<P> Until the Partition of Punjab in 1947, the British Punjab Province encompassed the present - day Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, and Delhi, and the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Islamabad Capital Territory . It bordered the Balochistan and Pashtunistan regions to the west, Kashmir to the north, the Hindi Belt to the east, and Rajasthan and Sindh to the south . </P> <P> The people of the Punjab today are called Punjabis, and their principal language is Punjabi . The main religions of the Punjab region are Islam, Sikhism, and Hinduism . Other religious groups are Christianity, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism . The Punjab region has been inhabited by the Indus Valley Civilisation, Indo - Aryan peoples, and Indo - Scythians, and has seen numerous invasions by the Persians, Greeks, Kushans, Ghaznavids, Timurids, Mughals, Pashtuns, British, and others . Historic foreign invasions mainly targeted the most productive central region of the Punjab known as the Majha region, which is also the bedrock of Punjabi culture and traditions . </P> <P> The region was originally called Sapta Sindhu, the vedic land of the seven rivers flowing into the ocean . The later name of the region, Punjab, is a compound of two Persian words, Panj (five) and āb (water), introduced to the region by the Turko - Persian conquerors of India, and more formally popularised during the Mughal Empire . Punjab thus means "The Land of Five Waters", referring to the rivers Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas . All are tributaries of the Indus River, the Chenab being the largest . </P> <P> There are two main definitions of the Punjab region: the 1947 definition and the older 1846--1849 definition . A third definition incorporates both the 1947 and the older definitions but also includes northern Rajasthan on a linguistic basis and ancient river movements . </P>

Why is punjab called the land of five rivers