desert. The Punjab, except for the salt range in its centre, is an extensive plain sloping gently down from the mountains in the north and the west towards the desert in the south. Across this monotonously flat land flow six large rivers: the Indus, Jbelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and the Sutlej. In the infra-fluvial tracts or doabs 1 between these rivers and in the western half T 1 The intra-fluvial tracts or mesopotamias arc known in the Punjab as doabs-two waters. Except for the doabs bclwecn lhc Indus and lheJhclum