The Yamuna

The Yamuna,

The Yamuna, also known as the Jumna or Jamuna (not to be mistaken with the Jamuna of Bangladesh), is the second largest tributary river of the Ganges (Ganga) and the longest tributary in India. Originating from the Yamunotri Glacier at a height of 6,387 metres (20,955 ft) on the southwestern slopes of Banderpooch peaks of the Lower Himalaya in Uttarakhand, it travels a total length of 1,376 kilometres (855 mi) and has a drainage system of 366,223 square kilometres (141,399 sq mi), 40.2% of the entire Ganges Basin. It merges with the Ganges at Triveni Sangam, Allahabad, which is a site of the Kumbh Mela, a Hindu festival held every 12 years.

It crosses several states: Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, passing by Uttarakhand and later Delhi, and meeting its tributaries on the way, including Tons, its largest tributary, Chambal, its longest tributary which has its own large basin, followed by Sindh, the Betwa, and Ken. The Yamuna does not pass across Himachal Pradesh, but receives water from that state via the Tons. It helps create the highly fertile alluvial Yamuna-Ganges Doab region between itself and the Ganges in the Indo-Gangetic plain. Nearly 57 million people depend on the Yamuna's waters. With an annual flow of about 10,000 cubic billion metres and usage of 4,400 cbm (of which irrigation constitutes 96 per cent), the river accounts for more than 70 per cent of Delhi's water supply. Like the Ganges, the Yamuna is highly venerated in Hinduism and worshipped as the goddess Yamuna. In Hindu mythology she is the daughter of the Sun Deva, Surya, and the sister of Yama, the Deva of Death, hence also known as Yami. According to popular legends, bathing in its sacred waters frees one from the torments of death.

At the Hathni Kund Barrage its waters are diverted into two large canals: the Western Yamuna Canal flowing towards Haryana and the Eastern Yamuna Canal towards Uttar Pradesh. Beyond that point the Yamuna is joined only by the Somb, a seasonal rivulet from Haryana, and by the highly polluted Hindon River near Noida, so that it continues only as a trickling sewage-bearing drain before joining the Chambal at Pachnada in the Etawah District of Uttar Pradesh.The water of Yamuna is of "reasonably good quality" through its length from Yamunotri in the Himalayas to Wazirabad barrage in Delhi, about 375 kilometres (233 mi); the discharge of wastewater through 15 drains between Wazirabad barrage and Okhla barrage renders the river severely polluted below Wazirabad.

Length 1,376 km (855 mi)
Mouth Triveni sangam
Source Yamunotri
Country India
Basin : - Banderpoonch peak, the source of Yamuna, as seen from Mussoories

Important tributaries
Tons River, Yamuna's largest tributary,rises in the 20,720 ft (6,315 m) high Bandarpoonch mountain, and has a large basin in Himachal Pradesh. It meets Yamuna below Kalsi near Dehradun, Uttarakhand.

Hindon River, originates in the Saharanpur District, from Upper Shivalik in Lower Himalayan Range, is entirely rainfed and has a catchment area of 7,083 square kilometres (2,735 sq mi), traverses 400 kilometres (250 mi) through Muzaffarnagar District, Meerut District, Baghpat District, Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida, before joining Yamuna just outside Delhi.

Ken River, flows through Bundelkhand region of [Madhya Pradesh]] and Uttar Pradesh, it originates near village Ahirgawan in Jabalpur district and travels a distance of 427 kilometres (265 mi), before merging with the Yamuna at Chilla village, near Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh, and has an overall drainage basin of 28,058 square kilometres (10,833 sq mi).

Chambal River, known as Charmanvati in ancient times, is Yamuna's longest tributary flows through Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, with a drainage basin of 143,219 square kilometres (55,297 sq mi) and traverses a total distance of 960 kilometres (600 mi), from its source in Vindhya Range, near Mhow and supports hydro-power generation at Gandhi Sagar dam, Rana Pratap Sagar dam and Jawahar Sagar dam, before merging into the Yamuna south east of Sohan Goan, in Etawah district, shortly thereafter followed by another tributary, the Sindh River.

Sasur Khaderi River, known as Sasur Khaderi is a tributary in Fatehpur district.

History
The name Yamuna seems to be derived from the Sanskrit word "yama", meaning 'twin', and it may have been applied to the river because it runs parallel to the Ganges. The Yamuna is mentioned at many places in the Rig Veda, which was composed during the Vedic period between ca. 1700–1100 CE, and also in the later Atharvaveda, and the Brahmanas including Aitareya Brahmana and Shatapatha Brahmana. In the Rig Veda, the story of the Yamuna describes her "excessive love" for her twin, Yama, who in turn asks her to find a suitable match for herself, which she does in Krishna

The tale is further detailed in the 16th century Sanskrit hymn, Yamunashtakam, an ode by the philosopher Vallabhacharya. Here the story of her descent to meet her beloved Krishna and to purify the world has been put into verse. The hymn also praises her for being the source of all spiritual abilities. And while the Ganges is considered an epitome of asceticism and higher knowledge and can grant us Moksha or liberation, it is Yamuna, who, being a holder of infinite love and compassion, can grant us freedom, even from death, the realm of her elder brother. She rushes down the Kalinda Mountain, and verily describes her as the daughter of Kalinda, giving her another name, Kalindi, the backdrop of Krishna Leela. The text also talks about her water being of the colour of Lord Krishna, which is dark (Shyam). The river is referred as Asita in some historical texts.

It is mentioned as Iomanes (Ioames) in the surveys of Seleucus I Nicator, an officer of Alexander the Great and one of the Diadochi, who visited India in 305 CE, later Megasthenes, a Greek traveller and geographer, visited India, sometimes before 288 CE, the date of Chandragupta's death, also mention the river in his text Indica, where he described the region around it as the land of Surasena. In Mahabharata, Indraprastha, the capital of the Pandavas was also situated on the banks of Yamuna, it is considered to be the modern day city of Delhi.

Geological evidence indicates that in the distant past the Yamuna was a tributary of the Ghaggar River (also known as the Vedic Sarasvati River), but that it later changed its course eastward due to a tectonic event, becoming a tributary of the Ganges. This may have led to the Sarasvati River drying up, the end of many Harappan civilisation settlements, and creation of the Thar desert. However, recent geological research suggests that the diversion of the Yamuna to the Ganges may have occurred during the Pleistocene, and thus could not be connected to the decline of the Harappan civilisation in the region.

The importance of the Ganges–Yamuna river basin, and the Doab region as traditional the seat of power, can be derived from the fact, in much of early history of India, most of the great empires, which ruled over majority of India, until the Chalukya King, Vinayaditya, were based in the highly fertile Ganges–Yamuna basin, including the Magadha (ca 600 BC), Maurya Empire (321–185 BC), Shunga Empire (185–73 BCE), Kushan Empire (1st–3rd centuries CE), Gupta Empire (280–550 CE), and many had their capitals here, in cities like Pataliputra or Mathura. These rivers were revered throughout these kingdoms that flourished on their banks, in fact ever since the period of Chandragupta II (r. 375–415 CE), statues both the Ganges and Yamuna became common throughout the Gupta Empire. Further to the South, images of the Ganges and Yamuna are found amidst shrines of the Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas (753–982), as well as on their royal seals, and prior to them, the Chola Empire too added the river into their architectural motifs. The Three River Goddess shrine, next to famous Kailash rock-cut Temple at Ellora, built by Rashtrakuta King, Govinda III, shows the Ganges flanked by the Yamuna and Saraswati.