The Indus River is the longest and most important river in Pakistan and one of the most important rivers on the Indian subcontinent. The name "India" is a reference to the Indus River. Originating in the Tibetan plateau in the vicinity of Lake Mansarovar, the river runs a 3200 kilometer (2000 mile) course, through Ladakh district in Kashmir and Northern Areas, flowing through the North in a southerly direction along the entire length of country, and merges into the Arabian Sea near Pakistan's port city Karachi. The river's estimated annual flow stands at around 207 cubic kilometers. Originating with water from snow and melting glaciers, the river supports an ecosystem of temperate forests, plains and arid countryside.
The major cities of the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC), Harappa and Mohenjo Daro, dating to around 3300 B.C.E., represent some of the largest human habitations of the ancient world. Most scholars believe that settlements of Gandhara grave culture of the early Indo-Aryans flourished in Gandhara from 1700 to 600 B.C.E.. The Indus was crossed by the retreating armies of Alexander the Great, and by the Muslim armies of Muhammad bin Qasim, Mahmud of Ghazni and Babur, who crossed the river to strike into the inner regions of Gujarat, Punjab and Rajputana. The Indus plains were also under the domination of the Persian Empire and the Kushan Empire. The Indus River provides vital water resources for the economy of Pakistan, especially for the breadbasket of Punjab province, which accounts for most of the nation's agricultural production, and Sindh. Access to the waters of the Indus has been a subject of contention between India and Pakistan, who signed the Indus Waters Treaty in 1960.
Length: 3,200 km (2,000 miles) approx.
Mouth Sapta Sindhu
Source Confluence of the Sengge and Gar rivers
Countries China, India, Pakistan
History
The position of the Sindhu River in Vedic India. Main article: Indus Valley Civilization Paleolithic sites have been discovered in Pothohar, with the stone tools of the Soan Culture. In ancient Gandhara, evidence of cave dwellers dating to 15,000 years ago has been discovered at Mardan.
The major cities of the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC), Harappa and Mohenjo Daro, date back to around 3300 B.C.E., and represent some of the largest human habitations of the ancient world. The Indus Valley Civilization extended from Balochistan to Gujarat, with an upward reach from east of River Jhelum to Rupar on the upper Sutlej. The coast settlements extended from Sutkagan Dor at Iranian border to Lothal in Gujarat. There is an Indus site on the Oxus river at Shortughai in northern Afghanistan, [1] and the Indus site Alamgirpur at the Hindon river is located only twenty-eight kilometers from Delhi.[2] To date, over 1,052 cities and settlements have been found, mainly in the general region of the Ghaggar-Hakra River and its tributaries. Among the settlements were the major urban centers of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, as well as Lothal, Dholavira, Ganeriwala, and Rakhigarhi. Only 90 to 96 of the over 800 known Indus Valley sites have been discovered on the Indus and its tributaries. In Harappan times, the Sutlej, now a tributary of the Indus, flowed into the Ghaggar-Hakra River, in the watershed of which were more Harappan sites than along the Indus.
Most scholars believe that settlements of Gandhara grave culture of the early Indo-Aryans flourished in Gandhara from 1700 to 600 B.C.E., when Mohenjo Daro and Harappa had already been abandoned. The name Indus is a Latinization of Hindu, in turn the Iranian variant of Sindhu, the name given to the Indus in the Rigveda. Sanskrit sindhu generically means "river, stream," probably from a root sidh "to keep off"; sindhu is attested 176 times in the Rigveda, 95 times in the plural, more often used in the generic meaning. Already in the Rigveda, notably in the later hymns, the meaning of the word was narrowed to refer to the Indus River in particular, for example in the list of rivers of the Nadistuti sukta. This resulted in the anomaly of a river with masculine gender; all other Rigvedic rivers are female, not only grammatically, but in the way they are referred to as goddesses and compared to cows and mares yielding milk and butter.
The Indus has formed a natural boundary between the Indian hinterland and its frontier with Afghanistan and Iran. It was crossed by the armies of Alexander the Great, when the Greek forces retreated along the southern course of the river at the end of the Indian campaign. The Indus plains were also under the domination of the Persian Empire and the Kushan Empire. The Muslim armies of Muhammad bin Qasim, Mahmud of Ghazni and Babur also crossed the river to strike into the inner regions of Gujarat, Punjab and Rajputana.
The word "India" is a reference to the Indus River.
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