The land of the five rivers, and everyone who has loved it.

The land comes first

Five rivers made a people. Every story on this site is set on the map: where the first cities stood, where a Guru was born or a Sufi buried, where a battle was fought, where a village stood before 1947. Geography is not a backdrop; it is the first character.

One Punjab, many faiths

Sheikh Farid's verses stand in the Guru Granth Sahib; Mian Mir is remembered at the Harmandir Sahib; Bulleh Shah praised the Gurus and mocked the clerics of every creed; Waris Shah wrote the Punjab's epic and Amrita Pritam called on him to mourn its division. The Punjab's genius is a culture its peoples made together, and the line of 1947 cut through the middle of it.

The people's memory is history

The vaars of the dhadis, the qisse sung at fairs, the Ardas, and the stories families carried across the border in 1947 are evidence, not folklore. Where official figures and the figures kept by those who suffered differ, both are shown, and whose figure each is is said plainly.

Every name is a door

Each Guru, saint, poet, battle, place and object has its own page, and the names in the text link to them. The atlas should reward wandering.

Tap or hover a word with a dotted underline to see what it means. Every word, A to Z:

Achaemenid

The first Persian empire (550-330 BCE), which ruled Gandhara and the Indus from about 518 BCE. →

Ad-Dharm

The movement of 1926 that declared the Dalits of the Punjab the original people of the land with their own faith. →

Ahluwalia

A misl led by Jassa Singh Ahluwalia; its chiefs later ruled Kapurthala. →

Ahmadiyya

A Muslim movement founded at Qadian in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad; declared non-Muslim by Pakistan in 1974. →

Akal Sena

The first standing Sikh force, raised by Guru Hargobind after 1606.

Akali

'Followers of the Timeless': the 1920s movement that freed gurdwaras from hereditary managers, and the political party (Akali Dal) that grew from it. →

Akali Dal

The main Sikh political party, founded in 1920. →

akhara

A wrestling pit and the school around it.

amrit

Sweetened holy water used in the Khalsa initiation; 'taking amrit' means joining the Khalsa.

Anandpur Sahib Resolution

The Akali Dal's 1973 charter asking for more powers for the states and for Punjab. →

Anglo-Sikh War

The two wars (1845-46 and 1848-49) in which the British East India Company defeated the Sikh Empire. →

Arain

A farming and market-gardening community, mostly Muslim, now mainly in Pakistani Punjab. →

Ardas

The standing prayer said at the end of Sikh services, remembering the Gurus and martyrs.

Arora

A trading caste of west and south-west Punjab. →

Arya Samaj

Hindu reform movement (1875) that was strongest in Punjab and founded the DAV schools. →

Asikni

The Rigveda's name for the Chenab.

Babbar Akali

Armed Akalis of Doaba who fought British officials and informers in 1922-24. →

Bactria

The land of the upper Oxus river, in today's northern Afghanistan, home of the Greek kings who later ruled the Punjab. →

baoli

A stepwell: a deep well reached by a long flight of steps.

Bar

The dry uplands between rivers in west Punjab, grazing land for herders until British canals turned them to farms.

Beas

The river between Majha and Doaba; the only one of the five lying wholly in India. Alexander's army turned back here. →

bhagat

A devotee-saint; 15 bhagats, including Kabir, Ravidas and Farid, have hymns in the Sikh scripture.

Bhakti

Loving devotion to God, a movement of poet-saints across medieval India, many of them from 'low' castes. →

Bhangi

The most powerful misl in the 1760s-90s, holding Lahore and Amritsar until Ranjit Singh took them. →

bir

A handwritten volume of the Sikh scripture.

biradari

Clan or brotherhood: the kin group that decides marriages, votes and feuds. →

biswedar

A landlord in the princely states who took a share of the tenant's crop.

boli

A short sung couplet, traded back and forth in giddha. →

Brahmi

The ancient left-to-right script that is the ancestor of Gurmukhi and almost every Indian script. →

Brahmin

The priestly caste of Hindu society. →

Braj

A literary form of Hindi from around Mathura, used by many poets of the Guru's courts.

canal colony

New farming districts the British created in the 1880s-1920s by irrigating the dry Bar; Lyallpur (Faisalabad) is the best known.

cantonment

A permanent British army town beside a city.

carnelian

A red-orange semi-precious stone; Harappan carnelian beads were traded as far as Iraq.

charkha

The spinning wheel.

Chenab

The second of the five rivers, from the Himachal hills past Sialkot and Jhang; the river of Sohni's drowning. →

Chishti

The Sufi order of Baba Farid, Nizamuddin and Ajmer, which spread through music and poetry.

Cholistan

The desert of southern Punjab in Pakistan, where the lost Hakra river once ran.

Congress

The main party of India's independence movement.

Dal Khalsa

The combined Sikh army of the misls in the 18th century. →

Dalit

'Broken' or 'oppressed': the communities once treated as untouchable, about a third of Indian Punjab. →

Damdami Taksal

A Sikh seminary of scripture learning, led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale from 1977. →

dargah

The shrine built over a Sufi saint's grave.

Dasam Granth

A second Sikh scripture, a collection of writings attributed to Guru Gobind Singh.

Delhi Sultanate

The Muslim kingdoms that ruled north India from Delhi, 1206-1526 (Slave, Khalji, Tughlaq, Sayyid and Lodi dynasties). →

dera

A spiritual centre led by a living teacher; Punjab has hundreds, followed by people of every faith.

dhadi

Ballad singers who sing heroic history to the dhadd drum and sarangi. →

Dharam Yudh Morcha

The Akali protest campaign of 1982-84 for river waters and more rights for Punjab, which ended in Operation Blue Star. →

doab

The strip of land between two rivers. Punjab's doabs are named from the two rivers, e.g. Bari Doab between the Beas and Ravi. →

Doaba

The land between the Beas and Sutlej, around Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur. Known for emigration abroad. →

Dogra

The people of the Jammu hills; the Dogra brothers Gulab Singh and Dhian Singh rose high at Ranjit Singh's court.

Durrani

The Afghan empire founded by Ahmad Shah Abdali (Durrani) in 1747; it invaded the Punjab nine times. →

East India Company

The British trading company that conquered India with its own army, ruling it until 1858. →

Fauj-i-Khas

The elite European-trained brigade of Ranjit Singh's army, led by the French general Ventura and Allard.

faujdar

A Mughal district military officer.

Five Ks

The five articles worn by initiated Sikhs: kesh (uncut hair), kangha (comb), kara (steel bracelet), kachhera (undershorts) and kirpan (sword).

Gakhar

A warrior clan of the Pothohar hills who long held the land between the Jhelum and Indus.

Gandhara

The ancient kingdom of the Peshawar valley and Taxila, later famous for Buddhist art that blended Greek and Indian styles. →

Gandharan

From Gandhara: usually the Buddhist sculpture of the Peshawar valley and Taxila, 1st-5th century CE, Greek in style and Indian in subject. →

gatka

The Sikh martial art of sword and stick. →

Ghadar

'Revolt': the movement of Punjabi emigrants in North America who tried to overthrow British rule in 1915. →

Ghaggar

A seasonal river east of the Sutlej (called Hakra in Pakistan). Hundreds of Harappan towns lined its banks. →

Ghallughara

'Holocaust' or massacre: the Chhota (1746) and Vadda (1762) Ghallugharas killed thousands of Sikhs.

gharana

A school or family lineage of classical music, such as the Patiala gharana.

ghazal

A love poem of rhyming couplets, from Persian and Urdu.

Ghaznavid

The dynasty of Mahmud of Ghazni (in Afghanistan), which raided India and ruled Lahore from 1026 to 1186. →

Ghurid

Afghan dynasty of Muhammad of Ghor, who conquered Lahore (1186) and Delhi (1192). →

Grand Trunk Road

The ancient highway from Kabul through Peshawar, Lahore and Amritsar to Delhi and Bengal, rebuilt by Sher Shah Suri.

Granth

The Sikh scripture (Guru Granth Sahib); the Adi Granth is its first version, compiled by Guru Arjan in 1604. →

granthi

The reader and caretaker of the scripture in a gurdwara.

Green Revolution

The 1960s-70s jump in wheat and rice harvests from new seeds, fertiliser and tubewells, centred on Indian Punjab.

Gujjar

Herding and farming people found from Kashmir to Gujarat. →

Gupta

The north Indian empire of the 4th-6th centuries CE, whose rule reached into the eastern Punjab. →

Gurbani

The hymns of the Gurus and saints in the Sikh scripture.

gurdwara

'The Guru's door': a Sikh place of worship, open to all, with a free kitchen (langar).

gurmata

A resolution passed by the Sarbat Khalsa in the presence of the scripture.

Gurmukhi

The script Punjabi is written in in India, standardised by Guru Angad. →

Guru

'Teacher' or 'one who brings light'. In Sikhi, the ten Gurus from Guru Nanak to Guru Gobind Singh, and then the scripture itself. →

Harappan

The Bronze Age civilisation of the Indus and its rivers, c. 3300-1300 BCE, named after Harappa, the first city found. →

Harmandir Sahib

The Golden Temple at Amritsar, the central Sikh shrine. →

haveli

A large town house built around an inner courtyard.

Hindu Shahi

The kings who ruled from Kabul and later Waihind on the Indus, c. 850-1026, until Mahmud of Ghazni destroyed them. →

Hindu Shahis

Kings of Kabul and later Hund on the Indus, the last Hindu dynasty of the north-west, overthrown by Mahmud of Ghazni. →

hukamnama

A written order or letter from a Guru or the Akal Takht to the Sikhs.

Huns

Nomad warriors from Central Asia; the Alchon Huns under Toramana and Mihirakula ruled the Punjab from Sialkot around 500 CE. →

Hydaspes

The Greek name for the Jhelum, where Alexander fought Porus in 326 BCE. →

Indo-Greek

Greek kings who ruled the Punjab and Gandhara after Alexander, c. 180 BCE-10 CE; the best known is Menander of Sagala. →

Indo-Greeks

Greek kings from Bactria who ruled the western Punjab from about 180 BCE; Menander had his capital at Sialkot. →

Indus

The great river of the north-west, rising in Tibet and flowing through Pakistan to the Arabian Sea; all five Punjab rivers join it. →

jagir

A grant of land revenue given in return for service; the holder is a jagirdar.

janamsakhi

'Birth stories': popular biographies of Guru Nanak, many of them illustrated. →

Janjua

A Rajput clan of the Salt Range.

Jat

The largest farming community of the Punjab, found in all its faiths. →

jatha

A band of volunteers: of protesters, singers or fighters.

Jhelum

The westernmost of the five rivers, flowing from Kashmir past the towns of Jhelum and Khushab (ancient Vitasta, Greek Hydaspes). →

jogi

A wandering ascetic who practises yoga.

kafi

A short Sufi song-poem with a refrain, the form of Bulleh Shah and Shah Hussain. →

Kamboj

A farming community of the central and western Punjab. →

Kanhaiya

A misl based around Batala; Sada Kaur of the Kanhaiyas helped Ranjit Singh to power. →

karah parshad

The sweet offering of flour, ghee and sugar given out at a gurdwara. →

Kekaya

An ancient kingdom of west Punjab, between the Jhelum and Indus, named in the Ramayana.

Khalsa

The order of initiated Sikhs created by Guru Gobind Singh at Anandpur in 1699; also, the Sikh community as a body. →

kharif

The summer crop (rice, cotton, maize), sown with the monsoon.

Kharosthi

The ancient right-to-left script of Gandhara and Taxila, from about the 4th century BCE. →

Khatri

A trading and administrative caste; all ten Sikh Gurus were Khatris. →

Khyber

The mountain pass between Afghanistan and Peshawar, the main gate through which invaders entered India.

kirpan

The short sword worn by initiated Sikhs, one of the Five Ks.

kirtan

Singing hymns from the scripture, set to ragas. →

Kushan

Central Asian rulers of a great empire (1st-3rd century CE) from Peshawar; patrons of Gandharan Buddhist art. →

Lahnda

The western group of Punjabi dialects: Jhangvi, Shahpuri, Pothwari, Hindko and Saraiki. →

Land Alienation Act

The British law of 1900 that stopped farm land passing from farming castes to moneylenders. →

langar

The free kitchen of every gurdwara, where all eat together whatever their caste or faith. →

Lodi

Afghan family who were the last Delhi sultans (1451-1526); Daulat Khan Lodi governed the Punjab when Guru Nanak lived at Sultanpur. →

Madra

An ancient people and kingdom of central Punjab, with its capital at Sagala (Sialkot).

Mahajanapada

The sixteen 'great realms' of north India around 600-300 BCE. Gandhara was one. →

Maharaja

'Great king'.

Majha

The central heartland between the Beas and Ravi, around Amritsar and Lahore. Its people are Majhails. →

Malwa

The region south of the Sutlej: Ludhiana, Patiala, Bathinda. The largest of Indian Punjab's three regions. →

mandir

A Hindu temple.

manji

A preaching seat; Guru Amar Das set up 22 manjis to organise the Sikhs across the land.

Maratha

The Hindu power from western India that briefly held the Punjab in 1758 and lost to the Afghans at Panipat in 1761. →

masand

Agents who collected offerings for the Gurus; Guru Gobind Singh abolished them for corruption.

Maurya

The empire of Chandragupta and Ashoka (c. 321-185 BCE), the first to unite most of India including the Punjab. →

mela

A fair or festival gathering.

Meluhha

The name Mesopotamian texts used for the Indus lands, from which ships brought carnelian, ivory and timber. →

Mirasi

Hereditary musicians and genealogists of Punjabi families. →

miri piri

Guru Hargobind's idea of two swords: worldly power (miri) and spiritual authority (piri) held together.

misl

One of the twelve Sikh confederacies that ruled the Punjab in the late 18th century, each under its own chief. →

Mongols

Steppe nomads united by Genghis Khan in 1206, who raided and sometimes held the Punjab from 1221 to about 1300. →

morcha

A mass, usually non-violent, protest campaign.

Mughal

The dynasty founded by Babur in 1526 that ruled most of India from Delhi, Agra and Lahore until the 18th century. →

murshid

A Sufi teacher who guides a disciple (murid).

Muslim League

The party that demanded and won Pakistan.

muzara

A tenant farmer who works another's land; the muzara movement of the 1940s-50s fought for land of their own.

Namdhari

A Sikh reform sect founded by Baba Ram Singh in 1857, known for white dress and an early boycott of British goods. →

naqqashi

Painted floral decoration on walls, as in the Golden Temple.

Nath

Shaivite yogis with split ears and huge earrings; Guru Nanak debated them, and Tilla Jogian was their seat.

nawab

A Muslim governor or ruling prince, e.g. the Nawab of Malerkotla.

Nihang

Sikh warriors in blue, keeping the dress, weapons and customs of the 18th-century Khalsa.

Nirmala

An order of Sikh scholars trained in Sanskrit learning. →

One Unit

The 1955-70 merger of West Punjab and the other western provinces into one province of West Pakistan.

Operation Blue Star

The Indian Army's assault on the Golden Temple complex in June 1984. →

pagg

The Punjabi turban.

Pahari

'Of the hills'. Used for the hill states north of Punjab and their famous miniature painting.

pangat

Sitting in a row on the floor to eat langar, so that no one sits higher than anyone else.

Panj Aab

Persian for 'five waters', the origin of the name Punjab: the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej. →

Panj Pyare

The 'Five Beloved Ones' who offered their heads to Guru Gobind Singh in 1699 and were the first Khalsa.

Panth

'The path': the Sikh community as a whole. →

Parthians

Iranian rivals of Rome; a branch ruled Taxila in the 1st century CE under Gondophares. →

Partition

The division of British India in August 1947 into India and Pakistan, which cut the Punjab in two; up to a million died and over ten million fled. →

Parushni

The Rigveda's name for the Ravi.

Pashtuns

The Afghan people of the hills between the Indus and Kandahar; Sher Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali were Pashtuns. →

Pathan

The Pashto-speaking people of Afghanistan and the north-west frontier.

PEPSU

Patiala and East Punjab States Union (1948-56), formed from the former princely states.

Persian

The language of government and high culture across north India for 700 years, including at Ranjit Singh's court.

phulkari

'Flower work': Punjabi silk embroidery covering a shawl.

Phulkian

The ruling families of Patiala, Nabha and Jind, descended from Phul; they sided with the British from 1809. →

pind

Village.

pir

A Sufi master or saint.

pothi

A handwritten book, especially an early manuscript of Sikh hymns.

Pothohar

The rugged plateau between the Jhelum and Indus, around Rawalpindi. →

princely state

A kingdom left under its own ruler, under British control, such as Patiala, Kapurthala or Bahawalpur.

Punjabi Suba

The campaign for a Punjabi-speaking state, won in 1966 when Indian Punjab was split into Punjab, Haryana and Himachal. →

Qadiri

The Sufi order to which Bulleh Shah's master Shah Inayat belonged.

qawwali

Sufi devotional singing by a lead voice and chorus with harmonium and clapping. →

qissa

A long verse romance, like Heer Ranjha, sung or recited to village audiences. →

rabi

The winter crop (wheat, mustard), sown after the monsoon and cut at Vaisakhi.

Radcliffe Line

The border drawn through the Punjab in 1947 by Cyril Radcliffe, a lawyer who had never been to India. →

Radha Soami

A spiritual movement with a huge dera at Beas, followed across faiths. →

raga

A melodic framework of Indian music; the Sikh scripture is arranged by 31 ragas. →

Rahit

The Sikh code of conduct; a rahitnama is a written version of it.

Raj

British rule over India, 1858-1947 (the Punjab from 1849). →

Rajput

Warrior clans claiming royal descent, found in all faiths, strongest in the west and the hills. →

rakhi

'Protection': the 18th-century system in which misls guarded villages in return for a share of the harvest.

Ramgarhia

A misl led by Jassa Singh Ramgarhia, and the name taken by Sikh carpenter and craftsman families. →

Ravi

The middle river of the five, flowing past Lahore; today the border runs along part of it. →

Ravidassia

Followers of Guru Ravidas, strongest among Dalits of Doaba. →

Rigveda

The oldest Hindu scripture, hymns composed largely in the Punjab around 1500-1200 BCE.

Rowlatt Act

A 1919 law allowing arrest without trial; protests against it led to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. →

Sagala

The ancient name of Sialkot, capital of the Madras and later of the Indo-Greek king Menander. →

Sahibzade

The four sons of Guru Gobind Singh, all killed as boys in 1704-05.

Saini

A farming community of Doaba and the hill foothills. →

sajjada nashin

The hereditary keeper of a Sufi shrine.

salok

A short verse or couplet, as in the Sikh scripture.

Salt Range

A line of hills in west Punjab, between the Jhelum and Indus, mined for rock salt since ancient times.

samadhi

A memorial built over the place of a cremation or burial of a holy person or ruler.

sangat

A congregation; people gathered together in worship.

Sanskrit

The classical language of ancient India and of Hindu scripture.

sant

A holy teacher, especially in the Bhakti and Sikh traditions.

Sapta Sindhu

'Seven rivers': the Rigveda's name for the Punjab, the land of the Indus and its tributaries.

Saraiki

The language of south-west Punjab (Multan, Bahawalpur), close kin to Punjabi. →

Sarbat Khalsa

A gathering of the whole Sikh community at Amritsar to decide matters by common resolution (gurmata).

Sardar

Chief or noble; now a courtesy title for any Sikh man.

sarovar

The holy tank or pool beside a gurdwara.

Sasanians

The second great Persian empire (224–651 CE), whose princes ruled Gandhara for a time. →

Scythians

Nomad horsemen of the Central Asian steppe, called Sakas in India, who ruled Taxila in the 1st century BCE. →

seva

Selfless service: cooking, cleaning or serving without reward.

SGPC

The elected body that has managed the major gurdwaras since 1925. →

shabad

A hymn from the Sikh scripture.

shaheed

Martyr: one who dies for faith or justice. →

Shahmukhi

The Perso-Arabic script Punjabi is written in in Pakistan, right to left. →

Shivalik

The low outer foothills of the Himalaya along Punjab's northern edge.

Shutudri

The ancient name of the Sutlej.

Sikh Empire

The state Maharaja Ranjit Singh built from Lahore (1799-1849), from the Khyber to Tibet, until the British took it. →

Sikhi

The faith founded by Guru Nanak in the Punjab around 1500. →

Singh Sabha

Sikh reform movement from 1873 that founded schools and Khalsa College and standardised Sikh practice. →

steatite

Soapstone: the soft stone Harappans carved their seals from.

stupa

A Buddhist dome-shaped monument holding relics of the Buddha or a saint.

subah

A province of the Mughal empire. The Subah of Lahore covered most of the Punjab.

subedar

Governor of a Mughal province (subah).

Sufi

Islam's mystical path, seeking God through love, music and a teacher; Sufi saints shaped Punjabi poetry and shrines. →

Suhrawardi

The Sufi order of Multan and Uch, founded in India by Bahauddin Zakariya.

Sukerchakia

The misl of Ranjit Singh's family, based at Gujranwala. →

Sumer

The first civilisation of Mesopotamia, in today's Iraq, which traded with the Indus cities. →

Sutlej

The easternmost of the five rivers, from Tibet past Ropar, Ludhiana and Ferozepur; long the frontier between the Sikh kingdom and British India. →

Takht

'Throne': one of five seats of Sikh authority, led by the Akal Takht at Amritsar.

Timur

Turko-Mongol conqueror from Samarkand who sacked Delhi in 1398; ancestor of the Mughals. →

Toshakhana

The royal treasury of jewels and valuables.

Trigarta

An ancient hill kingdom around Jalandhar and Kangra, 'the land of three rivers'.

trinjan

A circle of girls and women spinning together through winter evenings, singing as they worked.

tubewell

A deep, motor-pumped well. Their spread since the 1960s is draining Punjab's groundwater.

Turks

Central Asian peoples, many of them slave soldiers turned rulers, who founded the Ghaznavid and Sultanate dynasties. →

udasi

A long journey. Guru Nanak's four udasis took him as far as Mecca, Sri Lanka and Tibet. (Also the ascetic Udasi order.) →

Udasi order

Ascetics following Sri Chand, son of Guru Nanak; they looked after many gurdwaras until the 1920s. →

Umayyad

The caliphs who ruled the Islamic world from Damascus, 661–750; their general took Sindh and Multan in 712. →

Unionist Party

The cross-faith party of Punjab's landowners that ran the province from 1923 to 1947.

urs

The yearly festival at a Sufi shrine marking the saint's death, his 'wedding' with God.

vaar

A heroic ballad, sung by dhadis; also a form used in the Sikh scripture. →

Vedic

Of the Vedas, the four oldest Hindu scriptures, and the age in which they were composed (c. 1500-500 BCE).

Vipasha

The ancient name of the Beas.

Vitasta

The ancient (Sanskrit) name of the Jhelum. The Greeks called it the Hydaspes.

Yamuna

The river east of the Punjab plain, past Delhi; the old eastern edge of the greater Punjab.

zamindar

A landholder who owns land and collects or pays its revenue.