The Punjab region is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in the northwest of South Asia, comprising the Punjab province in Pakistan and the Punjab state in India. It is believed that the earliest evidence of human habitation in Punjab traces to the Soan valley of the Pothohar, between the Indus and the Jhelum rivers, where the Soanian culture developed, from which remnants of stone tools have been found.
The Punjab region was the site of one of the earliest cradle of civilisations, the Bronze Age Harrapan civilisation that flourished between 2600 and 1900 BCE. Indo-Aryan tribes entered the region with the Indo-Aryan migrations during the 2nd millennium BCE. During the Vedic period (1500-500 BCE), the Rigveda was composed in Punjab, laying the foundation of Brahmanism. In the 6th century BC, Pushkarasarin, the monarch of Gandhara, assumed a role in halting the expansionary ambitions of the Achaemenid Empire until during the reign of Darius wherein tribute rendered by Gandhara to him is first documented. A century later, the Janapadas of Punjab encountered the expansive undertakings of Alexander. The Janapadas exhibited resistance to his advances, notably the Aśvaka of Gandhara, the Mallians of South Punjab, and Porus of Central Punjab. Following the demise of Alexander, Chandragupta Maurya, who had received his education in the city of Taxila, garnered support from republics such as Trigarta and Gandhara. He subsequently conquered the Nanda Empire, with Taxila being designated as the provincial capital of the Northwestern territories. After its decline, the Indo-Greeks, Indo-Sakas and Indo-Parthians successively established reigns in Punjab however other states maintained autonomy and other janapadas such as that of the Yaudheya and the Audumbaras in Eastern Punjab resisted their expansions. In the late 1st century AD the Kushan Empire annexed Punjab, and Gandhara's cultural zenith occurred during this period in which artwork from the region flourished.
The devastating Hunnic invasions of Punjab occurred in the 5th and 6th century, which were ultimately repelled by the Vardhana dynasty. Most of the western Punjab region became unified under the Taank and Odi Shahi Kingdoms in the early medieval period. Between the 8th and 12th century, the Tomara dynasty and Katoch dynasty controlled the eastern portions of Punjab. Islam became established in Punjab when the Umayyad Caliphate conquered southern portions of the region up to Multan, which became independent from the caliphate under the Emirate of Multan in 855. The Ghaznavids conquered region in 1025, after whom the Delhi Sultanate followed. The Langah Sultanate ruled much of the south Punjab in the 15th century.
The Mughal Empire, established in 1526 AD, has left an immense cultural and architectural legacy in Punjab. The city of Lahore became one of the largest in the world under Mughals. In the 16th century, Sikhism was founded by Guru Nanak in central Punjab which attracted many followers. After a long period of anarchy due to decline of Mughals in the 18th century, the Sikh Empire in 1799 unified most of the Punjab region. The region was conquered by the East India Company in 1849 after the Second Anglo-Sikh War and Punjab province was created in 1857. In 1947, Punjab was partitioned amidst wide-scale violence.
Etymology Though the name Punjab is of Persian origin, its two parts ( and ) are cognates of the Sanskrit words, and , of the same meaning. The word Pañjāb thus means 'The Land of Five Waters', referring to the rivers Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas."Punjab." Pp. 107 in Encyclopædia Britannica (9th ed.), vol. 20. All are tributaries of the Indus River, the Sutlej being the largest. References to a land of five rivers may be found in the Mahabharat, which calls one of the regions in Aryavarta Panchanada (). The ancient Greeks referred to the region as Pentapotamía (),Lassen, Christian. 1827. Commentatio Geographica atque Historica de Pentapotamia Indica [A Geographical and Historical Commentary on Indian Pentapotamia]. Weber. p. 4: "That part of India which today we call by the Persian name ''Penjab'' is named Panchanada in the sacred language of the Indians; either of which names may be rendered in Greek by Πενταποταμια. The Persian origin of the former name is not at all in doubt, although the words of which it is composed are both Indian and Persian.... But, in truth, that final word is never, to my knowledge, used by the Indians in proper names compounded in this way; on the other hand, there exist multiple Persian names which end with that word, e.g., Doab and Nilab. Therefore, it is probable that the name Penjab, which is today found in all geographical books, is of more recent origin and is to be attributed to the Muslim kings of India, among whom the Persian language was mostly in use. That the Indian name Panchanada is ancient and genuine is evident from the fact that it is already seen in the Ramayana and Mahabharata, the most ancient Indian poems, and that no other exists in addition to it among the Indians; for Panchála, which English translations of the Ramayana render with Penjab...is the name of another region, entirely distinct from Pentapotamia...." which has the same meaning as the Persian word.
Geographical extent
Today the Punjab region is usually considered to consist of the Punjab province in Pakistan and the Punjab state in India. The boundaries of the region are ill-defined and focus on historical accounts and thus the geographical definition of the term "Punjab" has changed over time. In the 16th century, the Mughal Empire referred it to a relatively smaller area between the Indus and the Sutlej rivers. During the British Raj, the Punjab Province was a large administrative region encompassing the present-day Indian states and union territories of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, and Delhi and the Pakistani regions of Punjab and Islamabad Capital Territory. It bordered Balochistan and North-West Frontier to the west, Jammu and Kashmir to the north, the Hindi Belt to the east, and Rajasthan and Sindh to the south.
Prehistory Paleolithic
Homo erectus lived on the Pothohar Plateau, in upper Punjab, Pakistan along the Soan River (nearby modern-day Rawalpindi) during the Pleistocene Epoch. Soanian sites are found in the Sivalik region across what are now India, Pakistan and Nepal.Parth R. Chauhan. Distribution of Acheulian sites in the Siwalik region . An Overview of the Siwalik Acheulian & Reconsidering Its Chronological Relationship with the Soanian – A Theoretical Perspective. The Soanian culture was a prehistoric technological culture from the Siwalik Hills. Quote: "Soanian and Soanian‐like assemblages are known throughout the entire Siwalik or Sub‐ Himalayan region, from Pakistan to northeast India including Nepal..." It is named after the Soan Valley in Punjab, Pakistan. The Soanian culture has been approximated to have taken place during the Middle Pleistocene period or the mid-Holocene epoch (Northgrippian). Soanian artifacts were manufactured on quartzite pebbles, cobbles, and occasionally on boulders, all derived from various fluvial sources on the Siwalik landscape. Soanian assemblages generally comprise varieties of choppers, discoids, scrapers, cores, and numerous flake type tools, all occurring in varying typo-technological frequencies at different sites.Paterson, T.T., Drummond, H.J.H., 1962. Soan the Palaeolithic of Pakistan.Department of Archaeology, Government of Pakistan Karachi.
Neolithic Relics and human skulls have been found dating back to 5000 BCE in the Pothohar Plateau in north of Punjab that indicate the region was home to Neolithic peoples who settled on the banks of the Swaan River, and who later developed small communities in the region around 3000 BCE.
Bronze Age (3300 BC – 1300 BC)
The Indus Valley Civilisation is also known as the Harappan civilisation, after its type site Harappa, the first to be excavated early in the 20th century in Punjab. The discovery of Harappa and soon afterwards Mohenjo-daro was the culmination of work that had begun after the founding of the Archaeological Survey of India in the British Raj in 1861.
The civilisation flourished both in the alluvial plain of the Indus River, which flows through the length of Pakistan, and along a system of perennial monsoon-fed rivers that once coursed in the vicinity of the Ghaggar-Hakra, a seasonal river in northwest India and eastern Pakistan.The cities of the ancient Indus were noted for their urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, clusters of large non-residential buildings, and techniques of handicraft and metallurgy. Mohenjo-daro and Harappa very likely grew to contain between 30,000 and 60,000 individuals, "Mohenjo-daro and Harappa may each have contained between 30,000 and 60,000 people (perhaps more in the former case). Water transport was crucial for the provisioning of these and other cities. That said, the vast majority of people lived in rural areas. At the height of the Indus valley civilization the subcontinent may have contained 4–6 million people." and the civilisation may have contained between one and five million individuals during its florescence. A gradual drying of the region during the 3rd millennium BCE may have been the initial stimulus for its urbanisation. Eventually it also reduced the water supply enough to cause the civilisation's demise and to disperse its population to the east.
Iron Age (c. 1300 BC – 518 BC)
Vedic Era In ancient times the region was known as Vahika as is attested by authors such as Pāṇini and Patanjali in the 6th century CE, in which they describe the region as a territory of Sanghas which denotes a republic form of government. Pāṇini further describes the ruling class of the Vahika republics with some dominated by Brahmins and others of 'Rajanyas' otherwise known as Kshatriyas. The Udichya region was another region mentioned in ancient texts and is noted by Pāṇini as comprising both the regions of Vahika and Gandhara. According to Rigvedic tradition, Yayati was the progenitor of the prominent Udichya tribes and had numerous sons, including Anu, Puru, and Druhyu. The lineage of Anu gave rise to the Madra, Kekaya, Sivi and Uśīnara kingdoms of central Punjab, while the Druhyu tribe has been associated with the Gandhara kingdom based in modern day KPK and the Pothohar Plateau of Punjab.
Some of the early Janas of the Rig Veda can be strongly attributed to Punjab. Rig Vedic Janas such as the Druhyus, Anus, Purus, Yadus, Turvasas, Bharatas, and others were associated in Punjab and the Indo-Gangetic plain. Other Rig Vedic Janapadas such as the Pakhtas, Bhalanasas, Visanins, and Sivas were associated with areas in the north and west of Punjab.
Battle of the Ten Kings